Features of a Crisis Site

Pic. by SymmetryxLast year I gave a workshop on "Crisis Communications & Social Media" to a very nice group of PR professionals in Madrid and we spoke at great length about the use of "crisis sites".

Crisis sites, also called "black sites" are pre-prepared mini websites that are set up before a crisis strikes... In general they are pre-populated with information that would be required if a specific type of incident would take place. They stay offline until they are needed and can be activated within minutes.

Example; a transport company specialised in dangerous goods could prepare a crisis site for when one of their trucks spills a dangerous chemical product they transport on a regular basis.

Of course a company would only prepare specific crisis sites for those incidents which have been identified during the yearly crisis preparedness and crisis management review process.

You can not prepare for everything but you should prepare for those incidents that have the most probability of happening and the most impact on the business.

Today, crisis sites can be created with easy to use blogging platforms. WordPress for example if a fully fledged content management system and could very well be used to create such sites.

Of course there are many useful & different features which can be incorporated in a crisis site and that's why I created this little poll below. Please give us your input.

Some benefits of a crisis site based on a blogging platform;

1. the communications team gains a lot of time by having an online communications platform ready in seconds... This is crucial - as you need to communicate within the hour if you want to stay on top of things during a crisis.
2. the communications team has complete control of the crisis site as simple to use blogging platforms do not require IT personnel or HTML wizards to be there.
3. the onboard RSS feed capability makes it possible for reporters and other to subscribe to immediate updates regarding the crisis.
4. the form and format of a blog lends itself perfectly for a "news driven" communications platform like a crisis site.

I'll be setting up a new & "crisis and social media" workshop soon and it will most probably take place in Brussels. So if you are interested, send me an email and I'll keep you up to date about the details.