No public sector organization—from public utilities and municipal agencies up through State government offices—wants to deploy crisis communications. Emergency situations are often complex problems, however, and communication with constituents during unforeseen emergencies is essential to public health, safety, and trust.
The adage “the best defense is a good offense” remains true and should be a call to action for all levels of government, and their public and private industry partners. Proactive crisis communications planning, coupled with ongoing strategic communications, helps public sector organizations weather the (sometimes literal) storm by building public trust long before disaster strikes.
Strategic Communications Before a Crisis
Governments and public utilities can no longer be silent in their communities. Public power utilities have already learned that they can no longer remain in the background as energy prices and the cost of infrastructure rises.
After this month’s widespread cyberattacks on water utilities across the United States, public water utilities must follow their lead and take steps to build trust through transparency and timely communication. Over the long term, these efforts ensure the public retains confidence in the systems they operate when an emergency does occur. This includes:
- Building a unified marketing strategy. Every organization needs to determine their goals, a target audience, the right channels to reach them, and the most effective messaging to engage them. Strategic communications involve analyzing what organizations are already doing as well as analytics, demographics, and competitive analysis to develop a clear, actionable plan.
- Updating websites and social media frequently. Constituents will usually look online first to find information about anything and everything, including government agencies, municipal utilities, and public service providers. Outdated content and design create the perception that an organization is not prepared for a crisis.
- Embracing social media as a conversation. Social media is not just another outgoing marketing channel like newspapers, billboards, or TV. The public will ask questions, request customer service, and provide critical feedback that organizations should address.
These strategic communications efforts will help prevent panic and facilitate swift responses from public entities when there is a real emergency.
Crisis Comms for Governments and Public Entities
Crisis communications for public sector organizations starts with detailed planning. While many public entities have an official spokesperson, like a press secretary or Public Information Officer, social media makes a much wider range of leaders available to the public. Today this often comes with an expectation for all leaders and elected officials to respond immediately and decisively to any question, issue or controversy, making the need for a crisis comms plan even more critical.
In a crisis, public organizations must:
- Have a unified, coordinated approach to communications
- Determine what information to share, who will say it, and by what means
- Establish clearly defined internal and external roles and responsibilities
- Follow the protocol when an emergency occurs
- Stay informed and issue updates as the situation evolves
Once an emergency situation has been mitigated, these organizations must:
- Continually update crisis communications plans to account for new challenges and risks as they arise
- Perform assessments of their potential response to different scenarios
In the case of the recent cybersecurity attacks on water utilities, we saw many best practices utilized in response to the emergency. Most of these organizations were quick to communicate that cyberattacks had occurred, that each community’s drinking water remained safe, and how operations had been only minimally disrupted. These entities followed up by working with the EPA, FBI and other authorities to improve their cybersecurity in the face of escalating threats and then communicated those responses as well.
If these organizations had responded in a disorganized manner, tried to hide these very real threats from the public, or not responded publicly at all, the result would have likely involved panic, protests and calls for accountability. Failing to execute a detailed crisis communications plan puts the public at risk.
Niki Jones Knows Crisis Comms
Under the leadership of our Founder and CEO Niki Jones, a former New York City tactical patrol paramedic, our agency knows what it takes to be fully prepared for crisis communications. We can help your public sector organization develop, coordinate and implement a comprehensive plan. We can help with reputation management. We can also support your organization with Emergency Management-as-a-Service (EMaaS).
No matter your emergency preparedness needs, Niki Jones Agency can get your team ready to respond the right way. Contact us today.