IABC Barbados

When a crisis hits, companies without a crisis communication plan may lose control of the story while management and the legal department are still agonising over the press release, says the head of a local organisation for corporate communicators.

“You can’t wait until the crisis is upon you to start figuring out how you will communicate with stakeholders and the wider public,” warns Christal McIntosh, president of the Barbados chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).

“You need a written plan that anticipates the major crises that could affect your company, and spells out who is going to do what and by when, if any of those crises occur.”

McIntosh says the advent of social media has dramatically altered the speed at which companies have been accustomed to communicate when a crisis happens.

“Forget about arranging a press conference for later in the day, or operating according to the timelines of traditional news media,” she says.  “By the time the legal department has decided what you should say for the seven o’clock news and for tomorrow’s newspapers, the story of your crisis – whether accurate or not – will have already travelled around the world via text messages, blog sites, or even U-Tube.”

McIntosh says corporate communicators need to factor social media into their crisis communication plans.  To this end, IABC Barbados is hosting a teleseminar for the association’s members and other communication professionals entitled “When social media and crisis communications collide”.

The seminar is scheduled for 6.00 p.m. on Thursday, February 25^th, at the Christie Room, Barbados Light & Power Annex, Garrison Hill, and will cost $40 for non-members.

Professionals interested in registering should call 626-6728.