Dwight Eisenhower famously said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” The same could apply in planning for a crisis. A crisis can happen at anytime. It can affect any brand. A crisis doesn’t care about the size of the organization. With social media and the 24/7 news cycle, a crisis that might never have gotten any attention several years ago or only localized coverage can be splashed across the networks and make national headlines, destroying years of positive brand building. What is worse is that much of the damage could have been avoided if the brand had done some crisis management planning.
When the first media call happens or first negative social media post goes live, most brands are still scrambling on how to respond to the crisis. They are determining who will speak for the brand, what stakeholders need to be addressed, what the response should be, and the legal implications. By the time they have determined all of this, the crisis is engulfing their organization, they have lost several news cycles, and social media is exploding.
That is why as Eisenhower said, planning is indispensable. Effective planning will address the importance of moving quickly under pressure; not losing critical news cycles and allowing social media to run amok. It also allows for potential regulatory and political impact to be evaluated immediately.
Planning allows the brand to know what stakeholders need to be addressed. Often in a crisis, the concern is with addressing the public and investors, with vendors and employees forgotten causing great damage. It allows for a company procedure for when the media calls and for employees to know who to refer the call to without getting caught in a gotcha moment with a reporter. Planning allows for a coherent social media strategy to coincide with the traditional media response. Far too often, brands forget the social media component as they are scrambling to deal with the traditional media. This mistake can be avoided with some planning. Finally planning can help develop the empathy that will be essential in a crisis. Just think of United CEO Oscar Munoz’s initial response to the passenger being dragged off the plane, had he shown some empathy with his response much of the ongoing damage could have been avoided.
Planning won’t make a crisis go away but it will lessen the impact of the crisis. That is why it is critical to have a crisis management planning session and to incorporate it into your overall public relations plan.
