Crisis

The story of reputation management in a crisis is fairly common: a businesses finds themselves in the center of a controversy spinning out of control on the web.
The  generally begins with an executive who happily fell asleep one night, only to awake the next morning with dozens of emails in the inbox and a team anxiously awaiting a “master plan” that will save them. The executive finds themselves wasting valuable time researching facts they should have known, trying to educate themselves on basic best practices, and hesitating to take action due to a fundamental lack of understanding.

This article takes a good look at why real reputation management is not just SEO, but an integrated and holistic communication strategy that ties into multiple parts of a business. By examining questions regarding reputation management to avoid a crisis elements, a business can have a healthy and positive online footprint that grows into a strong business asset.

REMEMBER, In a crisis, the simplest actions become the most important ones.

While this exercise is written for a larger organization, all of the questions leading towards a good reputation management plan are valid regardless of whether your company has $25k or $500m in revenue.

via barryhurd.com

When mistakes are made, fight the urge to defend and minimize. Spinning and shaping a message to look “positive,” only makes a leader look weak, evasive and less than honest.

Realize that no matter how hard your organization works, mistakes will be made. Most people understand this. You won’t get points for it, but you won’t be vilified if you communicate in a straight up fashion: “We screwed up. This never should have happened. We’ve got to get this right. The stakes are too high. We apologize to the American people.”

Final advice: “Go with your gut when communicating under pressure.

Ask yourself, “If I were on the other end of this message, would it seem credible to me? Would I believe the person saying it?”

If your answer is no, you can be confident your communication strategy is on a very dangerous path.”

Steve Adubato speaks and coaches on leadership and communication. He is the author of the book, “What Were They thinking? Crisis Communication: The Good, the Bad and the Totally Clueless.”

Sometimes questions are more important than answers. In a crisis situation, you need to know the questions to ask before you have answers to questions.

This starts with the many “What ifs” that need to be asked as you develop the crisis plan or plans for your company, institution or organization. Never rush in believing you have all of the answers. You may have overlooked some important questions that need to be asked.

Fred Thompson, former managing partner of the Earle Palmer Brown public relations firm, says when you think you are in a crisis you need to ask yourself three questions:

•  “Who has the most to gain or lose in this situation?” Prioritize the issues.
• “Is there a fundamental misunderstanding?” A basic misunderstanding might be resolved by an explanation or presentation of the facts.
• “Can this be ended with an apology, admission or wrongdoing or simply saying ‘we screwed up’?” This could create conflict with the legal counsel who may want to avoid any such admission or statement of regret.

Thompson believes answers to these questions will define the strategy to best deal with a situation before it turns into a crisis.

Andrew Stern, chair of Sunwest Communications, Dallas, believes in asking a number of questions before a crisis as part of being prepared. “If a crisis is ready to happen, you don’t have time to go through steps one through four. You must be prepared in advance. The plan should have a scenario so that when a potential crisis is ready to happen, every member of the team knows instinctively what to do,” says Stern. Here are some questions he asks:

• Does the situation stand the risk of escalating in intensity?
• How intensive can it become and how quickly?
• What can we endure?
• Does it present hazards to people off-site (away from the workplace)?
• To what extent will the situation be reported by the news media?
• To what extent will the media coverage be monitored by government agencies?
• Will local news media call to inquire?
• Will there be regional, national or international coverage?
• Does the organization typically report whatever kinds of incidents occur to local, state or federal government agencies or officials?
• Are injuries or deaths involved?
• Will the crisis interfere with operations?
• Will business be conducted as usual despite the situation?
• Will people be interrupted in doing their normal duties?
• Will work come to a halt?
• Will outside organizations be affected?
• Will this crisis affect the reputation and good image the company has with customers and the public?
• Will it affect the confidence people have in the institution?
• Will sales or products or services be impacted?
• Did the crisis happen because of anything the company did? Or did it just happen?
• Is the company the victim of external forces and events beyond its control?
• What extent could the company be injured financially? Politically? Sales and profits?”

Start making a list of questions you need to ask.

