How to Save Face in a Crisis

Once you've established a central location for communications, you must then consider how, when and to whom you will communicate, based upon the actual circumstances. An important tool in this effort is your newswire service.

Newswires allow for efficient dissemination of news releases and corporate information via wire, fax and email, and ensure that such content reaches all necessary media, investor and public audiences. In addition to reaching these audiences via the wire, some newswires also let you store your own contact lists at no charge for use when you need it.

While newswires are known mostly for transmitting text-based information, many also offer the ability to create and distribute audio and video messages. During a crisis, using video is an excellent means for a CEO to "personally" communicate with his/her stakeholders, including the board of directors, at-large executives, customers, business partners and community leaders.

Putting a face and voice to a message adds greatly to its impact. Further, newswires can rapidly distribute videos of products, locations or operations, providing favorable images for the media in a time of crisis.

Lastly, many newswire services offer businesses the ability to track news coverage. In a crisis, it's imperative for a company to be informed about what's being reported in the media, the blogosphere and in chat rooms.

While it's possible to use the search engines and other resources to track news, doing it without the aid of a monitoring service is daunting, and can result in missed coverage. Therefore, it's recommended that a company consult with its newswire to see what monitoring services are available.

Managing the Media

For the majority of companies that have confronted a crisis, the most nerve-wracking aspect of the crisis, other than the event itself, is dealing with the press. The media will pounce on a crisis, so it's best to be ready with an effective communication or, better yet, launch an offensive that enables you to take control of the message.