A few months ago in early February, a Congressman attended a meeting of the House Ways and Means Committee. At a little after 2PM, he cast a vote on an issue before the committee. Just shy of a half hour later, the Web site Gawker posted a shirtless photograph of the married Congressman that was itself posted to Craig’s List in correspondence with a woman who had placed an ad under the category of “Women Seeking Men”. In response to inquiries, there was a statement that it was believed that the Congressman’s account had been hacked. At a little after 2:30, I saw the story posted on Facebook. By 3:30, approached by media about the matter the Congressman was quoted as saying that he needed to speak with his wife. By 5 PM, just less than three hours after casting his last vote and only 2 and a half hours after the story appeared on the Internet, the Congressman was no longer a Congressman. In a breathtaking span of less than three hours, a crisis unfolded on the Internet and consumed a Congressional career in the speed of its path. In short, crisis communications is not the crisis communications of your father – not even of your older brother. In only 5 years, social media has changed crisis communications entirely.
The Case of the Shirtless Congressman is dramatic. Many crises are less so, but they do not necessarily have to be. In fact, under the circumstances, there is perhaps little that could have been done to mitigate the damage from this virtual tsunami. This one just represents how much things of changed. But it also says something about the need for involvement.
All of the meat processing companies have been slow to grapple with the growing pink-slime hullabaloo, even though there doesn’t seem to be much evidence that their products are particularly unhealthy, said Bill Marler, a Seattle lawyer who specializes in food safety and food poisoning cases.”My only complaint about this product is I think they could have been more up-front with the public,” Marler said. “When companies are not open about what their product is and what it contains, positive and negative, people get concerned and assume the worst.”
The meat industry failed itself by not staying abreast of social media and online forums for signs of trouble, said Jonathan Bernstein of Bernstein Crisis Management in Sierra Madre.
“They lost control of the message,” he said. “Perception is everything. If enough people perceive that something is wrong, it’s wrong. Reassurances that something’s safe from groups that are now distrusted are useless at this point.”
It’s that time of year when us pundits make bold predictions about upcoming trends in 2011. I had considered putting on my Nostradamus cap and making some reputation management predictions, but then I discovered my fellow reputationista Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross had already staked-out that turf!
Oh well, I’ve never been one for predictions, anyway. So, how about some certainties instead? Some solid, often unwritten, rules of reputation management that will pervade 2011–and beyond?
OK, here goes!
Law #1 – Everyone has an online reputation
We all have an online reputation to maintain. Don’t believe me, go ahead and “Google Yourself”–I promise you won’t go blind! Even if you don’t find anything written about you, then that’s still your reputation–or lack thereof. In 2011, you should make sure that what’s found in Google, Facebook, Twitter et al is something you’d be equally comfortable showing your mom or your boss!
Law #2 – Your reputation is an extension of your character
It doesn’t matter how hard you work on managing your reputation, it will only ever be as solid as your actual character. Tiger Woods had a reputation of being the greatest golfer–and a family man. His character revealed otherwise. As Abraham Lincoln once said,
“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
Law #3 – Every reputation has an achilles heel
While Toyota may have spent years telling us that its cars are the most reliable in the world, sticking gas pedals told a different story. In fact, even though Toyota tried to deny the increasing incidents of sticking accelerators, its customers were the ones steering the car manufacturer’s reputation in another direction. Instead of denying the issue, Toyota should have been the first to recognize it! When you recognize and acknowledge your weaknesses, before your customers, you have the opportunity to craft a response before the public outcry. Do you know your reputation’s weakness?
Law #4 – Listen twice, act once
OK, so I’ve plagiarized this from the saying “measure twice, cut once,” but it’s appropriate, when it comes to listening to your customers. I tell our customers at Trackur that they should spend twice as much effort on listening as they do responding. It’s too easy to simply jump in and reply to that tweet or Facebook post–without fixing the underlying problem. Instead, you should spend time actively listening to the feedback you’re collecting about your reputation. Listen for trends. Listen for opportunities. Listen, listen, listen–ok, that was three listens, but you get my point. When you actually take onboard what your stakeholders are saying about your reputation, you do more than just fix a problem, you make sure you fix the underlying issue that created the problem in the first place! GAP’s customers weren’t so much angry that the company’s logo was changed, they were mad that the company hadn’t initially thought to listen to their feedback–a decision the apparel company quickly reversed!
With the end of 2011 almost upon us, it’s an opportune time to look back at the worst PR moves of the year. There were many mishandling of crisis PR situations this year – reputations were trashed, careers and brands forever changed amidst a slew of PR blunders.
As Warren Buffett has said “It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
The worst handling of a crisis PR situation:
Herman Cain: With Herman Cain dropping out of the race this weekend, we saw a complete disintegration of all of the basic rules surrounding crisis PR. Cain never addressed the various sexual allegations in a clear manner, rather, he dodged reporters, cameras and questions.
Cain believed that the issue would go away and the media would stop asking questions merely because he asked them not to. He never told the story, nor did he get out in front of the story and tell the truth. But the story never went away – and his initial reaction to these allegations was that of a “deer in headlights.” Cain looked lost and confused – and now is a lost and confused private citizen rather than a frontrunner candidate for President of the USA.
Anthony Weiner: Another political scandal takes the cake, that of disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner – once regarded as the leading candidate for Mayor of NYC — Weiner’s reputation was tarnished due to a sexting scandal. Had Weiner told the truth from Day 1, the story may have been limited and not exploded — his wife stood by him, he didn’t break any laws and his issue may have passed. Instead, the formerly brash, outspoken Weiner appeared broken before our eyes in the media. Broken for lying and dumb activities.
