Your company is suddenly mired in a negative situation with potentially serious repercussions. While a chill grasps your heart, a slew of questions assault your brain. What’s your first step? Who are the decision makers? When and how should you respond to the media? Who should do it? Then what?

Most organizations likely will be confronted with some sort of a crisis communications challenge, whether internally or externally. With thorough preparation and an efficient response, however, you will be able to shape the appropriate, successfully navigate challenging times and maybe even come out the better for it.

Following are some core principles of crisis communications. The biggest takeaway, however, is this: Be prepared. That is, don’t wait for a disaster to strike. Look deep into the organization, acknowledge vulnerabilities and honestly confront them. Time-consuming? Yes. Painful? Most certainly? Necessary? Absolutely.

C – Choose the Right Tools
While the resources you employ will differ with each situation, make sure you always have: a core team of leaders to vet strategies, share insight and provide approvals; established communications channels and methods through which you’ll relay messages to internal and/or external audiences; and a messaging document approved by leadership and stakeholders. Other tools, such as support resources for staff, can be added as necessitated by the crisis.

R – Reveal the Facts
Before you act, you need to assess the particular situation to fully understand the crisis at hand. Knowledge is power, and gathering intelligence is crucial to your success. Fully understanding the facts, the players involved and any outside influences will help you objectively create meaningful conversation and collaboration. Once the facts are gathered, you’ll need to develop a communications strategy to address the issue in a timely manner.

I – Instill Trust and Tell the Truth
Demonstrating your ability to objectively listen and make informed decisions in a crisis communications situation will develop trust, both within your organization and with the public. If you respect each internal and external stakeholder’s position and perception of the situation, you are more likely to resolve the issue in an expedient and proficient manner. This also will ensure that you address all concerns and offer timely, effective and valid solutions that will cultivate sustainable results.

You don’t have to share every irrelevant detail, but what you say must be the truth. If you don’t know what that truth is yet, say so. Don’t guess. There’s usually no going back once you’ve said the wrong thing – intentionally or unintentionally.

S – Streamline Processes
Crises easily can get worse, so you’ll need to act fast. Make sure every step of your reaction plan is concise, clear and detailed. Each person involved should be aware of his or her responsibilities, the actions they need to take, to whom they will report and whom they should or shouldn’t contact. Checklists are an efficient way to keep team members on track. Craft your media responses in advance, even if the chance of reporter inquiries is small; if the issue does make it into the spotlight, you’ll be able to respond quickly and consistently.

I – Institute Change
Your job isn’t over when the media moves on to the next story. Crises test core organizational responses, procedures and culture, and it’s a communicator’s job to help drive transformational growth. Debrief after the event to address and identify issues that emerged. Consider alternative scenarios and establish effective action plans that address weaknesses.

S – Sustain Confidence
As an organization, it’s important to follow through on promises made during a crisis. Committing to needed change and effectively communicating it to the audiences involved can instill trust and restore confidence in your company.

There is so much more involved, of course, and so many specifics among the generalities.

Preparing for, and learning from, crisis communications situations benefit us as professional communicators, leaders and team members in any organization. Though crises always will impose an element of chaos, preparation and a solid communications plan provide the anchor you need to make the right decisions and create the groundwork to sustain the conversation and continuously grow.

Contact us for additional insight into how your organization can successfully and effectively manage crisis situations.

Nowadays, having a dynamic social media presence is critical for success. However, in order to reach your desired level of success on social, you must have a specific strategy to ensure your content reaches the largest audience possible. Whether you’re new to the world of social media marketing or not, it’s no secret that getting noticed on social media can be tough. Even the world’s most clever marketing content won’t do you or your business much good if no one else is seeing it.

Thus, here are our top 4 ways to increase content exposure on social media.

1. Fully understand the platforms

Before you start to look for one-size-fits-all ideas and tactics that you can start implementing, it’s important to focus on the unique nature of each individual platform. Content shouldn’t be promoted the same on Instagram and Twitter because they aren’t always going to be perfectly compatible. Your audience doesn’t use them the same way, so you probably shouldn’t either.

2. Utilize visual content

There’s a massive amount of potential being wasted by a lot of business owners when it comes to content creation. Adding a visual component to your content is going to get it more views, period. The only thing that you need to be thinking about at this point is what kind of visual content you’re going to use. For instance, live videos are a great way to create content with an authentic, intimate feel built right in. And if you’re operating with a humble marketing budget, live videos have the added benefit of being a low-cost option.

3. Monitor the Metrics

While it may not be the most exciting topic, it is one of the most important. Without a heavy focus on metrics, your marketing efforts essentially amount to using your best guess at what’s working and what isn’t. If you’re looking for ways to increase your content’s exposure, the process actually becomes pretty simple. Try out a variety of different styles of content. Then track the data on each separate strategy using platform specific tools, focusing on metrics like exposure and reach. Once you’ve collected the data, create and publish more content that’s designed to capitalize on what your audience is engaging with.

4. Consider Paid Advertisements

Ads on social are not like any other ads online. Why? Because they have massive upside. Facebook and Instagram ads have some of the best returns in the paid advertising game. You get access to plenty of people who actively engage with your brand. It’s essentially a way to hijack a curated list of people in your demographic who want your product/service. It’s hard to think of anything that’ll offer your content more exposure than that.

Why not take every step possible to increase your content’s exposure on social by building a marketing strategy that prioritizes data, industry understanding and execution. If we can help you with your social strategy, let us know!

For years, we’ve been trumpeting the value of “content marketing,” that is, the consistent generation and distribution of content that customers and prospects find relevant and useful. During that time, we’ve seen a number of companies attempt to hop on the content bandwagon – only to fall off again when they missed the mark.

Whether your organization is on the sidelines or leading the parade, here are some trends we’re seeing that you may wish to consider as you create and/or tweak your strategic marketing plan for 2018.

• Real writing. By that we mean the products of professional writers. Companies that staff or outsource content creation by trained professionals will have a leg up. Not only will they have better content, but it will be generated more quickly by people accustomed to deadlines and adept at story telling.
• Real thought. For instance, one of the marketing flavors of the day is the infographic. Ostensibly a vehicle for disseminating complex information in an understandable form, many of this ilk appear to so cluttered that it requires an advanced engineering degree to sort out. It’s not enough to have content – in any form – it must be content created with the reader in mind and promoted in the right way to the right audience(s).
• Real time. There are two factors at work here. First, it appears that organizations are creating content less on a hard schedule – “We need a blog every Friday!” – and more when they have something worthwhile to say. This is a good thing. Just as with press releases, less can be so much more. The second factor involves the growth of livestreaming of video. Look for more as, according to a widely reported survey, more than 80 percent of respondents said they would rather watch a live video from a brand than read a blog.
• Real accountability. Whether you take our advice of employing professional writers or not, make sure someone is in charge of your content creation, blogging, social media, etc. That person should have the long view of your goals and assure that all supporting documentation moves those goals along.
• Real commitment. Content marketing is only as powerful as the effort behind it. For instance, what comes to mind when you’re on a company’s web site and discover it hasn’t posted a blog, a press release, a white paper, etc. in months? Or there’s no original content, just pass-alongs of someone else’s thinking? Not exactly confidence inspiring, is it? The point is that, as with any worthwhile endeavor, you must be in it to win it.

Content marketing is not to be taken lightly. It requires purpose, planning and follow-through. Though the journey takes time and energy, however, the destination promises significant rewards.

Let us know if we can help you get there.