Note: Rene A. Henry is vice president-public relations for Innovative Communication Corporation, a privately owned telecom and media company with operations throughout the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Belize, France, Sint Maarten, Saint-Martin, Guadeloupe and Martinique. He also is the author of six books including “You’d Better Have A Hose If You Want To Put Out the Fire – the complete guide to crisis and risk communications,” “Marketing Public Relations – the hows that make it work!” and “Offsides! – Fred Wyant’s provocative look inside the National Football League.”

by Rene A. Henry, Fellow PRSA, © 2001

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All businesses are vulnerable to crises. You can’t serve any population without being subjected to situations involving lawsuits, accusations of impropriety, sudden changes in company ownership or management, and other volatile situations on which your audiences — and the media that serves them — often focus.

The cheapest way to turn experience into future profits is to learn from others’ mistakes. With that in mind, I hope that the following examples of inappropriate crisis communications policies, culled from real-life situations, will provide a tongue-in-cheek guide about what NOT to do when your organization is faced with a crisis.

To ensure that your crisis will flourish and grow, you should:

Play ostrich

Hope that no one learns about it. Cater to whoever is advising you to say nothing, do nothing.

Assume you’ll have time to react when and if necessary, with little or no preparation time. And while you’re playing ostrich, with your head buried firmly in the sand, don’t think about the part that’s still hanging out.

Only start to work on a potential crisis situation after it’s public!

This is closely related to item 1, of course. Even if you have decided you won’t play ostrich, you can still foster your developing crisis by deciding not to do any advance preparation.

Before the situation becomes public, you still have some proactive options available. You could, for example, thrash out and even test some planned key messages, but that would probably mean that you will communicate promptly and credibly when the crisis breaks publicly, and you don’t want to do that, do you?

So, in order to allow your crisis to gain a strong foothold in the public’s mind, make sure you address all issues from a defensive posture — something much easier to do when you don’t plan ahead. Shoot from the hip, and give off the cuff, unrehearsed remarks.

Let your reputation speak for you

“Doesn’t anybody know how important we think we are?” you complain. You: big business Goliath. Me: member of public who doesn’t trust big business. You lose.

Trust the media like the enemy

By all means, tell a reporter that you think he/she has done such a bad job of reporting on you that you’ll never talk to him/her again. Or badmouth him/her in a public forum. Send nasty faxes. Then sit back and have a good time while:

• The reporter gets angry and directs that energy into REALLY going after your organization.

• The reporter laughs at what he/she sees as validation that you’re really up to no good in some way.

Get stuck in reaction mode, rather than get proactive

A negative story suddenly breaks about your organization, quoting various sources. You respond with a statement. There’s a follow-up story. You make another statement.

Suddenly you have a public debate, a lose/lose situation. Good work! Instead of looking at methods that could turn the situation into one where you initiate activity that precipitates news coverage, putting you in the driver’s seat and letting others react to what you say, you continue to look as if you’re the guilty party defending yourself.

Use language your audience doesn’t understand

Jargon and arcane acronyms are but two of the ways you can be sure to confuse your audiences, a surefire way to make most crises worse. Let’s check out a few of these taken-from-real-situations gems:

“The rate went up 10 basis points.”

“We’re considering development of a SNFF or a CCRC.”

“We ask that you submit exculpatory evidence to the grand jury.”

“The material has less than 0.65 ppm benzene as measured by the TCLP.”

To the average member of the public, and to most of the media who serve them other than specialists in a particular subject, the general reaction to such statements is “HUH?”

Assume that truth will triumph over all

You have the facts on your side, by golly, and you know the American public will eventually come around and realize that. Disregard the proven concept that perception is as damaging as reality — sometimes more so.

Address only issues and ignore feelings

“The green goo which spilled on our property is absolutely harmless to humans.”

“Our development plans are all in accordance with appropriate regulations.”

“The lawsuit is totally without merit.”

So what if people are scared? Angry? You’re a businessman, not a psychologist — right?

Make only written statements

Face it, it’s a lot easier to communicate via written statements only. No fear of looking or sounding foolish. Less chance of being misquoted. Sure, it’s impersonal and some people think it means you’re hiding and afraid, but you know they’re wrong and that’s what’s important.

Use ‘best guess’ methods of assessing damage

“Oh my God, we’re the front page (negative) story, we’re ruined!”

Congratulations — you may have just made a mountain out of a molehill….OK, maybe you only made a small building out of a molehill. Helpful hint: you can make the situation worse by refusing to spend a little time or money quietly surveying your most important audiences to see what THEY think and if it matches the perception created by the media.

Do the same thing over and over again, expecting different results!

