National Preparedness Month takes place every September in the US. It\u2019s an opportunity for emergency responders and government organisations to encourage their audiences to be prepared for any kind of emergency. There\u2019s always plenty of useful tips shared. But if you are responsible for communicating such advice, how do you prepare yourself for a crisis?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve put together some tips for communications teams, and also some insights into how we prepare for our crisis simulations. Our Social Simulator is designed to mock up an online crisis and allow teams to test their crisis response in a safe space.\u00a0 Much of the work we do to prepare has parallels to the work teams can do to prepare themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we\u2019re working with clients we spend a great deal of time looking at their organisation, the likely crises they might face, and then develop a realistic scenario to test their online communications via our closed platform. These might be emergencies, natural disasters, or reputational issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nEnsuring you know what issues your company or organisation could face – make sure you know who in your organisation is responsible for identifying potential risks and preparing for them and how you can work with them<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Capturing details of your key stakeholders – this may vary for different types of crisis situation. Private Twitter lists are a good way to keep an eye on what they are saying day-to-day and during an incident<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We work with our clients on a realistic scenario that will test their crisis response plans. We look at who the key stakeholders would be, where audiences might spend their time on line and this influences the channels we set up in the platform.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s heavily dominated by our replica of Facebook, other times Twitter is key: we can also include Instagram, LinkedIn and Youtube and internal comms channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can prepare to respond well in a crisis situation by:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\nFamiliarising yourself with one or more social media monitoring tools and the information they provide. What is a normal level of conversation about your organisation and what is the usual sentiment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Capturing a list of the main influencers in key areas of your organisation\u2019s work<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being aware of any issues your partners or competitors have faced: how did they play out online, what questions were they asked, how well did they respond?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
To make our simulations as realistic as possible we prepare social media posts, online news articles and even video clips of news stories<\/p>\n\n
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