Crisis management is one of the biggest challenges for social media for government agencies.

A fast-evolving situation can cause panic and confusion in your community, requiring you to communicate the latest information calmly and clearly to the public, stakeholders, and media.

Get it wrong, and you risk undermining confidence in your agency; get it right, and you’ll play a key role in mitigating the worst effects of the crisis. You’ll also position your agency as a trusted source working to keep your community safe.

Read on for eight essential considerations for building an effective crisis communications strategy, plus three real-world examples of crisis comms from the world of government on social media.

8 Key Considerations for Building an Effective Crisis Communications Strategy

1.    Establish a Crisis Communications Team

Your first step is to bring together a team to handle crisis communications, comprising representatives from existing teams/departments. When you have a dedicated team in place, you can act quickly in a crisis, safely knowing that everyone knows their role.

Depending on your organization, it might include members from some or all of the following:

  • Customer support
  • HR
  • IT
  • Leadership
  • Legal
  • Operations
  • Public relations

Define a clear role for each member of your crisis comms team, from speaking to external stakeholders to fielding questions on social media. Learn more in the Business Continuity Management Institute’s guide: What is the Typical Composition of a Crisis Communication Team?

2.    Carry Out a “Crisis Audit”

No one expects government agencies to predict the future. But you can absolutely improve your preparation by running a “crisis audit” — a thorough investigation of your current crisis comms strategy — and digging into past events to understand the most likely future scenarios.

But crisis audits aren’t just about analyzing the types of crisis you’re likely to face; they’re also about planning your response. Look at:

  • How similar agencies dealt with previous crises
  • How they shared information with their target audiences
  • How the media and general public received their responses

In some situations, a crisis audit might help you highlight future crises and prevent them before they occur. Even if that’s not possible, it should give you the tools to plan an effective response.

3.    Develop a Plan for Disseminating Information

During a crisis, you might be fielding constant calls and emails from journalists while struggling to keep abreast of the latest developments from employees on the front line. With so much going on, you can’t afford to plan your strategy for disseminating information on the fly.

Admittedly, you can’t plan every element of your strategy upfront. But you should be able to broadly outline how you intend to reach your audience, including through:

  • Social media
  • Press releases
  • Public statements

At this stage, you should define which channels are best suited to different types of communications. This is your crisis communications plan.

For instance, if you have breaking information that directly impacts your communities, should you release it to the media for maximum exposure? Or share it via your social media channels first to get the message out as quickly as possible?

4.    Practice Your Crisis Communications Plan

Having run a crisis audit, you should have a decent understanding of the types of scenarios your agency is most likely to face. That means you can run through your crisis communications plan.

Consider booking a whole day for your team to run through a crisis scenario, giving them limited information, then presenting further developments throughout the session.

At each step, ask them to demonstrate how they’ll communicate with your audiences and consider who will be responsible for which elements of your crisis comms strategy.

Also, schedule time to review your communications plan regularly to ensure it’s still fit for purpose. Crises in other parts of the world (or country or state) might shed light on a gap in your strategy, so don’t be afraid to add new elements or remove unnecessary ones. Just be sure to communicate changes to your team.

5.    Identify the Key Messages You Want to Convey

By their very nature, crises tend to be “noisy” events, with hundreds or thousands of people sharing information as the situation unfolds. The last thing you want is to add to the noise with unclear or unhelpful messaging.

For that reason, when any crisis emerges, your first port of call is to identify the main points you want to get across to your audience. That way, you can ensure your messaging is focused and consistent.

Of course, those key points vary from one crisis to another. But generally speaking, they might include some or all of these:

  • Sharing links to informational resources.
  • Explaining how people affected by the crisis can access help.
  • Providing clear instructions for people currently, or likely to be, affected.
  • Detailing your response to the crisis.
  • Discussing how you plan to prevent the crisis from reoccurring (if relevant).

6.    Designate a Spokesperson

Another way to keep your messaging as clear and consistent as possible is to designate an expert spokesperson to communicate with the public, media, and other stakeholders.

To give an obvious example, if a major road traffic accident happens in your city, you might choose a transport or infrastructure manager as the public face of your response.

