How you react to a company crisis - big or small - can mean the difference between a story staying small, controlled and manageable and going viral on the internet and becoming front-page news worldwide.    

The Business Continuity Institute found an estimated 84% of businesses have some form of emergency communication plan in place; however, nearly two-thirds say they are not confident about their preparedness for a crisis event should it occur.

Be pro-active and prepare your responses in advance 

While you’re never going to be 100% ready for a crisis, you can start to put together and create some responses that will enable you to get out a statement to the media quickly. One thing you will learn from a crisis is that you never have enough time. If the issue involves the web crashing, you will get DMs, calls and emails from both the media and from within your business often before you realise there’s an issue. You will not have time to start writing long – or even short - statements about the situation, and once they’re completed, you may not be able to get sign-off, particularly if the crisis hits late at night, at the weekend or over a long holiday break, like Christmas or Easter.

To get a head start on your crises, it’s a good idea to brainstorm the potential crises you could hit and produce some communications in advance.

At the very least, you need a general statement that identifies that you’re currently experiencing an issue, that you are dealing with it, that you will keep media informed regularly, let them know which channels you will - and won’t - be using, and should they need to talk to someone you need to identify a person who will be speaking for the business on this issue.  

Additionally, you should create some statements for specific issues that might arise, such as a security breach, network problems, fires, weather issues, the death of an essential individual in the business, etc. The content of these statements doesn’t have to be detailed, but it’s a good idea to answer all the expected FAQs that the media would ask should one of these crises occur. By getting something out quickly that answers the basic questions, you will buy yourself time to be able to get more information on the issue, answer any detailed questions, and prepare further responses.

When you’ve created your pre-written statements, you will need to put them somewhere so that they’re accessible to everyone, and ideally, that platform should also hold the most up-to-date versions. The last thing you need in a crisis is to spend time tracking down where the statement is saved and which version – you will find several - is the most up-to-date.

With PressArea, you can create and have ready as many statements as you need. They’re always the most up-to-date versions, so there’s no searching through emails, computer directories or internal servers. They can all be accessed from any device worldwide and can be edited and published in seconds.

Having your crisis communications on an external system is a must. Some years ago, one of PressArea’s clients suffered a complete collapse of their internet capabilities. They couldn’t access any internal servers, they couldn’t connect to the internet, their consumer websites went down, and their office phones were all put out of action. To the outside world, it would have looked like they were completely out of action. Luckily, they had PressArea. Because PressArea is an independent external solution, their media site was still fully functioning and was accessible to them via their mobile phone browsers. Using their mobiles, they were able to access PressArea and switch on our crisis communications solution. They were then able to post a holding statement explaining the situation quickly and were then able to put out regular statements, including a video explanation from the CEO explaining what the business was doing to solve the issue. 

Additionally, PressArea has a Lines to Take module that allows you to create a central database of questions and answers that can be continuously updated, giving you a single knowledge base of answers to questions. With Lines to Take, your team members all have the same answers, so there’s no ambiguity, and there’s no need to keep saying, “I’ll have to get back to you”, and answers can quickly be cut and pasted into emails, releases, etc.   

Choose just one channel to broadcast your messages

One of the main problems with a crisis is the tendency to fragment your responses over multiple outlets. In a recent survey, The Business Continuity Institute found that fifty-five percent of businesses surveyed had three or more emergency communication processes.

One of the critical problems in any crisis is your ability to control the flow of information out to the media. In the past, businesses had just a few direct channels for communicating with the media, namely the web, the phone and email. However, with the rise of social media, there are now tens of other channels, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, etc.  

While it may sound like a good idea to put your information out across every channel, in reality you’re helping nobody. A good crisis communications solution has a single channel to broadcast information to as many people worldwide and for them to receive information on any device, and that should also be matched with a single channel to receive communications from media.   

The most ubiquitous broadcast channel is the web and email is the most efficient way of receiving information. With the web, you can put out text, images and video quickly and easily, and emails can be searchable and shared between multiple users. So, when a crisis hits make sure your social media channels are all updated with a short message that explains, that all further information will be provided via your media website, that the social channels will not be monitored until the crisis is over and to include the email address for any queries.

PressArea enables you to switch from your current media site to a single updated page that contains and disseminates information on your crises in around 30 seconds. All the contact pages from your media site are immediately removed, so all the media see is the channels you want them to contact you on. Additionally, any imagery, videos and past releases are removed, so the only information the media see is the Crisis Communication pages.

Speak with a single voice. 

Most crisis communications texts will advise you – quite correctly - to have a single spokesperson for your business who can be put on TV or the radio to answer questions from the media. The spokesperson has to be media trained and well-briefed so they don’t crumble when asked embarrassing questions or answer, “I’ll have to get back to you on that one”.

If you have someone or a few people who can fulfil this role, then perfect. However, the reality for most businesses is that media training is expensive, so only a few receive it, and sod's law says they probably left a few weeks ago or are on holiday, sick leave, or are in bed and uncontactable. This is where the web and video can help. Creating short video pieces posted on your crisis communications website enables you to get your messages out to any broadcast media – the soundtrack can be used on radio - without the spokesperson worrying about answering any potentially embarrassing questions.  

With PressArea’s Media Enquiry functionality, you can log any interactions from the media either on an email or on the phone. The enquiry is then accessible by anyone on PressArea and allows anyone on the team to see what has been said and what information has been provided. If the crisis lasts more than a work shift, it also allows you to pass a contact over to the colleague replacing you, so that they are up to date with everything that has been communicated to the journalist so far. You can also access the Lines to Take to provide answers to any questions the media ask and add any new questions to the system that haven’t yet been added so colleagues can work on and then distribute the answers to all colleagues.

Conclusion

We’ve just covered a few topics in crisis communications here, namely proactively planning, having a unified spokesperson and using multiple communication channels. We will return with a second part covering clear and timely communication, monitoring and adapting your communications and how PressArea can help you with these issues.   

How can PressArea help your Crisis Communications?

PressArea has a built-in crisis communications tool that can be ready and working in minutes. It allows you to create a single thread of information that can be updated in seconds on any device and from anywhere in the world. With PressArea, you can keep media updated via a single channel that is easily accessible on all devices and is robust enough to handle the increased interest you can expect from a major crisis. 

The PressArea Crisis Communications is a multi-media solution that delivers text, imagery, social posts and video and becomes a single point of trust for media looking to follow and report on your business.

To find out more about PressArea Crisis Communications, email crisiscomms@pressarea.com

PressArea produces prize-winning media centres for business and is used and trusted by British Airways, Marriott, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Heathrow, Luton Airport, Waitrose and John Lewis.     

PressArea has solutions that fit all budgets and all business sizes, from large multinationals to small businesses with one or two-person media teams. PressArea produces everything from off-the-peg media centres that can be built and installed in a few days to bespoke corporate media centres that include everything from stock tickers, regulatory news (RNS) feeds, lines to take and media enquiry functions.  

For more on Crisis Communications, see our starter feature – What is Crisis Communications?

To organise a free no-strings demonstration of PressArea and to discuss prices and options available click here.  

Marcus Austin - Technical Director PressArea marcus@pressarea.com