The last time you had negative news coverage you just ignored media calls, perhaps at the advice of legal counsel or simply because you felt that no matter what you said, the media would get it wrong. The result was a lot of concern amongst all of your audiences, internal and external, and the aftermath took quite a while to fade away.

So, the next time you have a crisis, you’re going to do the same thing, right? Because “stuff happens” and you can’t improve the situation by attempting to improve communications — can you?

© Jonathan Bernstein. All Rights Reserved.

Veteran crisis management professional Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Communications, Inc. and publisher of Crisis Manager, an award-winning free email newsletter written for “those who are crisis managers whether they want to be or not.”

Jonathan has also written several important manuals and reports. For more information visit TheCrisisManager.

Jonathan L. Bernstein, Bernstein Crisis Management

Richard Rawlinson, Ashley Harshak and David Suarez from Booz & Company have written a good article with some tips and results from a recent survey that their organization has done on change. No question, boards and senior management have really focused on change management so much more and given it the proper attention it deserves with regards to corporate strategy.

You can check it out here.

They also produced another article that might be of interest: “Change Management Graduates to the Boardroom: From Afterthought to Prerequisite” (PDF), Booz & Company white paper, June 2008: Results of the Booz & Company survey on change management (mentioned in this article) of 350 senior executives who have led major transformation initiatives at large organizations worldwide.

At the Blog Business Summit this week my blogging Yoda’s Robert Scoble, Buzz Bruggeman and Anil Dash tackled the thorny topic of crisis communications. They emphasized how blogging can help when things get bad by projecting a human face or voice for an organization and by providing a forum for soliciting specific feedback from customers. In the immortal words of the Hulkster, “Amen brother.”

Read full article on Steve Rubel’s Micro Persuasion blog.

The Levick Strategic Communications desktop reference instantly assists C-Suites, boards, and counsel during the first moments of a crisis. It discusses what happens next after a crisis first occurs, the ongoing communications risks involved, and the steps to take to minimize and, in some cases, transform the crisis into opportunity.

The Crisis Communications Desktop Reference is fully searchable and downloadable, rich in best practices and tips for two-dozen diverse crisis and litigation challenges, from bet-the-company lawsuits to wholesale blog assaults on corporate reputations.

The Desktop Reference is available for download on the Levick website: http://www.levick.com/crisis_communications_desktop_reference/

1. Make a list of critical vs. non-critical activities. As in, which ones will impact my customers and the current or future survival of my business?  Then, focus only on those essential activities. Eliminate, delegate, or postpone everything else.For me, that meant I cancelled a bunch of non-essential social, community and volunteer activities. This is a great way to find out what you’re really, truly passionate and energized about. I found I easily ditched my boring Dreamweaver course but nothing was going to get between me and my djembe drumming class (great therapy!).
2. Figure out what you can reasonably do and what you can’t, with the understanding that you need to get some rest and take extra care of yourself during a stressful time. I had over a thousand emails/alerts in my inbox, most of them to satisfy my endless cravings for information. Without mercy, I deleted everything that didn’t require action.
3. Set expectations up front.  For me, clients consistently identify reliability as one of my core brand attributes. While waiting for hours in the hospital, I sent each of my key clients (and suppliers) a personalized but brief note. I let them know I had a family situation and that I expected to meet my deadlines, but there was a small chance I may need a bit of extra time. All thanked me for letting them know. Turns out I met every deadline.
4. Be authentic (but not needy). Many of my client and peer relationships have turned into valued friendships. People in my network genuinely wanted to know how I was doing.  Although it would’ve been easy, I refrained from giving them an aloof, conversation-closing “everything’s fine.” I showed them the real me and shared what I truly felt – fear, hope, exhaustion, gratitude, imperfection.  In less than 30 words (they want to know you’re OK, but enough already).
5. Ask for help from your support system. It doesn’t need to be big. It doesn’t need to be lasagne. Despite my fierce need for independence, I asked my mastermind group, my friends and some of my close clients to send their positive, healing thoughts, if they were so inclined. They were grateful to feel like they could help. I was grateful to feel supported.  Strangely, it made us all a little closer.

“2010 was remarkable for its series of public gaffes made by CEOs and other leaders that shattered organizations, share price, job tenure, coastlines, and even religious tolerance,” says reputation, crisis, and marketing advisor Davia Temin, CEO of Temin and Company. “In 2011, we can learn from their mistakes in order to protect our own reputations.”