There are two major benefits to this approach:

  • It encourages the public to look out for a “familiar face.” Every time they see your spokesperson, they know they will hear an official announcement from someone who knows what’s happening.
  • It gives the media an expert source for further questions. Journalists will inevitably have plenty of follow-up questions after a crisis announcement. So it’s a big help to have an expert spokesperson who knows what they’re talking about.

7.    Monitor External Sentiment

Communicating effectively in a crisis isn’t just about getting all your messaging out there via your preferred channels – it’s also about adapting on the fly based on how the media and public react. Naturally, this means you must keep a close eye on what people say about the crisis as it develops.

You (probably) don’t have time to do this manually, so your best option is to choose a social media monitoring platform like AgoraPulse or Talkwalker. These platforms trawl the web to identify mentions of your brand and other relevant keywords, helping you quickly understand external sentiment in real time and adjust your messaging as required.

Learn more: Top 29 Social Media Listening Tools for Your Best Audience Insights

8.    Post-Crisis Communications Review

Building and maintaining an effective crisis communications strategy isn’t a one-and-done exercise.

Every challenge you face is an opportunity to test and hone your response. In the wake of a crisis, take the time to analyze your messaging and identify areas for improvement in a post-crisis review.

What went well? Did you successfully communicate the most critical information at each crisis stage? What would you do differently if a similar crisis broke out a week, a month, or a year down the line?

Continuous monitoring and evaluation will help ensure your crisis communications remain accurate, effective, and up to date.

10 Examples of Effective Crisis Communications for Government Agencies

We’ve looked at the theory behind planning your crisis communications strategy. Now, let’s consider 10 real-world examples of government agencies that put their plans into effect:

1.    Washington Department of Ecology

The Washington Department of Ecology and the City of Bellingham responded to a reported diesel spill in a local creek near a construction site.

With a rainbow sheen visible on the water, the agency had to work fast to contain the spill and keep their audience up to date on the environmental impact. They shared details about the crisis and their response in a single Facebook post, which they updated five times as the crisis progressed:

Key Learning

Crisis communications is about telling a story. Because every crisis has:

  • A Beginning: The “discovery” of the crisis (and how it started, if known)
  • A Middle: How the crisis develops and what you’re doing to manage/overcome it
  • An End: Solving the crisis and understanding the final impact

Make it easy for your audience to follow the narrative by grouping all your communications in an easy-to-digest format. You could create a thread on X or simply update a single post, like the Washington Department of Ecology did.

2.    Town of Collierville

High rainfall was forecast for the Town of Collierville, Tennessee, prompting the local government to issue warnings about flooding and explain the steps they were taking to mitigate the impact, such as clearing curbs and storm drain inlets:

The town posted regular updates throughout the event, warning audiences about what to expect from the heavy rainfall.

They issued an all-clear when the storms had passed (including a call for damage reports):

Key Learning

There’s no such thing as too much communication during a crisis. By my count, the town of Collierville posted no fewer than 12 updates about the storms in just five days – but each message shared valuable information to help keep residents safe.

3.    City of Tampa

Okay, it’s not exactly news that Florida gets hot in summer. But when heat is forecast to hit dangerous levels, it’s up to local governments to communicate this information to residents and share easy-to-understand tips for staying safe.

Just like the City of Tampa did in this Facebook post:

The agency shared updates throughout the period of extreme heat, including sharing news about the opening of three local Cooling Centers:

Key Learning

Don’t just announce that a crisis is happening – make your announcements actionable by giving your audience simple steps they can follow to keep out of danger. For instance, the City of Tampa reminded residents to stay hydrated and limit time outdoors.

4.    Washington State Department of Transportation

Road closures are a fact of life for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). However, some closures are more planned than others. When a tanker truck rolled over on US 101, it was definitely time for an unscheduled closure.

WSDOT kept road users up to date throughout the recovery operation, sharing information about a detour and announcing when the road had reopened:

Key Learning

Don’t overpromise when it comes to resolution times. Fact is, crises are unpredictable by nature – so give yourself a little wiggle room for finding and implementing a fix. WSDOT got it right in this example by warning motorists from the outset that the closure would likely remain in place for an extended period.

