Like you, my heart and head are heavy in the wake of the Orlando massacre of 49 people who were wives, husbands, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, parents, colleagues, friends, and much more to many people. Especially since I feel so helpless.
But there’s something we nonprofit communicators CAN DO—respond to crises like these with thought, respect, and relevance. Here’s how some of your fellow communicators are responding sensitively and productively to this tragedy:
First, STOP every pre-scheduled social media post and email.
Watch for pre-loaded social media messages. On Sunday morning (the morning after), my feed had many tone-deaf messages (Twitter and Facebook) that had clearly been put in the can on Friday afternoon. It’s not the worst thing, but it is something to think about when people use Hootsuite or other services to schedule social messages. Who’s assigned to pull back those messages when a tragedy strikes?
—Margot Friedman, Media Relations
Dupont Circle Communications
We dialed back all social posts except for show of support/remembrance on Monday (day after), but we had someone exhibiting at a conference and had to continue to support that. We rearranged schedule of blog posts, resuming posting Thursday (5 days after sat eve tragedy).
—Laura Norvig, Digital Media Strategist
ETR
Then, PAUSE and THINK about the right response for your cause and community.
Acknowledgment and Support, then Proceed as normal
My colleagues at Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen posted this on Sunday afternoon (the day after) with a photo of a rainbow heart with black background, “With profound sadness we stand with, and send our prayers to, the victims and all who are hurting and affected by the senseless act of violence in Orlando. #wechooselove
—Jane Van Ingen, Foundation Relations Officer and Database Manager
Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen
We held back scheduled posts and posted a remembrance and then later just directed people to our ChooseLove video from a year ago. We resumed normal posting today (3 days after).
—Liz Polay-Wettengel, National Director of Marketing and Communications
InterfaithFamily.com
Explicit acknowledgment along with what they planned, but NOT focusing the communication on the tragedy
I received this e-news from the Sierra Club (3 days after), with this header to the regular e-news content. Thanks to Larry Kaplan for sharing this too.
Stay silent in respect, then Proceed as normal
We were silent on Sunday (the day after). I had thought of doing something but just let the day pass. We aren’t related to the community, are based in another country, and have materials to get out related to an event that just happened. We moved forward as of Monday (2 days after) with communications as planned.
—Cindy DesGrosseilliers , Communications Manager
Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada
Delay fundraising email, Revise subject line for relevance
We made a few changes.
- Delayed fundraising email: We held an ask email originally scheduled for today (3 days after). We postponed for a day to give slightly more space for the Orlando conversation to continue.
- Revised email subject line: The original subject line was going to be “Why today matters” but we felt that was inappropriate as what mattered at the moment was NOT our matching challenge. We changed it to “Making sure meals are there.”
—Aaron LaMonica-Weier, Manager, Digital Engagement – Cultivation
Feeding America
I’ll be back with stories from LGBT organizations facing a different (and more immediate) communications challenge, via digital engagement specialist Chris Tuttle.
Please share your recommendations, response and/or questions here. Let’s help each other do even better in responding to crises like these. It’s one thing we CAN do. Thank you.
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