Overview of relationship management in a crisis for undergraduate public relations students.
2. Relationship Management
- A crisis is not the time to build relationships.
- When a sudden event occurs there will no time to identify all
the people who need to be informed about what happened, how it
happened and what is being done about it (Ruff & Aziz, 2003,
p.13).
3. The Time to Build Relationshipsis NOW
- An organization must have solid communications programming,
outreach efforts and relationships in place with stakeholders prior
to a crisis occurring.
- Strong relationships with stakeholders will help to ensure
their goodwill in a crisis (Thenell, 2004).
4. Dialogue + Give & Take = Relationships
- A continuing dialogue with publics marked by a give-and-take
between both sides helps to build strong relationships, eliminates
the gulf between the organization and its stakeholders, and makes
the stakeholders feel like an integral part of the organization
(Kathleen Fearn-Banks, 2001, p. 482).
5. Stakeholders
- Stakeholders, or key publics, are people/groups of people who
have an interest in the organization and are affected by
organizational decisions.
- Before a crisis, it is integral to :
-
- identify your stakeholders through research
-
- segment them, which further defines and categorizes them into
manageable and reachable bodies of people for ongoing communication
(Fearn-Banks, 2001, p. 482).
-
- rank them according to importance.
6. Broad Categories of Stakeholders
- Four Corners of the Stakeholder Matrix(Cooper, 2006)
- Other Communications Professionals
7. Internal Stakeholders
- Union(s) representing employees
8. External Stakeholders
- Industry/business organizations that your organization belongs
to
- Adapted from Dougherty, 1992
9.
- Effectively an external stakeholder.
- However, the community at large requires special consideration
during a crisis.
- Strong community relations and outreach is paramount.
- A crisis can deeply impact a community.
- Adapted from Cooper, 2006
The Community at Large 10. Media
- Citizen journalists (ie. bloggers)
11. Other Communications Professionals
- Consider the communications representatives from agencies with
whom you regularly do business and who may be directly or
indirectly impacted by a crisis.
- You do not want to be introducing yourself to your counterparts
in the midst of a crisis.
- Build your relationships with this key group well before a
crisis.
12. Stakeholder Considerations in a Crisis
- Which groups have a stake in the issue?
- What is their attitude towards your organization?
- Who needs to be persuaded and is open enough to listen?
- Who has the power to really hurt you?
13. Stakeholder Communicationsin a Crisis
- How will you reach your stakeholders affected by the
crisis?
- Will you rely on your already well-established communications
programming?
- Will you have to devise new communications methods?
- Are you able to reach out to them directly? If so, how?
14. In a crisis, is one group of stakeholders more important
than the others? 15. The Answer to the Great Debate
- Its not necessarily that one group of stakeholders is more
important than the others.
- PR professionals/crisis managers must prioritize their
stakeholders based on the crisis at hand, and consider who needs to
know what first.
16. Employees are your Ambassadors
- They need to know about the crisis, your organizational
response and your position before anyone else.
- External stakeholders will look to your employees for
answers.
- Employees also need to be accounted for in dire circumstances
(ie. Air Canada employees in New York during 9/11).
17. Employees as the Priority
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD5GWmmwVzk 18. References
- Cooper, J. (2006).Crisis communications in Canada: A practical
approach . Toronto: Centennial College Press.
- Dougherty, D. (1992).Crisis communications : What every
executive needs to know . New York: Walker.
- Fearn-Banks, K. (2001). Crisis communication: A review of some
best practices. In Heath, R. L., & Vasquez, G. (2001).Handbook
of public relations . (pp. 479-500). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage
Publications.
- McLoughlin, B. J. (1999).Barry McLoughlin's overcoming panic
and fear: Risk and crisis communications . Ottawa: McLoughlin
Multimedia Publishing.
- Ruff, P., & Aziz, K. (2003).Managing communications in a
crisis . Burlington, Vt.: Gower.
- Thenell, J., & Ebooks Corporation. (2004).The library's
crisis communications planner: A PR guide for handling every
emergency . Chicago: ALA Editions.
19. Concluding Thoughts
- Final questions or discussion points?
- Think critically about what we learned today and how you will
apply this information and your newfound knowledge in the live blog
on Thursday.