publications

Communicate at the Speed of Sight

Disaster has struck. Your company is in crisis. Your voicemail and e-mail are overflowing with messages from reporters demanding the who, what, when and how. The media is going to report something, whether it comes from you or elsewhere. It is your job to feed those ravenous reporters a steady diet of facts on the unfolding events. Being an experienced professional, you also provide tasty treats in the form of background stories and great images from your corporate digital library. Reporters will thank you for making their job easier. Producers will thank you for saving them the cost of sending a photographer. Your boss will thank you for the good PR.

We live in a visual world. Unlike language, pictures are understood instantly by virtually every person on the planet. No translation is needed. Neither is a spokesperson. Think about it—have you ever heard a photo complain that it was misquoted? Using images to communicate your message, particularly to a multicultural audience, will insure the correct message is delivered.

If you are like most people today, you scan print stories. People rarely read every single word. We’re just too busy. But I’ll bet that like most people, you always look at the pictures that accompany the story. Why do we do that? It’s because visual imagery is the fastest and easiest way for our brains to absorb information, lots of information. The old cliché about a picture being worth a thousand words is true—and that thousand words of knowledge is conveyed and fully comprehend in the blink of an eye. That’s what I call power communicating!

A well-stocked corporate digital image library can be your quick answer to the media’s never-ending need for visual story content. Photos and video that you supply the media are likely to put your company in a more favorable position than data gathered from other sources. If things get nasty, your best insurance against false accusations is visual documentation of the truth.

As part of your crisis plan, have these images available:

Executives
It’s a good idea to have on file both a formal PR headshot and a working environment scenario of key management. More on planning a successful executive photo session next month!

Facilities
Yes, all of them. There is no way to predict which of your locations may be involved in an incident. Facility shots should be updated every time a significant change is made to the structure.

Key operations
Images should clearly show your employees performing their duties in a safe, professional manner.

Health, safety, community service and environmental issues
These are the hot topics most likely to fall under scrutiny by the press. Planning ahead is crucial because shots of these situations are almost always impossible to obtain during a crisis.