Who are you when a crisis hits? 

CRJ’s advisor Amanda Coleman notes the importance of establishing an identity for smaller and lesser-known businesses during times of crises in her latest blog for Under Pressure.


Image by upklyak | Freepik

For many businesses and organisations, a crisis brings more than the immediate challenge of responding to what has happened. In crisis communications, we talk about the ‘halo effect’, where a positive reputation can help a business through a crisis or the ‘Velcro effect’ if there is a negative perception of the business. However, for those organisations that go under the radar most of the time, or are only known to their immediate stakeholders, the first step is explaining who you are.

It is likely that crisis communication plans don’t consider this initial problem and they will rush to talk about what has happened. However, with misinformation and disinformation being widespread when incidents occur, if you aren’t able to explain who you are and what you do, other people will. It is essential to own your definition and explanation of what you do.

People will be making their decision quickly about whether you can be trusted or not, and whether you are culpable in some way for what has happened. It isn’t a time to do a promotional approach but to be ready to make it clear what you do and your values.

So, here are five simple steps to improve your crisis response if your business or organisation is not well known. For starters, have a clear explanation of who you are and what you do that is available on the website and can be circulated to journalists. Then, use social media before any incident to build a strong picture of your business through the posts published. After that, maximise SEO and GEO so that it can support your reputation when a crisis develops.

Then, build your crisis communication plan with an understanding that you need to move quickly to communicate about the situation and to explain who you are and what you do as well. Finally, understand all the touchpoints and routes into the business so that you can brief key staff and ensure they are able to provide context and an explanation if needed.

With the developments in the way news is designated and consumed, any business and anyone can find themselves at the centre of a social media-led crisis. What would have previously been seen as minor incidents can spread swiftly online so being ready is essential to strategic business development.

Read the original blog here.