“Of course,” she adds, “one way to never need to protect your reputation is to live a totally invisible and blameless life – but most leaders who wish to accomplish something significant are visible, and do make mistakes. So, culled from 25 years working in the field of reputation and crisis management at the highest levels, and seeing almost every gaffe imaginable, here are my top 10 ways for leaders to protect their reputations – and their legacies – in 2011.”

1. There is no such thing as privacy anymore. Act as if your every action, every email, every conversation will be observed and judged. From WikiLeaks posting tens of thousands of confidential diplomatic wires to Fabrice Tourre’s midnight emails; from Mark Hurd’s exaggerated expense accounts at HP and Tony Hayward’s exhausted plea that he wanted “his life back” to video cameras positioned on every corner and private acts caught and posted on YouTube, almost everything is discoverable today. So, begin to factor this into your every communication and action. Remember, it might all come back to haunt you, and what you have said or done might not be interpreted generously by your critics!
2. If you do err, apologize. People’s anger is fueled when an organization, or an individual, minimizes or refuses to acknowledge a mistake. In fact, research has found the corollary is true as well: a heartfelt admission of a mistake can make the public look on you more kindly. Doctors are now told that their chances of being sued over medical errors are far reduced if they “‘fess up,” and apologize to their patients or their patients’ families, instead of stonewalling. One must know how to do this correctly, however. A misstep can be worse than no comment at all.
3. But, do not let a lie stand, if you can help it. In today’s 25/8 communications world, misconceptions travel and multiply at the speed of electrons, especially if they are fueled by competitors or enemies. In fact, more often than not, the truth means little when pitted against conventional wisdom or whipped up misperception. So, monitor what is being said about you and your organization in real time. And, if lies or misconceptions surface, fight back strategically with the truth whenever you can. Set the record straight tirelessly in person, in print, broadcast, and on the web, if you feel you are being maligned or misinterpreted. This is tough to do, but you can use the world of social media to help you rebut falsehoods, as long as you do this wisely.
4. That said, you need to know when to be silent, and how to control your impulsive reactions. When you are under scurrilous, personal, “ad hominem” attacks – baseless and full of lies – it can make you crazy. But do not give in to the temptation to lash back publicly right away, or shoot from the hip. It is better to be quiet and deliberate first. Sometimes you cannot defend against the indefensible, and to protest only makes you look guilty. There are times when it is best to go radio silent until an irrational storm dies down. Then, plan your strategy for a comeback.
5. When you do respond, make sure to get your messaging pitch perfect, and then stick to it…over and over and over again. Don’t be provoked into saying too much, or going off message – in certain climates that is bound to be misinterpreted. Truthfulness and transparency are crucial, but rambling, pointless, “ready, fire, aim” comments or reactions can be dangerous.

Following are seven steps that provide guidance on mitigating existing risks–including reputation risks, risks of using social media for candidate screening and employee termination, the risk of virus attacks, and the risk of employees making company information public.

Mitigating the risks
None of the myriad risks associated with social media use can be eliminated completely. But taking a thoughtful and structured approach to understanding and assessing the risks and then developing and implementing a comprehensive plan will reduce a bank’s susceptibility. To deploy an effective social media risk management strategy, we recommend banks take the following actions.

 

1. Engage a multidisciplinary team. Social media is not just an IT or marketing problem.Since social media activity affects a wide range of functions, an effective strategy brings together senior representatives from Human Resources, Legal, Information Technology, Marketing, Risk Management, Public Relations, Compliance, and any other affected functions.Assigning a project or program manager will help to track and maintain the team’s progress.

2. Document current and intended social media use. The multidisciplinary team’s first order of business should be to document how each department currently uses social media and how it intends to use it in the future.It’s up to the multidisciplinary team to use the bank’s overall strategy as a guide to determine which types of social media use align with organizational objectives. The team then establishes how the bank–including its employees, recruiters, marketers, and IT department–will use and be affected by social media. Having multiple people involved in making these decisions can present a challenge, but having one person responsible for the execution of the social media strategy–and having the support of senior management–will move this process along more quickly.

3. Perform a risk assessment. Before the multidisciplinary team can even consider safeguards and controls, it must identify and quantify the various risks associated with social media use.This risk assessment takes into account the likelihood and potential damage resulting from occurrences such as employee defamation of the bank, its products, or its leadership–as well as any other risks to which social media use exposes a bank. The risk assessment also involves identifying the controls that are already in place, which could be mitigating a portion of the risk. To help prioritize the most significant risks, a bank can determine the sufficiency of these controls and work them into an overall residual risk rating.

