Leveraging Virtual Event Platforms for Effective Crisis Communication

In today’s business landscape, organizations must be prepared to respond quickly and effectively to crisis situations such as natural disasters, technological failures, data breaches, public health concerns, and more.

According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach in 2023 was 4.45 million USD, a 15% increase over 3 years. While each situation is unique, promptly addressing an issue can significantly mitigate the financial, legal, and social damages caused when a crisis occurs.

Effective, timely, and clear communication is essential for helping companies weather any crisis and for organizations with thousands of stakeholders in different regions of the world, clear and effective crisis communication is made easier through the use of scalable virtual event solutions.

Crises Are A Common Reality

According to PwC’s bi-annual Global Crisis and Resilience Survey, 9 in 10 organizations reported that they’ve experienced multiple major disruptions such as technology failures and cyberattacks in the last two years. The survey also revealed that 76% of organizations had disruptions with medium-to-high impact on operations.

While crises are a reality for companies today, many are not prepared to respond quickly and effectively to unpredictable events. Capterra’s 2023 Crisis Communications Survey found that fewer than half (49%) of U.S. businesses have a formal documented crisis communications plan. Another 28% have an informal plan and nearly a quarter (23%) don’t have (or aren’t sure if they have) one at all.

This survey also found that after experiencing a crisis, more than 78% of respondents would increase investment in the tools used for communication.

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Rapid Response

In a crisis, things can change in an instant, and the longer it takes for organizations to respond, the more things can escalate, increasing damage to brand reputation and reducing employee and consumer trust in the organization. With the right technology in place, organizations can turn on a dime to execute crisis communication plans and successfully communicate the facts to end unnecessary and often misleading speculation.

Professionally managed virtual event solutions have emerged as a powerful tool for helping companies rapidly reach and communicate with the right stakeholders at the right times during a crisis. A dedicated platform ready to use is ideal for communications that must be consistent, recorded, immediate, and transparent among multiple audiences and geographic regions.

Benefits of deploying virtual event solutions in crisis communication

Online event technology platforms facilitate seamless, real-time crisis communication. This technology allows organizations to deliver live press conferences, CEO messaging, virtual town hall meetings, shareholder events, and more to execute communications in real-time at scale across the globe.

Video webcasting capabilities integrated into these platforms provide high-quality video, audio, and graphics that enhance content delivery and allow companies to connect and engage with stakeholders more effectively. Even one technical glitch can have detrimental effects on an organization’s brand reputation. When it comes to crisis communication, scalable virtual event platforms are designed to handle more than 100,000 attendees with better than five 9’s reliability. There should be zero requirements for the audience to download or update any client software.  Attendees should simply click to join from their phone, tablet, or computer.

Virtual event solutions also provide interactive features such as live chat, Q&A sessions, surveys, and polls designed to increase engagement and encourage participation. Organizations can use these features in virtual meetings to immediately communicate important crisis updates that inform, educate, and put the rumor mill to rest. These features also provide quick feedback for organizations to measure how well a crisis message has been received and understood.

There are a lot of moving parts to crisis communication and it’s crucial that nothing gets overlooked. That’s another area where virtual event solutions can help. Some platforms even offer professionally managed services that take charge of configuring, customizing, and facilitating virtual or hybrid events, allowing enterprises to focus more on their key messages and talking points to effectively execute their crisis communication plans.

Communicating in a crisis also involves the security of sensitive and private information or data. Virtual event platforms are designed to protect data security and privacy. Enterprise-grade security features in virtual event platforms include encryption technologies, multi-factor authentication, and access controls that ensure the security and privacy of events as well as compliance with data privacy regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

With virtual event platforms, attendees who miss a live event can access a recording through a cloud-based link, eliminating the need for large file attachments. These platforms also provide the benefit of robust reporting and analytics to measure audience engagement and gauge the efficacy of key messages.

Wrapping up

During a crisis, effective, timely, and clear communication is crucial. Virtual event platforms make it easy to rapidly reach employees, investors, board members, customers, or any other stakeholders affected by a crisis. By adding a virtual event platform to their technology toolkit, organizations can be better prepared to seamlessly execute their crisis communication strategies and better positioned to successfully mitigate the inevitable challenges ahead.

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