If you’re starting out in crisis communications – welcome! Here are 6 things I wish someone had told me when I began.
I spent 15 years at the BBC before moving into crisis comms. These are the things that mattered most.
Journalists aren’t trying to trap you. They’re trying to file a story under deadline pressure.
The platform changes everything. What works on LinkedIn bombs on TikTok.
Crises don’t start where you think. They start in Reddit comments and Slack channels, days before the media calls.
Most media training still prepares you for TV/radio interviews. Short answers, tight messages, pivot back to your points. But podcasts are different – and most people don’t realise until they’re forty minutes in and still being asked follow-up questions.
Preparation matters more than the plan. The organisations that handle crises well have tested it with their people in a simulation.
Your job isn’t what you think. You’re not here to control the narrative. You’re here to be credible when everything else is chaos.
6 things I wish I knew starting out in crisis communications
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