The role of the Public Information Officer is vitally essential when it comes to crisis communications. How PIOs respond during a crisis can have a significant and lasting effect on public perception and trust. We turned to top experts from the field of communications to dive into what makes a strong and effective PIO and to unpack some key strategies for response during an unpredictable and escalating crisis. They shared insights into why PIOs are so crucial to the overall command structure of public safety agencies. And why the most effective PIOs are well-prepared for a crisis and agile enough to handle curveballs that can come up during the response.
“Tamrin Olden highlights the importance of simplicity in crisis communications. Amid the chaos of a crisis, clear, timely, and consistent messaging is crucial. Olden notes that while this approach is practical, getting everyone on board with executing the strategy is the challenge.”
One needs a good plan and the skills to respond when circumstances change to manage a crisis. In this article, veterans in crisis management share their understanding of what it means to be prepared for an event that one hopes never happens. They highlight the apparent necessity of having a strategic plan that is clear and well-communicated to all who need to know. But then they also talk about some not-so-obvious things that all PIOs should keep in the back of their heads during a crisis: what role a PIO does not play, how to maintain trust, and why it is so essential to give timely—and preferably non-stop—updates to stakeholders, including the media.