Crisis Communication checklist and online training: Medianet X IPRD checklist
✨In this five-part training course, you will be taken through a crisis communications framework with a step-by-step checklist designed for modern issues/the pandemic.
✨Join Greer Quinn and Jo Stone from the It's PR Darlings podcast as they use a pandemic setting to talk you through what a modern crisis communications plan should include and the big questions to ask before a crisis starts. The biggest mistake is not having a plan or thinking it’ll never happen to you.
✨The Darlings use various crises including COVID-19, the Dreamworld tragedy and the Christchurch massacre to shine light on the dos and don’ts during a crisis.
✨This training and checklist provide an ideal template for in-house communicators to engage with internal stakeholders to develop a robust crisis management plan.
✨Both Greer and Jo have used this framework in their own PR agencies to help clients identify potential crises or navigate their way through them.
✨The framework and checklist are relevant across any industry - from mining and construction to hospitality and consumer goods.
✨The course is available for purchase at $89 and takes approximately two hours to complete.
COVID is the gift that keeps on giving
Greer: We’ve found that even 18 months on, we’re still helping clients with crisis strategies and internal and external communications issues almost every month,” Greer says. The pandemic isn’t going away and if you think that because you’ve managed to dodge a COVID catastrophe so far that you’re in the clear, think again.
Jo: It’s awful because we sometimes get calls in the evenings or on the weekend from organisations desperately seeking PR help because a crisis never seems to happen during office hours during the week does it! And more often than not, they’ve never even thought ahead about how to handle adverse media coverage or a COVID-10-caused crisis.
Greer: In recent weeks we’ve seen influencers breaching COVID-19 restrictions for parties and brands then subsequently publicly dropping them. We’ve even seen well documented super-spreader events that have led to humiliation and reputation damage for attendees and organisers.
Jo: We’re now also seeing organisations facing staff backlash over mandatory vaccinations, the problems of policing customer vaccination status and forced business closures when there is a COVID case amongst staff.
IF YOU WANT AN UP TO DATE CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS CHECKLIST YOU CAN FIND THE WEBINAR ONLINE IN A FIVE PART DIGITAL OFFERING: FIND IT HERE
OR COPY AND PASTE INTO YOUR BROWSER:
https://engage.medianet.com.au/crisis-communications-covid-world
Jo: In each episode, we demystify a little bit of jargon from the media world – things like noddies, embargo and backgrounding and in this episode we are turning the tables a bit, but I guess the jargon term for this segment could be COVIDIOT – someone who ignores or breaks public health orders. And if you are in a comms role for any business or organisation, you know that it only takes one COVIDIOT to cause a crisis. So with this in mind, we thought we would give you the PR Darlings top three top tips for crisis communications plans in the era of COVID.
Greer: These are just a couple of the things we discussed in our recent webinar in collaboration with Australian media database company MediaNet (NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE) , which is all about crisis communications, albeit with a COVID twist. Now, Medianet is a must-have service for PR firms – their database keeps you up-to-date with all the platforms, papers and programs in the Australian media, but also all the contacts you need. This brings us to our first crisis communications tip – making sure you have updated contacts. You need to know the journalists who are likely to be working in your patch. You don’t want to be scrambling for a mobile number at the last minute.
Jo: Updating contacts is also important for your internal team. Has someone left the organisation or changed jobs? And who else do you need to contact? With pandemic-related issues, you also need contacts for the relevant authorities like the Department of Health or the Chief Health Officer (CHO) and the State Government for example.
Greer: Our second crisis comms tip in the pandemic is to make sure your business, organisation or client is actually practising COVIDSafe protocols. This is where a lot of the bad publicity stems from – for example a venue that hosts an event that becomes a super spreader event will face even more media backlash if journalists find out there was no sanitiser available, check-in code, too many people were there and they weren’t wearing masks.
Jo: And the third most important tip of all is to actually have a crisis communications plan. So often this is something that nobody puts any thought into – and that is when a PR disaster really unfolds. Putting a plan together should be a service that you offer as part of your role in PR. And brainstorming with your client some of the potential COVID-19 crises is a great way to start. Regular reviews of the plan is also a must-do.
. It’s PR Darlings is produced by Jo Stone from Sticks and Stones PR and Greer Quinn from Forward Communications.
Medianet X It’s PR Darlings Webinar: Crisis Communications for a Covid World
AVAILABLE ONLINE HERE: https://engage.medianet.com.au/crisis-communications-covid-world
If you think your business or your clients have escaped a COVID-19 crisis, think again! This pandemic is ever-evolving. While we might be well practiced during lockdowns and closures for the impacts on businesses, there are still risks – think super-spreader events, staff vaccination fallouts, supply chain interruptions, new mutant strains, or a staff member’s anti-mask rant that goes viral. This is the virus that keeps on giving.
It’s PR Darlings
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