Crisis management requires more than an apologetic press release or a CEO’s disingenuous appearance on CNN.

News goes viral in a flash. Companies must be ready to respond to disasters swiftly and decisively, using all platforms to communicate with the public.

Most importantly, companies that make mistakes must sincerely accept responsibility for their actions — not distance themselves from them.

There’s no cure-all method to remedy company crises, but there are lessons to be learned from past successes. Here are examples of nine companies that saved themselves — and their precious brands — in the most dire of situations.

One of the most overlooked disciplines in any Integrated Marketing Communications plan is crisis. Without a crisis management and communications plan all of the other elements of IMC can become meaningless. When a crisis strikes, the most comprehensive programs in advertising, public relations, marketing and sales promotion can become useless. A crisis can strike anytime, anyplace and anywhere, and generally when least expected.

Unfortunately, many companies and organizations are just not prepared to immediately respond. The longer the delay, the more the incident becomes a crisis and the more the crisis exacerbates. You would think after so many classic crises that every company would have a crisis plan as a management priority. So many provide an excellent historical reference B Exxon Valdez, Bhopal, Three Mile Island, Tylenol, “Mad Cow” disease and Firestone/Bridgestone-Ford are among scores of crises from which any manager can learn..

Even 9/11 did not get the attention of some executives. Some 200 CEOs surveyed by the public relations firm of Burson-Marsteller and PR Week magazine after the terrorist attack said that their existing crisis plans were inadequate. However, two months later, only 63 percent of these CEOs had readdressed their existing plans. How vulnerable are the other 37 percent? And why no action?

A major problem today is that too many CEOs are in denial. They believe they are indestructible and don=t need a crisis plan B that is until they have a crisis. For many senior executives, a crisis management and communications plan could be considered job insurance. Any CEO who believes he or she is immune to a crisis is most vulnerable. If a company or organization cannot protect its image and reputation, it soon will no longer be in business.

The most catastrophic of crises happens when people die after using a company=s product. One company that didn’t make it was Bon Vivant, a producer of high quality, gourmet soups. People died after eating Bon Vivant soup. The company had no response plan and soon went out of business. Johnson & Johnson faced a similar crisis when people died from sabotaged Tylenol. However, the company responded immediately using all of its IMC techniques and rebuilt consumer trust.

Pepsi responded within hours after a customer charged that he found a syringe in a can of the soft drink. Within hours, the company sent video news releases to network, local and cable television stations showing the manufacturing process and graphically refuting how such an incident would be impossible.

The Hong Kong Tourist Promotion Bureau certainly was not prepared when it launched its campaign slogan “Hong Kong B it will take your breath away” only to have an outbreak of SARS just days later.

The objective of crisis communications is to contain and resolve the problem as quickly as possible. You want immediate closure, not continuing media dialog. A comprehensive crisis management and communications plan must be a part of IMC. Representatives from each of the IMC disciplines need to be part of an organization=s crisis team. Other members of the team should include the CEO or his representative, the general counsel and heads of human resources and security.

When preparing the plan, the team needs to anticipate every possible crisis and then develop a communications plan for each. The plan should spell out who says what and when so you can prepare to respond immediately. It will include details regarding the organization=s use of all of its logistical, personnel and financial resources.

Some companies even draft generic news releases for anticipated crises so there is no delay in responding. Everything can be signed off by legal and management before there is a crisis. When a crisis strikes, saying “no comment” or stonewalling a response is only raising a red flag for the media and general public. It furthers distrust when management needs to build trust. Forty percent of the public believes a company already is hiding something or is guilty and this jumps to 60 percent when litigation is involved. Always tell the truth and correct misinformation and incorrect statements. Where victims are involved it is important to show compassion, sympathy and remorse for the victims and their families. It is not against the law to do so and this is often where the public relations counsel conflicts with the attorneys.

The plan will detail methods for internal and external communication. It will describe the location and alternates for the communications command post. The document must be a living document and changed and updated on a periodic basis. The crisis team should meet at least semi-annually, if not more often.

In addition to “what if?” crisis situations specific to any organization or company and its line of products and services, there are five generic situations plans must address:

1. Violence in the workplace. This is the leading cause of death in the workplace and where one of six violent crimes is committed. Even the best of plans cannot prevent this from happening.

