How To Meet the Demand for Real-Time Communication in a Crisis

The growing demand for immediate and real-time communication and updates in a crisis can be overwhelming. This overwhelming pressure can lead to mistakes, or worse, unethical decisions.

So how can you meet this demand while not compromising – but rather enhancing – your crisis management? Read on to find out…

First thing’s first, what does “real-time communication” mean?

Real-time means real-time. The truth is that the sooner you respond to a crisis, the sooner you can begin to regain control and position your organization as the credible source of information. FYI, this needs to be one of your crisis management goals.

For best results, you should aim to enable your team to respond to a crisis within 15 – 60 minutes from the time it develops an online presence. Note that I did not say from the time you become aware of the crisis, but rather from the time it develops an online presence.

Failing to do this will make your crisis management job harder. Like it or not, it is in your organization’s best interest to meet this demand. But it’s not as hard as it may seem.

People don’t expect you to have all the answers in 15 minutes

The truth is that people don’t expect you to have all the answers within 15 – 60 minutes. What they expect (and demand) of you is a response. To communicate. To let them know that you’re aware of the situation, that you’re taking it seriously and that you can be relied on for further communication and updates, in real-time, as you know more.

Is the whole 15 – 60 minutes challenge sounding more reasonable to you now?

The best part is that once you realize the benefits of responding to a crisis in real-time and understand what your audiences expect within those responses, you can prepare your response drafts (holding statements) in advance. Preparing your first response statement in advance allows you to meet the need of immediacy, and begin to position your organization as the voice of authority and calm within the crisis. It also helps eliminate long approval processes that will work against you.

Creating your first response statement

Note: What I am describing here is your first response statement, not your official crisis response.

Within your first response, your audience wants to hear four things from your organization. The four things your audiences want to know within the initial minutes of a crisis are:

1) That you are aware of the situation.

This alone will allow you to stop all of those “did you know?” and “are you aware?” messages from flooding your channels, inbox and phone line.

2) That you’re in the process of: looking into it; assessing the damage; getting to the root of how it happened; working with authorities; or whatever the right messaging is.

This part of your statement tells your audiences that you’re taking the situation seriously and acting responsibly. This is an important message to communicate. Let them know what you’re doing and why.

3) That they can expect to hear from you as soon as you have more information.

This is how you begin to position your organization as the credible source of information. If your audiences know that you are committed to keeping them updated, they won’t need to turn to third party platforms for news on the breaking crisis. In addition, you’ll want to let them know when they can expect another update, and on what platforms you’re dedicated to providing those updates (don’t forget to include appropriate links).

From there, be sure to follow through. If you promised an update at 11am, for example, and if at 11am there’s no new news to report, come back and say so – and promise the next update.

4) Last, but in no way least, your first response – and every subsequent response and communication – needs to be communicated sincerely, honestly, and compassionately.

Remember that you are humans speaking with humans. Remember that people are upset and/or worried. Be the voice of calm, authority and compassion. Be honest in all of your communications and ALWAYS focus on building / strengthening the relationships you share with your stakeholders. Focusing on relationship-building will always lead you in the right direction.

What channels do you need to communicate on?

Prior to a crisis or emergency, part of your prep work is to identify your stakeholder groups (both internal and external) and to assess and determine how and where each group likes to receive important information. This collected data will lead you to the answer to this question.

Additionally, you also need to be conscious and aware of where the conversations are taking place about the crisis. Those channels (if different from the ones already identified) will also be important to disseminate your information and updates to, in real-time.

Who on your team should be responsible for publishing these communications and updates?

Is it your frontline and regular social media team that will be assigned the task of communicating in real-time throughout the crisis? If so, who will feed them these communications and message points? What are the trigger points that determine that a situation needs to be escalated and, that perhaps, a member of your crisis team needs to take over? This is an important discussion to have internally, prior to a crisis striking.

Today’s demand for immediacy can be horribly overwhelming

Today’s demand for immediacy and communication can quickly become an overwhelming challenge. But when you have the right tools, plans and people in place, and when you truly understand your audiences’s expectations of your organization in a crisis, this demand becomes less overwhelming and more manageable. It is your responsibility to make it manageable and, in doing so, if you’re smart enough to make your responsibilities less time consuming (i.e.: by having your first response statement and others prepared in advance), all the more power to you!