PR people must offer fast responses to any emerging crisis


Crisis management requires a rapid response from the PR people, but much of the focus on crisis response is directed outward, to external publics. PR is also important to internal audiences, though-customers, employees, and even shareholders. Getting the message out quickly is clearly of prime importance, and that's where communications technology comes in.

When a mentally ill student went wild with guns at Virginia Tech in 2007, authorities were criticized for their poor response occasions. The gunman began by shooting students in a dorm building, then two hours later he attacked students in the main building, killing a total of 32 individuals before committing suicide. In the intervening two hours, students were not warned that there was a gunman on the loose, so the death toll may well have been higher than it need have been.

The college authorities had difficulty in contacting all students, and since then they have put a system in location (supplied by Peer Systems) that contacts students rapidly via text messaging, email, and Facebook.

Research showed that, while some students checked their email once a day or even once a week, they would frequently check their Facebook pages 30 occasions a day. Most of the students had cellphones, and the Peer Systems software was in a position to send texts automatically to all students in the event of a crisis

Keeping the systems up to date meant requiring students to offer their cellphone numbers, and give permission for them to be used: for Facebook, students had to accept the college as a "friend" on their page. Obviously all students had an email address that was provided by the college, however it turned out that this was much less effective than the other methods of communication.

Peer Systems sell their software to numerous organizations, both governmental and commercial organizations. Anybody needing to contact a lot of people quickly needs a similar system. Setting up a communications system like this is perfectly feasible for contacting customers, employees, and other people in a crisis. All you need is their cellphone numbers, email addresses, and (if possible) Facebook or MySpace addresses.

Do not abuse the system by sending out sales pitches. If you do this, people will unsubscribe or merely delete messages. Remember that young individuals are much more most likely to check Facebook than they're to check emails. Separate out the different groups on your database-not everyone needs to get every message. Make sure you have people's permission to keep and use their details, or you might fall foul of the Data Protection Act.

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Note: This article was sent to us by: Serena Greane at 01242011

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