2. Sexual harassment and discrimination. Regardless how hard an organization tries, how many seminars and education classes there are, you cannot prevent crises in this area. It is always embarrassing to the leadership when it happens.

3. Terrorism. This was a problem before 9/11 and not all terrorism is of the Taliban or Al-Quada type. There are extreme, radical environmental groups that have set fire to new model homes in housing developments hoping to prevent growth. Radical animal rights groups have destroyed research laboratories.

4. Acts of Mother Nature. Here many companies may have a logistics plan in place for problems created by weather, but is there a communications plan? Violent weather is creating serious problems all over the U.S.

5. Environmental pollution. Do you want to be called a polluter? Or how can you justify the penalty and fine to shareholders and customers?

I have always recommended that my clients be proactive, aggressive and out in front on all issues. This is the only way to control the message and say what you want heard. As soon as the crisis is over, the crisis team should meet, review the plan and make necessary updates. Always be prepared, because the same crisis can happen again.

Rene A. Henry is a consultant and author of six books including Marketing Public Relations B the hows that make it work! and one of the best-selling books on crisis management and communications, You=d Better Have A Hose If You Want to Put Out the Fire.

This opinion piece by Rene A. Henry was originally written for and published in the Summer 2003 issue of IMC Comminique, a publication of The Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia University.

Here are five points to help you develop a flexible crisis management plan because, without the ability to quickly mobilize the appropriate staff and other resources, the crisis can easily escalate beyond the level necessary. Here are my recommendations:

1. Have listening and/or social media monitoring tools in place. These analytical instruments can provide critical information regarding how prospects, customers and the general public are reacting to and talking about your brands and/or company. It’s important to pay attention when the tone and content of the conversation changes. Scott recommends incorporating company data analysis that monitors the combination of social media activity with real time news and website and other company related volumes.
2. Need to have the appropriate personnel plugged in across your organization. This group must work together as a team both internally and externally. This includes senior executives and their assistants, human resources, legal, marketing, customer services, PR or marketing communications, technology, website support, investor relations (if your firm is publically traded) and customer facing jobs like retail and sales. There must be a list of electronic as well as voice contact information, including off hours contact numbers.
3. Create a process to enable people, especially senior management and PR, to react quickly regardless of the day and time since crises can happen on holidays or weekends. Further, there should be an understanding of how decisions will be made and whose approval is needed.

Sometimes questions are more important than answers. In a crisis situation, you need to know the questions to ask before you have answers to questions.

This starts with the many “What ifs” that need to be asked as you develop the crisis plan or plans for your company, institution or organization. Never rush in believing you have all of the answers. You may have overlooked some important questions that need to be asked.

Fred Thompson, former managing partner of the Earle Palmer Brown public relations firm, says when you think you are in a crisis you need to ask yourself three questions:

•  “Who has the most to gain or lose in this situation?” Prioritize the issues.
• “Is there a fundamental misunderstanding?” A basic misunderstanding might be resolved by an explanation or presentation of the facts.
• “Can this be ended with an apology, admission or wrongdoing or simply saying ‘we screwed up’?” This could create conflict with the legal counsel who may want to avoid any such admission or statement of regret.

Thompson believes answers to these questions will define the strategy to best deal with a situation before it turns into a crisis.

Andrew Stern, chair of Sunwest Communications, Dallas, believes in asking a number of questions before a crisis as part of being prepared. “If a crisis is ready to happen, you don’t have time to go through steps one through four. You must be prepared in advance. The plan should have a scenario so that when a potential crisis is ready to happen, every member of the team knows instinctively what to do,” says Stern. Here are some questions he asks:

• Does the situation stand the risk of escalating in intensity?
• How intensive can it become and how quickly?
• What can we endure?
• Does it present hazards to people off-site (away from the workplace)?
• To what extent will the situation be reported by the news media?
• To what extent will the media coverage be monitored by government agencies?
• Will local news media call to inquire?
• Will there be regional, national or international coverage?
• Does the organization typically report whatever kinds of incidents occur to local, state or federal government agencies or officials?
• Are injuries or deaths involved?
• Will the crisis interfere with operations?
• Will business be conducted as usual despite the situation?
• Will people be interrupted in doing their normal duties?
• Will work come to a halt?
• Will outside organizations be affected?
• Will this crisis affect the reputation and good image the company has with customers and the public?
• Will it affect the confidence people have in the institution?
• Will sales or products or services be impacted?
• Did the crisis happen because of anything the company did? Or did it just happen?
• Is the company the victim of external forces and events beyond its control?
• What extent could the company be injured financially? Politically? Sales and profits?”

