5 ways you can use your company blog for crisis management

Any company can face a social media crisis at any time. If it has not happened yet, it may sooner or later. Today, a comprehensive communications toolkit is incomplete without a blog. It is quite right to ask how a blog can be a part of your contingency plan.

When your blog serves as the most honest and credible voice in normal times, you will find it to be your best channel of crisis communication during tough moments. Here are some ways you can use it for crisis management:

1. Create a crisis management manual

Since social media information runs fast, you never know when a crisis will hit you. For example, an employee may say something inappropriate, a community manager may make an unfortunate statement, a product failure may occur, or an advertising campaign making a false claim. The first step towards crisis prevention is having a strong social media policy for your employees and a crisis management manual in place to prevent situations and react fast.

2. Quick response

Your blog is as important as other media and social media channels during crisis planning. You can use it to publish your first "official" response or holding statement to a crisis in the shortest duration. It prevents others from speaking first on your behalf. Reassure your followers and closest community that you are actively working on the issue.

3. Updates

Regular updates on your blog are useful in keeping employees, customers, the media, and the public informed about new developments. Most crisis managers know how important it is to show that you are working towards resolving the crisis even if you have not yet resolved it.

4. Media relations

When developing a crisis communication plan, consider providing critical information to the media through your blog, including press releases, fact sheets, FAQs, photos, videos, and everything else a reporter requires if they cannot reach a spokesperson. You can complete the desk research for them and provide the most important links and facts in one place. It will help lead them in the right direction.

5. Post-crisis

Crises generally receive the most attention while in their initial phases. It tends to be covered widely. However, the way it was resolved attracts less attention. Your customers, employees, the media, and the public-at-large need to be informed that you handled the crisis well. Through crisis communication, you can reassure them that everything is safe, and that they can entrust you to do the right things now and in the future.

Conclusion

Your blog is the best channel to convey messages. Anyone browsing through will see it, even if the media does not report on the positive resolution, which will restore your customers’ faith and trust.

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