5.    King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks

A crisis is, by nature, a difficult and often challenging situation. Still, it can sometimes reveal valuable information or highlight successful elements of your response. This might be the extraordinary actions of an individual team member or the strong performance of systems and processes you have in place.

For example, the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks noted that during a recent “bomb cyclone,” their new high-voltage battery system at the local wastewater treatment facility performed as intended, supporting operations during the severe weather event.

Key Learning

Take the opportunity to celebrate your crisis management wins; it’ll help to build trust with your audience and demonstrate that you’re looking out for their safety.

6.    Amador Fire

Some government agencies might deal with a crisis once a year (or, ideally, even less). Whereas for first responders like Amador Fire, crisis communications is business as usual. They’re constantly sharing details about fires, traffic accidents, and other crises – so it’s essential their messaging is clear, concise, and speaks directly to affected communities.

Let’s look at how they handled a wildfire. First, they warned residents of the incident and urged them to stay alert:

Check out the full text of the above post, and you’ll see that Amador Fire shared multiple updates, ensuring the latest information was always available.

Plus, they shared separate posts to highlight critical details like changes to evacuation zones:

Key Learning

It’s fine to group all your crisis-related updates together into a single post. But if you’ve got an announcement that requires extra attention, it’s worth creating a separate post about it too. Again, remember that overcommunication is never a bad thing when it comes to crisis communications!

7.    West Metro Fire Rescue

Fortunately, not all crises turn into major incidents – but they can still provide a challenge when it comes to effective communication.

For instance, when West Metro Fire Rescue (WMFR) received reports of a vegetation fire following a lightning storm, they immediately shared details about the possible blaze. But, as you can see from the update, the fire ended up sorting itself out:

Key Learning

Sure, WMFR could simply have deleted the post when it turned out that the fire was nothing to worry about. But it makes way more sense to keep it live and share an update letting people know everything’s fine. That way, anyone who saw the smoke (or the original post) knows that the fire has been extinguished.

8.    City of Boca Raton

Hurricane Ian hit Florida in September 2022, leaving a trail of destruction in its path.

While the City of Boca Raton wasn’t directly within the hurricane’s path, residents were understandably concerned about the potential impact of the natural disaster on their community.

With that in mind, the city leveraged social media to warn citizens about the likely repercussions of the hurricane — including heavy winds, rains, and flooding — and share ways for them to keep informed about the crisis:

It also assigned designated expert spokespeople to discuss specific elements of the crisis response, such as the city’s Chief Building Official explaining efforts to secure construction sites:

Key Learning

Even if you don’t expect a crisis to impact your community significantly, be aware that your audience still wants to be reassured that you have a clear plan in place and are working to keep them safe.

9.    Michigan Department of Natural Resources

In May 2022, a 2,500-acre fire broke out in the Blue Lakes area of Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula following a lightning strike, forcing road closures and evacuations as emergency crews battled to contain the blaze.

Residents needed a trusted source of information about the blaze. Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) stepped up to the plate, creating a thread on X/Twitter to share news and announcements as the crisis continued.

This was a busy time for the MDNR, with its firefighters and local partners working around the clock to prevent the fire from spreading.

Despite this, the agency didn’t just keep its X thread up to date; it also took the time to monitor responses from concerned citizens and reply with further information where necessary:

Key Learning

Ensure your team monitors multiple social media platforms throughout a crisis to identify common questions and concerns. Even if you don’t have the bandwidth to respond to each question individually, you can use the findings to build a resource center of frequently asked questions.

10.    City of Las Vegas

The City of Las Vegas faced twin crises in March 2020: not only was it forced to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, but it also had to find additional sleeping space for the city’s sizable population of unhoused people.

Its response — converting an outdoor parking lot into socially distanced sleeping units — drew criticism on social media from several high-profile figures, including former US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro.

The city needed to respond.

It did so through an X thread that added context and highlighted its efforts to find a better solution for those affected by the Covid-related closure of shelters across the city:

Key Learning

Your crisis response is never going to satisfy everyone in your community. Your best approach is simply to be as transparent as possible, explaining what you’re doing to tackle the situation and building public trust in your crisis management efforts. 

Featured image by Freepik.

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