Virginia Tech Tragedy: Crisis communication on the university website homepage

I’ve just read about the news… on a listserv. I worked on deadlines all morning and ate lunch in front of my computer far away from any news.

In the listserv message, there was just a mention of a crazy event with 22 dead including students (33 according to the latest reports) at Virginia Tech, so I went straight to the website:

When I saw the VT homepage, I thought I would share it with you.

A few months ago, when a shooting happened at Dawson College in Montreal, I remember reading a similar announcement written (in bold red, I think) on the website, but it was tucked in the middle of news about upcoming events and information of all sorts. The day after a student was shot dead at Dawson, I co-presented a session at the CASE conference for senior marketing and communication professionals about crisis communication in a networked world. At that time, I mentioned to the audience how important it was to focus the homepage content on the crisis to avoid such terrible faux-pas when lives are lost.

I wish Virginia Tech Web Team didn’t have to do this kind of updates this morning, but I thought they did a commendable job in this terrible situation. That’s why I decided to share it with all of you.

All my prayers go to the families of the victims.

Related posts:

1. Special UB column on how to survive a website redesign: 5 tips from Michael L. Dame, Director of Web Communications at Virginia Tech
2. Crisis Communication with the blogosphere: lessons learned at UMR after a bomb/anthrax scare
3. Karine to speak about new media and crisis communication at the CASE Annual Conference for Senior Communications and Marketing Professionals in Philadephia, September 13-15
4. Back from the CASE Conference in Philadelphia: Web 2.0 and Crisis Communication Presentation Slides
5. The Question: a new twist on academic blogging at West Virginia University