Start making a list of questions you need to ask.

Note: Rene A. Henry is vice president-public relations for Innovative Communication Corporation, a privately owned telecom and media company with operations throughout the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Belize, France, Sint Maarten, Saint-Martin, Guadeloupe and Martinique. He also is the author of six books including “You’d Better Have A Hose If You Want To Put Out the Fire – the complete guide to crisis and risk communications,” “Marketing Public Relations – the hows that make it work!” and “Offsides! – Fred Wyant’s provocative look inside the National Football League.”

“In preparing for battle, I have always
found that plans are useless, but
planning is indispensable.”

– Dwight David Eisenhower

President Eisenhower could well have uttered the same quote about Crisis Communications.  Developing a crisis communications plan is more about planning to mobilize for a potential crisis, than it is about writing step-by-step actions for specific pre-ordained scenarios.  And this is what causes so many management teams to be confused about exactly what the components of a good crisis communication plan actually are.  Here are five “Crisis Plan Essentials” to consider in order to get your team ready to communicate in a crisis.

1)      Identify the Crisis Team

It’s important that the right people from the appropriate functional areas of the organization are ready to respond at a moment’s notice to a crisis and understand their responsibilities as members of the team.  Along with the CEO and CFO, the team should include key people from public relations, corporate communications, investor relations, human resources, public affairs, sales and marketing. Make sure that at least two members of the crisis team have been media trained.  A major crisis is no time to get your feet wet in media relations.

2)      Constantly Assess Your Primary Risks

Forward-thinking companies take a strategic approach to crisis communications by continuously assessing the risks associated with their businesses.  The key to this effort is to establish a risk-aware culture and a process whereby employees can funnel their ideas about potential risks through management to an appointed member of the crisis communications team. For each risk, the team should assign responsibility for continuous monitoring and assessment, taking actions to mitigate risk when possible.

Think of several crises that may befall your organization: a leaked YouTube video of an off the cuff comment made by your CEO, a racist comment made by a member of your staff to a client or customer, a product defect that injured or poisoned a consumer, or an ill advised post that went viral (see KitchenAid post). In any of these cases the response would be different based on the specific issue, the seriousness of the claim, or the staff members involved.

Here are 10 tips to help you through an online crisis when time counts and coordination of your message is key:

Smooth Approval Process

In a social media crisis you must have a smooth approval process for posting information. Depending on the structure of your organization you may have a multi-tiered process. Organizations with multiple locations and duplicate sub-departments may either choose to empower local staff members to make final decisions or await a strategy from headquarters. A lengthy system of checks and balances may make you feel safe however the minutes that turn to hours reviewing a single post can make your organization appear confused or in the midst of a cover up.

Raise a Flag

At the first hint of an online issue the designated crisis coordinator should be alerted. This staff member will then decide the severity of the issue and alert key staff members if need be. Be sure to cast a wide net to those who interact with the media or may encounter questions regarding this news. You never want your senior management to be caught unaware. I am frequently the crisis coordinator, since I oversee internal and external communications, allowing my organizations to feel comfortable with a process centralized by a trained spokesperson that underwent crisis training.

The Manual

To prevent an internal crisis within your process you need to have a manual dictating various scenarios. Who do you contact if the crisis coordinator was “hit by a bus”? What happens if the CEO is unavailable for a statement? How does your call center coordinate responses with your social media team? These inevitable questions need to be considered and planned for as far in advance as possible.

Move Quickly

Once a crisis coordinator has been alerted he or she can ensure that all key members of your staff as well as outside consultants are aware of the situation and begin to formulate a strategy and response. As a crisis coordinator I frequently use email only for consensus data at this point and begin having office discussions or call a quick meeting/teleconference. This helps the process move quickly and keeps everyone in the loop.

Strategy

The staff member who originally raised the issue may be eager to post a response. In some cases you may decide that a response is necessary to let the public know that you are aware of the issue and to thank all involved for bringing it to your attention. In other cases you may wish to wait until you know a few more facts and post a response. In my experience I have found that an initial response thanking the poster works well. If you wait too long before your first post you may appear uncaring or out of touch.