Presentation provides overview of how school districts and other organizations are using technology to enhance their crisis communication capabilities.

1. Using Technology to Enhance
Crisis Communications
Nora Carr, APR, Fellow PRSA
Chief of Staff
Guilford County Schools
carrn@gcsnc.com

2. “If you don’t prepare, you WILL
take more damage.”
– Jonathan Bernstein, Bernstein Crisis
Management, Inc.

3. Major crisis categories - 2008
1990 2007 2008
Workplace Violence 3.8% 15.0% 17.0%
White Collar Crime 20.4 19.0 17.0
Labor Disputes 10.3 9.0 11.0
Mismanagement 24.1 11.0 10.0
Facility Damage 5.5 7.0 10.0
Casualty Accidents 4.8 7.0 9.0
Class Action Lawsuits 2.2 9.0 5.0
Defects & Recalls 5.4 4.0 4.0
Financial Damages 4.2 4.0 4.0
Consumer Activism 2.8 4.0 4.0
Discrimination 3.3 3.0 3.0
Source: Institute for Crisis Management, Louisville, KY May 2009
2.

4. Sources of negative news
Origins of Crises - 2008
Managers Employees Other
18%
51%
31%
Source: Institute for Crisis Management,
Louisville, KY May 2009
2.

5. New media mayhem on the job
 News = 29%
 Investment = 22.5%
 Porn = 9.7%
 Travel 8.2%
 Entertainment = 6.6%
 Sports = 6.1%
 Shopping = 3.5%
 Other 14.3%

6. Student ridicules veteran
teacher on MySpace page by
posting his photo online and
calling him a pedophile.

8. Employee Lawsuits
Wrongful Termination Sexual Harassment
 Fortune 500 company  Employee misuse of
 Ordered by a court to turn corporate eMail can result
over any eMail that in six-figure litigation costs
mentioned the name of a and million-dollar legal
former employee settlements
 No policy in place for  Chevron Corp. was ordered
purging eMail to pay female employees
 20,000 back-up tapes, $2.2 million to settle a
containing millions of sexual harassment lawsuit
messages  Stemmed from
 Total potential cost for that inappropriate eMail
electronic search: $20 circulated by male
million employees

9. What have shared with your
teachers about the potential
for new media mishaps?

10. Where are you vulnerable?
Issues Admin Staff Students Bldg or Other
Campus
No. 1
No. 2
No. 3
No. 4

14. Four goals in every crisis
1. Protect health,
welfare of staff,
students, others
2. Fix problem,
minimize
damage
3. Promote healing,
health, unity
4. Restore sense of
normalcy

15. Be quick. Be accurate.
Be consistent.

17. Pre-Crisis Preparations
 Mass notification system
 Dark site(s) ready to launch
 Breaking news header or pop-up for main
Web site
 Database of crisis team, “friends,” VIPs,
key publics
 Pre-written messages; templates
 “Reader’s Digest” quick guides
 Scenario-based planning; Drill and practice

18. GCS Crisis Notifications
• Call 911 or SRO (police, fire, medic)
• Call Regional Superintendent and Media Relations Desk: 574-5730 or
Haley Miller – 370-3200 or 669-8927/cell
• Send email/written report and updates to Regional Superintendent
PRINCIPAL • Initiate crisis team (if needed)
• Notify School Safety Office: 370-8995
• Call Chief Academic Officer: 370-2313; 451-9528 cell
• Call Chief of Staff: 370-8106 or 669-0289/cell or 704-491-3204
• Send email/written report and updates to COA and COS
REGIONAL carrn@gcsnc.com; folgere@gcsnc.com
SUPER
• Call Superintendent, Chief Administrative Officer
• Call Interim Chief Student Services Officer
• COS and CSS coordinate additional district support as needed
CHIEF OF • Notify BOE & Cabinet; update as needed
STAFF

24. Smart press releases
 Contact info includes  MP3 files for audio of
email, IM address, preapproved quotes
 Web site URL or Q&A embedded in
 Core news facts release
(bulleted list  MPV files/digitized
preferred) video quotes
 Link and RSS feeds to  Hyperlinks to
purpose-built page previous coverage
in del.icio.us  Tags for del.icio.us,
 RSS feeds to other Digg, other social
news releases bookmarks for easy
 High resolution sharing, uploading
images

25. Total tonality of coverage for Charlotte-Mecklenburg School
October 2008
120
5
88
0
80
Articles
5
11
38
0
40
0 52
10
0 0
1 5
3
0
0
5
0
Charlotte- Union County Wake County Cabarrus County Gaston County York County
Mecklenburg School School School School School
School
Negative Neutral Positive

26. “We are always communicating.
It’s just a matter of whether we
are doing it well, or poorly.”

27. Communication in Times of Crisis
Nora Carr, APR, Fellow PRSA
Chief of Staff
Guilford County Schools
carrn@gcsnc.com

34. Obama Campaign
• MyBarackObama.com
users
• Deployed social media
networks, including Fac
• Created 2 million profiles
• Planned 200,000 events
• Formed 350,000
volunteer groups
• Posted 400,000 blogs
• Raised $30 million on
70,000 personal Web
pages