By Heather Austin, Principal
The need for swift, transparent, and authentic communication has never been more apparent than during the Coldplay Kiss Cam incident. When Astronomer executives were caught in a compromising situation on social media, traditional crisis media responses didn’t stand up to the timing and volume of backlash received by the company and its leaders.
While it’s impossible to control team members, organizations can plan for crisis, as well as ensure their ethics and company values are shared at every level of the organization prior to unwanted spotlight.
Tips When Evaluating Crisis Communications Plans
- Utilize various channels to communicate in the places and ways internal and external audiences prefer. Be mindful of cultural/religious/political or age differences that may make a crisis more destructive to different team members, clients, or partners. Younger Astronomer team members didn’t respond well to the initial canned PR statement, and internal communication channels like Slack fed the flames of gossip.
- Install tools that allow you to quickly AND strategically respond whether on the weekend or a holiday. The initial 48-hour silence from Astronomer was deafening, and in the void, misinformation took on a life of its own.
- Distraction isn’t always the best strategy. Astronomer’s later use of Coldplay ex Gwyneth Paltrow as a temporary spokesperson was initially hailed by some as a genius PR strategy, but without substance in her statements, or concrete plans of how they’d improve company culture, the initial excitement for Gwyneth waned.
- Don’t ignore AI. Create safeguards to identify and clarify misinformation being spread about your brand or team members before, during, and after a crisis.
- Learn from other’s mistakes. Every team will experience crisis, but when lightning strikes, it’s a chance to offer support (if appropriate) and identify gaps in internal communication plans that can be shored up.
Unfortunately, crisis will occur at every organization. It’s not IF, it’s WHEN, and preparing ahead of time will empower team members to feel more confident about their role and responsibility, the team’s core values, and how brand managers can move beyond potentially damaging crisis situations.
