When scandalous breaking news happens, I always find myself focused on how individuals at the center of the controversy are communicating their sides of the story. Are they following traditional crisis communications procedure? Are they going renegade on what they say and do? Or, have they gone silent?

I can see right away when a company has good planning in place, often times with the help of a high-quality PR firm.

The recent Secret Service scandal is a great case study in crisis communications related to scandalous breaking news. John Trader, a PR pro and blogger on PRBreakfastClub.com, recently analyzed several aspects of how the Secret Service handled the unfortunate situation it faced: http://goo.gl/TQCuX.

I like his step-by-step overview, looking at many of the integral parts of crisis communications, no matter the news. He gave the Secret Service an overall grade of B+, which I agree with completely.

One item John's discussion doesn't talk about is just how supportive high-ranking former Secret Service members were in talking about the culture of the organization. As CNN and other news agencies tried to push former agents to talk about a "party" culture in the Secret Service, nobody current or former associated with the organization bent. It was clear that the crisis communications procedures of the Secret Service included keeping former agents in its plan seemingly encouraging the press to interview former agents. They communicated in interviews that the agents participating in the Colombian "party scene" were simply bad seeds, and not a reflection of the agency as a whole. From most accounts, Americans and the world have bought it.

True or not about the culture of the Secret Service, the agency was swift in responding, acknowledged wrongdoing, showed empathy for the concerned, took responsibility and took action to fix the problem.

Is your company prepared to do the same? All Points Public Relations, a Chicago-based PR firm focusing primarily on working with franchise companies, is experienced in preparing and acting when unexpected or unfortunate occurrences happen within your organization.

Give us a buzz and we can talk about designing a public relations strategy that preempts a major problem, and keeps your business in good standing with your current and future customers.

The images from the sunken Costa Concordia send chills up my spine…they are flat-out frightening.

The deaths and consequences are too much to comprehend for those of us who couldn't hear and feel the tremors of a massive structure sinking into the sea.

We are left only in our own thoughts and conversations with others about the situation.

Costa Concordia itself is shaping our perspectives they've made some bold moves and statements since the horrifying accident. One thing I noticed immediately was their public relations stance placing blame directly on the captain it was "human error" they said.

And, it very well may be. For Costa Concordia, that course of blame has led to headlines blasting the captain…and he'll be in court to discuss the disaster.

I came across a well-written PR analysis of the how Costa Concordia has handled the crisis thus far from a communications stand point.

I know this is meaningless compared to the loss of life, but when company crises happen, the communications plan is critical. I've seen the impact in the travel industry as well, from my days at Hyatt Hotels. I've also worked on crises communication plans for restaurant companies, gyms and many other industries.

If crisis communications is a concern of yours, have a plan in place and put it into action when the unexpected occurs. All Points PR can help.

I agree with most when it comes to living in the now. Peace and harmony can be found if you go about life with your principles in tact while living day to day and minute to minute.

However, when it comes to crisis communications, you can't live for today, you are always living for the future, be it tomorrow, next year, or two minutes from now. Similar to other business strategies that you have to plan for, but different in so many ways because of the unknown. Crises are one of PR's great variables; you never know what may happen next.

Take a restaurant or a school food borne illness, injury, customer complaints, friction with social cause organizations, and more. The possibilities are endless.

How do you work today to plan for the unknown?

I broached this topic with a client of mine recently and we talked about many of the things we could do together to ensure that catastrophe wouldn't kill her business.

She works for a business-to-consumer company with storefronts nationwide. She was concerned about how to effectively communicate with customers, the press and the general public if ever the need would arise in a crisis situation.

We first started talking about who the spokesperson would be, the protocol for internal communication, employee reactions and press statements.

Then we turned to the cost-benefit ratio. How much would it take to effectively carryout a communications plan that covers all stakeholders and how would you quantify that with measurable results to come up with a return on the investment? All of these considerations must be taken in to account, along with the tactics to execute the crisis communications strategy.

One part of the discussion that really sticks out is when we got on to the topic of how social media plays a role in reputation management in times like this. You'd be surprised how much forethought needs to take place in order to keep concerned customers and the public at ease by using social media. And you know the public will be all over the sites if things go wrong in a major way due to a crisis.

So, lots to think about and consider for tomorrow, today. And, don't forget about the role of technology. Press conferences and press releases used to be the only way to communicate. Now, video is so instant that putting a spokesperson on every computer screen in America with just a few minutes preparation time is 100 percent viable.

All Points Public Relations has more information about our crisis communications planning on our website. We've been creating contingency plans for companies for nearly 10 years as part of our collection of comprehensive PR capabilities.