Issues and Crises: A Look at Crisis Communications

Let's talk about Crisis Communications. This past week, my social media class had the chance to listen to two great guest lecturers specializing in crisis communications. The first, Melissa Agnes, discussed the differences between issues and crises with negative situations. Melissa taught me that issues can range from negative tweets or comments directed toward a particular brand, but issues never truly threaten the reputation of the brand. True crises are much more serious than issues, often involve high emotions, and can affect major stakeholders.

The next guest speaker was Jonathan Bernstein, who gave us great advice about being successful in crisis communications. Jonathan told us in order to be a successful crisis communicator, you need to be a swift thinker, skilled writer, and able to speak in front of all kinds of different audiences for different situations.

An example of a large company forced to succeed in crisis communications is Walt Disney Company. In June 2009, Disney faced the crisis of a fatal monorail crash in Walt Disney World. Two monorails ran into each other, killing the pilot of one of them. This traumatic event required serious professionals in crisis communication. Disney's spokespeople stated the facts, continually released information, offered sincere sympathies for the family affected, and never withheld information. These are just a few best practices when it comes to dealing with crisis communications.

Infographics: Think Visually!

If you love Pinterest as much as I do, you’veprobably encountered a few infographics during those long (wasted) hours spentpinning to your heart’s content. Infographics are emerging as a more popularway for businesses and individuals to present information in a visual andinteresting way. Mark Smiciklas, author of “The Power of Infographics,” definesan infographic as “a visualization ofdata or ideas that tries to convey complex information to an audience in amanner that can be quickly consumed and easily understood.”  

    

 Infographics should combine both art and science, and can bethought of as ‘idea art.’ They need to create a mixture of visuals and data toshare information that is relevant, interesting, and unique to the brand,topic, or industry the infographic should be representing.  If done successfully, infographics can help toextend your personal brand or company presence. Another awesome benefit frominfographics is that they’re easily shareable on social media platforms.  

     

There are several characteristics of infographics thatrepresent different kinds of data. These characteristics are as follows:

•  Statistics       
• Cartoons
•  Concepts
•  Models
•  Information
• Timeline

The infographic (to the left) called  6 Reasons to Visualize Your Data is a great example of avisual and captivating representation of data. Also, it shares wonderful reasons why you shouldshare information visually! 

Another fabulous example of an infographic done right isthis one (to the right), done by the Disney Parks Blog. This infographic is atimeline called 40 Years at Walt Disney World Resort, so check it out to see some of the amazing milestones Disney World has experienced since its opening in 1971!  

     

Thanks for reading and have a magical day! 

Blog Beginnings and Gorgeous George

     Hello blog-o-sphere! Allow me to introduce myself… My name is Caitlin Brooks and I’m currently a sophomore student at the University of Louisville. I am majoring in Communications and focusing my classes around public relations and social media in the hopes of becoming a strategic communicator for a large company in the future.  I grew up in the small town of Maysville, KY, so living in Louisville is a drastic change for me. Although many of my high school classmates (and even myself at times) complain about our hometown being the most boring, Mayberry-esque place on this side of the Mason-Dixon line, Maysville is actually a pretty neat and historic place. In fact, Maysville is the hometown of the following people:

1.  Rosemary Clooney (her debut film “The Stars Are Singing” premiered at the Russell Theatre in downtown Maysville)
2.   Darius Miller (former UK basketball player and currently playing for the Iowa Energy)
3. Chris Lofton (former University of Tennessee basketball player and current professional basketball player)
4. Heather French Henry (Miss America 2000).

  Sure, the only thing to do in Maysville is to stay home or go to the run-down four cinema movie theater. But, Maysville is an important part of me and has shaped my personality and who I am today. And did I mention George Clooney (Rosemary’s nephew) and Renée Zellweger came to Maysville to premiere their movie “Leatherheads”? Yep, that happened.

Click the following link to check out People.com’s article on the Leatherheads premiere. http://img2-2.timeinc.net/people/i/2008/news/080407/george_clooney.jpg

   
 Being raised in a small town has made me thirst for knowledge from bigger places…like Hollywood and New York. I love popular culture, and I credit that to my hometown. My love for popular culture is what got me interested in communications in particular. Remember earlier when I said I hoped to work for a large company as a strategic communicator? Well, the company I have in mind is The Walt Disney Company. You guessed it; my ultimate dream and goal in life is to work for “The Mouse” himself. Disney has always been a big part of my life and has given my family and me so many happy and magical memories; I hope to be a part of the company who creates happiness for people all over the world like it’s nobody’s business.

   
 Since this is my first blog, I should set a few goals to help myself stay focused and organized. My goals for this blog are pretty simple:

1.       Write about topics such as social media and public relations as well as other interesting topics like Disney, animation, theme parks, etc.    

2.       Keep up with the blog throughout the remainder of my college experience and beyond! (Buzz Lightyear voice).

3.       Keep my readers interested!

   
 So now that you know a little bit about me and what this blog will be like, I’d like to hear from you! Feel free to post comments and ask me questions about social media, UofL, Disney, etc. I hope you’ve enjoyed your stay here at my blog!

   
 Have a magical day!