Facebook Live and Crisis Management: The 24 Second News Cycle
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] If you follow this newsletter or attend one of our crisis management and communications seminars, you understand the urgency of getting your side of the story out in the first media news cycle. If you’re not ready to quickly roll out your messages when a crisis strikes or an issue boils over, you may be cast as the villain in a news story, leaving you with a serious reputational challenge.
But what if the first news cycle is played out on Facebook Live, and not on traditional media outlets?
Facebook launched its live video platform in April of this year and made it so user friendly that live video streaming use immediately exploded. And as recent headlines have shown, ordinary people are breaking news using Facebook Live. In a Minnesota suburb, Diamond Reynolds live streamed her fiancé dying after a police officer shot him during a routine traffic stop. In Dallas, witnesses to the ambush shooting that killed five police officers live streamed during the attack.
These are extreme examples of horrific events, but Facebook users could just as easily target your organization for live streaming when there’s an accident at your facility, a fire, a chemical release, workplace violence, or an activist attack.
One way you can sleep better at night given this new reality: prepare. Be sure your communications staff understands and can use Facebook Live or other video streaming apps. Revise your crisis communications plan to include scripts they can use to do their own live streaming reports. Be sure spokespeople have regular media training so they are at ease “going live.”
Live streaming on Facebook or using other live streaming apps such as Periscope make it that much more critical that you and your organization prepare to communicate quickly and proactively when a crisis strikes, so you can explain your side of the story before misinformation about your organization unnecessarily threatens your reputation and puts you on the defensive.
When live streaming apps Periscope, Meerkat and Stringwire were introduced last year, I wrote a blog piece saying “expect the number of live streaming users to grow exponentially, and soon.” Those apps can be tricky to use for a novice. It took Facebook Live’s simple “Go Live” button to make this prediction reality – a reality for which every organization must now prepare.
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