"Crisis communication is a sub-specialty of the public relations profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation."
Effective communication strategies during times of crisis, including political scandals and emergencies.
Crisis Planning: Preparation and planning for potential crisis situations.
Crisis Management: Effective crisis management strategies, including response, communication, and recovery.
Risk Analysis: Identifying potential risks and hazards that could result in a crisis situation.
Crisis Communication Strategies: Developing effective communication strategies during a crisis, including crisis messaging, media relations, and social media management.
Stakeholder Engagement: Identifying and engaging with key stakeholders, including employees, customers, media, and the public.
Crisis Team Structure: Establishing a crisis team and defining roles and responsibilities for each team member.
Crisis Response Models: Understanding the different models of crisis response from reactive to proactive and their application.
Media Relations: Managing relationships with traditional and new media, including preparing spokespeople and handling interviews.
Social Media Management: Managing social media during a crisis, including monitoring, responding, and utilizing social platforms for information and updates.
Reputation Management: Protecting and managing the organization's reputation during and after a crisis situation.
Legal Issues: Understanding the legal implications of crisis communication, including liability and potential legal action.
Crisis Case Studies: Analyzing past crisis situations to learn from successes and failures and improve crisis response strategies.
Reputation Crisis Communication: Reputation crisis communication is used when an organization's reputation is at stake. It is essential to understand the situation and provide the public with the right information.
Product Crisis Communication: Product crisis communication is used when an organization is dealing with a faulty product. Communication should address product recalls, repairs, or refunds.
Personnel Crisis Communication: Personnel crisis communication is used in the event of an employee crisis. Communication should address the cause of action, explain why it was necessary, and show that the organization is taking corrective action.
Financial Crisis Communication: Financial crisis communication is used in the event of significant financial loss, bankruptcy, or fraud. Organizations should provide clear and accurate information about the situation and how they are resolving the issue.
Natural Disaster Crisis Communication: Natural disaster crisis communication is used when dealing with natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, or flooding. Organizations should provide regular updates and keep the public informed about their response.
Cybersecurity Crisis Communication: Cybersecurity crisis communication is used when an organization's systems or data have been compromised, and sensitive information may be at risk. It is crucial to provide clear and concise communication to the public about the risks and how to protect themselves.
Legal Crisis Communication: Legal crisis communication is used when an organization is involved in litigation or a legal dispute. The communication should reassure stakeholders that the organization is taking appropriate actions to resolve the issue.
Leadership Crisis Communication: Leaders of organizations sometimes create crises through inappropriate behavior or actions. Leadership crisis communication should address the issue and the actions taken to remedy the problem.
COVID-19 Crisis Communication: COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis communication is used in dealing with the pandemic. Communication should address the organization's response to the pandemic, what measures they are taking to prevent the spread of the virus, and how they are supporting affected stakeholders.
Political Crisis Communication: Political crisis communication is used when governments, politicians or political parties face crises. Communication should explain the situation and how it is being addressed, while also providing reassurance and motivation to the public.
"Crisis communication is aimed at raising awareness of a specific type of threat, the magnitude, outcomes, and specific behaviors to adopt to reduce the threat."
"Timothy Coombs defines crisis as 'the perception of an unpredictable event that threatens important expectancies of stakeholders and can seriously impact an organization's performance and generate negative outcomes'."
"Crisis communication is the collection, processing, and dissemination of information required to address a crisis situation."
"Meaning can be socially constructed; because of this, the way that the stakeholders of an organization perceive an event (positively, neutrally, or negatively) is a major contributing factor to whether the event will become a crisis."
"The term crisis 'should be reserved for serious events that require careful attention from management.'"
"Crisis management has been defined as 'a set of factors designed to combat crises and to lessen the actual damages inflicted.'"
"Crisis management should not merely be reactionary; it should also consist of preventative measures and preparation in anticipation of potential crises."
"Effective crisis management has the potential to greatly reduce the amount of damage the organization receives as a result of the crisis, and may even prevent an incident from ever developing into a crisis."