Here at Lightspan, we are guided by our values and mission in everything we do. Our client recommendations also reflect this. And when values and the possibility of diminished business and brand value meet, we make strong recommendations to your clients. Over the years we developed a template for how to respond during and in the days following a trigger event and crisis. We rarely had reason to use it. We had a few international events and we activated the plan for our international clients. We had mass shootings. Over the years we kept updating the plan.

But there was no year as “the year of Covid,” (March 2020 through TBD) when being sensitive in our communication was tested through a pandemic, a historic anti-racism movement, a seemingly never-ending election, and now the Jan 6 insurgence and attack on the capitol. 

I wanted to share with you our approach in hopes it will help you to avoid paralysis and to act quickly and thoughtfully.

When the trigger event happens or shortly after, usually within 12 hours, I or one of my team members will message everyone on the team to say, we need to activate our crisis protocols. We then customize the recommendations by brand and notify the clients of our recommended approach within a couple of hours.

Use this template for your digital communication strategy during a trigger event and the following days of grief and crisis.

 

You can use this for your clients but also to make internal recommendations to your executives. It’s just a starting point, so do take a pause and then develop your own and expand on this. We would love to hear from you in the comments section or via DM (@manamica on every social network, including LinkedIn) about what else we should include.