Food companies – are you ready to communicate in a crisis?

Instinctif Partners is launching CrisisCommsOptic – the latest of its online diagnostic tools – alongside CrisisOptic and RecallOptic.

“As social media becomes more embedded in our lives it is now often user-generated content which drives the pace of a crisis”, explains Victoria Cross, Head of Instinctif Partners’ Business Resilience Practice.

“This is why we are launching CrisisCommsOptic. A reputation that has taken years to build can be destroyed in a matter of clicks, if you are not prepared.”

CrisisCommsOptic is a unique and powerful online benchmarking tool that quickly allows you to quantify your crisis communications readiness, asking questions in six key areas, including:

• Resource – Do you have a dedicated 24/7 press office media function to manage external communications?
• Monitoring – Do you have a process in place for media/social media
• Stakeholders – Do you have a process to identify potential internal and external stakeholders with whom you may need to communicate?
• Spokespeople – Do you have trained and approved crisis media spokespeople?
• Templates – Do you have an approved holding statement on file to fill in the blanks during a crisis?
• Training & review – Do you have a process for the review and continuous improvement of the press office/media and digital media function after a crisis?

The CrisisCommsOptic dashboard provides an accurate indicator of strengths and weaknesses in crisis communications, and a tailored report on recommended activity is produced – enabling resources to be focused on the most relevant areas.

“Traditionally in crisis communications there was the idea of the golden hour, the time within which an organisation had the opportunity to define a story before misinformation and speculation filled the void. This then moved on to become the platinum five minutes.

“However social media and the 24/7 global news cycle means that an organisation could have just a few seconds before public scrutiny comes to bear. Anyone with a smartphone is a citizen journalist – and the impact on crisis management is immediate and profound. Being prepared for communication in a crisis has never been more vital”, concludes Victoria.

CrisisCommsOptic is free for a limited period. Register now at: https://optic.instinctif.com/registration