We are no strangers to natural disasters. Whether it is freezing temperatures, major infrastructure failure, or record-breaking extreme weather events, Texan residents excel at resilience. This being said, information is at the heart of our ability to be resilient as individuals and as communities.
As part of our public communications service offerings at Hollaway, we serve as public information officers and crisis communications consultants for our clients, including:
Serving in this crisis communications role during Hurricane Harvey, Winter Storm Uri, and other natural disaster events, we have learned quite a bit about what works (and what doesn’t) when time is of the essence and emotions are running high.
In an effort to support you during your next extreme weather event, here are a few things that we’ve learned and would recommend:
Know your roles and responsibilities, as well as your audiences, during a crisis event. And be sure that there is crystal clear consensus within your organization (including leadership) about roles, responsibilities, and key audiences.
To be a good Samaritan and a helpful resource to your audience, you may also choose to distribute information about which organization is in charge of what during and directly following the crisis event.
Prior to an extreme weather or crisis event, take account of all communications methods and tools available through your organization. You will use these platforms to consistently communicate externally to your audiences.
Examples of communications channels you may utilize:
As a crisis event is occurring, stay in contact with your audiences through all communication channels available to you. If you have no new updates to report, remember that this is also information, and you should report that out to your audience. In this scenario, a social media update may report, “At XYZ organization, we are coordinating with our partner organizations and first responders to ensure that all operations remain in working order during this crisis event. We will report back to you, our valued residents, as soon as any additional updates are available and no later than 6 p.m. CST today.”
By communicating a schedule for which your audience can expect to hear from you, you are building trust--the audience knows that you will continue to keep them informed and to expect more information in the future. While emotions are high and people are often in fear during a crisis event, remember that this is a very critical time to establish and maintain trust with your audiences. Whatever you do, do not stop communicating during and immediately following a crisis event.
As you may have heard before, “a goal without a plan is just a wish.” And, while you may have the best of intentions to be prepared for a crisis event, having a Crisis Communications and Response Plan in place will ensure that you are prepared to represent your organization as a trusted and professional resource for years to come.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss this further, please reach out to me at leslie@hollawayenv.com.