Do’s and Don’ts of mastering crisis communication in the age of social media
Leaders from the country’s media, marketing and communications industry converged for the 4th edition of IMAGEXX Summit and Awards 2024, Adgully’s premier PR industry event, which was held on July 18, 2024. In a short span of time, IMAGEXX Summit and Awards has been recognized as the PR industry’s go-to event.
A key highlight of the Summit this year was a panel discussion on ‘Mastering Crisis Communication in the Age of Social Media’. The panel was chaired by Mahesh Devrani, Partner, SPAG FINN Partners. The esteemed panelists included:
Abhilasha Gupta, Head - Global Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, Tech Mahindra
C Lekha, VP - Corporate Communications & Brand Reputation, IndiGo
Jyotsna Dash Nanda, AVP, Corporate Communications, DS Group
Sapna Bhawnani, Vice President - Communications & CSR - Asia-Pacific, Alstom
Usha Iyer, Head - Corporate Communication, Dr Reddy Laboratories
Commencing the discussions, Mahesh Devrani asked the panelists whether it is possible to master crisis.
Usha Iyer responded by saying, “The biggest impact of a crisis is loss of trust or loss of credibility of a brand. It has taken years of toil to constantly talk to your stakeholders, to distinguish the routine from the non-routine. To manage it, being prepared is the first step. Another step is having a multi-pronged approach. Besides, educating the external stakeholders and internal stakeholders is also very essential.”
C Lekha noted, “When you have over three lakh people traveling on your flights every day...it is something that we have built a lot on. You cannot ever master the art of crisis. What you can master is the art of managing the crisis and that is to be well-prepared. Transparency and honesty in what you’re saying, followed by action is a very important protocol of not just crisis managment, but building trust in general as well.”
Sapna Bhawnani commented, “You can master your preparation. Make sure that your spokesperson approaches the public when he’s speaking about it with empathy. You can’t jump in to accept the blame until the cause has been established. You can perhaps do very well at mastering the post. You just have to manage.”
Abhilasha Gupta emphasized, “Crisis communication is work in progress. There is never an end to it. Today, we’re not just on social media. Today, we are in the age of AI. You don’t even know whether the reaction is coming from a human being or it is coming from a machine. You can master the framework, you can master the response time, you can master the camaraderie that you have within your company.”
Jyotsna Dash Nanda pointed out, “There are various types of crises. For instance when a partner of yours sends out the communication with incorrect information, which is not checked at source. The issue here is it is very difficult at times to figure out what is the source of the information, but you realize that it is already out there. And as you’re dealing with it, it’s on social media. By the time your partner can respond, the story would have proliferated and you would have had the news getting carried across several mediums. So, the only thing that you can do at that point in time is to find the source from where the news has gone out, which is your partner, but you can’t deride them either. So, you will only have to make a request and say that this is a mistake that has happened and be open about it and say that it is all right. But if you can, please do this and provide options so that the person doesn’t feel that we are dictating terms to them.”
These are edited excerpts, For the complete panel discussion, please watch below:
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