A review of Communicate in a Crisis by Kate Hartley.

When is a crisis a major threat, and when is it just a Twitter storm?

Communicate in a Crisis by Kate Hartley sets out to answer that question. It’s a manual for the digital age, a guide to how companies and communicators can chart a path through the dangers of fake news, social media “outrage” and the declining trust that can undermine brands.

No-one should be surprised that “perma-crisis” was declared Oxford English Dictionary word of the year 2022. But as no communicator can be on red alert all the time – as Hartley, founder of crisis training agency Polpeo, points out – being able to tell a short-lived social media controversy from a major real-world business risk is essential.

The book is split into three sections. The first two, focusing on the digital realm, make the book stand out from other crisis management manuals.

Part one, understanding how consumer behaviour has changed, explores the impact of social and digital media on trust, news consumption, polarisation, purpose, and consumer expectations, distilling it into sound advice as to how consumers are likely to view brands and act or react to potential problems or scandals.

In part two Hartley explores the unique nature of how crises can start and play out online.

She labels social media a “hydra” and lays out some key steps in preventing and handling crises which incubate there.

The analysis of the role of technology and of influencers in particular, when bad stuff hits the fan, is worth the purchase price alone, as influencers become more and more crucial to public relations activities across sectors.

Hartley goes on to examine psychology, looking for explanations for human behaviour which finds expression on and offline. She forges convincing connections between climate change denial and hate speech for example, and digs into why “outrage sells.”

But while the author notes that it’s startling how many issues have broken first on Twitter, she is clear the digital world is not the whole world when it comes to crisis management.

The third part of the book comprises a more traditional guide on how to handle reputational threat in all contexts, featuring specialist advice from crisis management experts, on what to do before, during and after a storm hits, with analysis of recent high-profile stooshies, like those affecting TalkTalk and Uber. It’s manna for anyone writing a crisis comms plan.

People are as crucial as plans throughout this book. Hartley emphasises the importance of teamwork and looking after the real people at the coal face; protecting the mental health of every individual, and the need to switch up your team to keep it fresh. She explains how interpersonal skills, primarily empathy, are important in handling crises.

Even in this age of fake news, the author is clear there is such a thing as objective truth, and organisations need to find it, communicate it, and trust their audiences to recognise it.

Communicate in a Crisis will arm public relations practitioners to confidently handle not just the Twitter storm and the Tik-Tok shock but also the corporate cataclysm.

Communicate in a Crisis: Understand, Engage and Influence Consumer Behaviour to Maximise Brand Trust
Kogan Page
2019

About Claire Munro

Claire Munro is an award-winning communications professional and manager with more than 15 years’ experience leading successful campaigns in Scotland’s environment and housing sectors.

Claire is on the Committee of CIPR Scotland and a Trustee of Paragon Housing Association. She holds the CIPR Diploma in Internal Communications, the AMEC International Certificate in Measurement and Evaluation. Claire is a Chartered PR and Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.