Penn State: For evil to succeed, good people stand on the side and allow evil to happen. At Penn State, a blind eye to child molestation went on for years. Watching the reaction of the university leadership and community one saw warped values at Penn State which I believe will harm the brand for many years to come. “WE ARE PENN STATE” has long been the university slogan – that slogan has now been changed to “Don’t ask, Don’t Tell” as it relates to the (at least) 8 children who were raped and molested by Jerry Sandusky, the assistant football coach at Penn State.
In the eyes of many, the crisis was compounded by student reaction at Penn State – as they rioted in support of head coach Joe Paterno after he was fired. They flipped over trucks, brought down light posts, set off firecrackers and clashed with police amidst chants of “Hell no, JoePa won’t go!” and “We are Penn State!” They make it quite clear he’s a winner on the football field and don’t care that he never called the police – and Sandusky visited his locker room very regularly.
For years companies have sought to place their products on primetime television programs and in feature films. A few seconds of exposure on a popular drama or comedy series can be worth as much as $500,000 based on the cost of a 30-second commercial..
When actors drink Fiji Water on Friends, Will & Grace, Touched By An Angel and other programs, it was through product placement. There are two competitive publishers of legal books whose products have appeared on Ally McBeal, JAG, Philly, The Practice and other series. Ford and Coca-Cola are even producing their own programs to insure exposure for their products.
Ford Motor Company products were placed by Showcase International in 26 of the top 27 shows that use cars, according to Richard Briggs, Showcase senior managing director. The firm also placinged T-Birds and Mustangs in Spiderman. “We believe that thoughtful and seamless placement is appropriate for our client, otherwise the entertainment content begins to look like a commercial which can lead to viewer dissatisfaction and a potential turnoff to the brand,” says Briggs.
The degree of exposure varies by network. Each has its own regulations. The FCC’s standards and practices do not allow cash transactions for product placement because it would be considered paid advertising. Companies provide the products free in exchange for a few seconds of exposure.
Now issues-oriented organizations involved with the environment, abortion, healthcare, foreign or domestic policy and other sensitive and controversial issues should be looking to Hollywood. Primetime drama and comedy programs have become a new editorial forum where the producers, directors, writers and actors advocate their own issues.
Screenwriters are taking current events and issues and quickly dramatizing them into West Wing, JAG, Law & Order, The Practice, The Agency, First Monday and other popular television series. Jay Leno even took a Katie Couric interview on The Today Show and edited it so he became the interviewer. The result was an altogether new version of what the person being interviewed actually said or meant.
Because of this, it is becoming more difficult for the viewer to separate fact from fiction and remember whether the information came from the evening news, a TV magazine show or primetime entertainment.
In fact, more people may be watching primetime series than the evening news. According to Hank Rieger, former president of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, viewers of the evening news and magazine shows range from an average of 11 to 16 million depending on the network. However, more than 17 million people average watching West Wing and Law & Order.
A West Wing storyline on global warming mirrored the Clinton-Gore environmental policy. Another episode touted the Clean Air Act and it impacts asthma, breathing and lung diseases. Yet, The Practice attacked EPA in one program for not protecting children from arsenic leeching from wood playground equipment.
One of the first episodes of First Monday about the Supreme Court dealt with the pro-life, pro-choice, Roe v. Wade controversy. Future programs will feature more sensitive subjects..
If questioned, would a viewer be more apt to recall the controversy regarding U.S. military policy on female dress requirements in Saudi Arabia according to how it was reported on the news or magazine programs that featured Lt. Col. Martha McSally, or how the issue was dramatized on JAG?
Congressman Gary Condit’s wife, Carolyn, demanded an apology from the producers of Law & Order following an episode about a politician and a missing aide. The producers said the show was fictional. She lost, as did her husband in his re-election bid.
The military armed forces have long recognized the influence of television and staffed offices in the Los Angeles area to work with Hollywood to get the best possible exposure for their branch.
Knowing the power of television, following 9/11 White House Advisor Mark McKinnon met with industry leaders and asked them to reflect in storylines President Bush’s message of reassuring children and promoting tolerance.
Feature films such as A Civil Action and Erin Brockovitch have a life long after running in theaters B in primetime, pay-for-view and a multitude of cable television channels. Overload, the only Arthur Hailey novel not made into a feature film or mini-series, condemned a fictional public utility. Using a controlled media production company as a front, a public utility acquired the rights to Overload and promptly shelved it.
Just as important as getting a product hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of exposure, organizations with critical issues must build Hollywood relationships for their special interests. What’s next? Stories on religious misdeeds, airport security, oil drilling in Alaska, or price fixing at Sotheby’s? Or stories similar to Enron and Arthur Andersen?
Rene A. Henry, Fellow PRSA, is an author, consultant and member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He has judged the Primetime Emmy Awards a dozen times.
A voice on the telephone is often the first impression a future customer, potential client or stakeholder has of a company or organization. The tone, pleasantness and politeness of the individuals in their telephone communications are responsible for the image the company projects to the public.
No company wants the reputation of being arrogant, rude or uncaring, yet many do because of the way employees handle telephone calls. But how many CEOs ever assess the way calls are handled in their organizations? Some organizations even block public access by not listing telephone, fax or e-mail addresses on the letterhead of some corporate executives. This practice only exacerbates problems and speaks volumes about the company’s attitude.
John B. DeFrancesco, co-founder of DeFrancesco-Goodfriend Associates, Chicago, which is now a part of L. C. Williams & Associates, believes business telephone etiquette is an important and often overlooked marketing public relations tool. He asks: “Are your employees guilty of ignoring courteous telephone procedure? If so, you could be losing valuable business. Most executives know the importance of making a good first impression. Poor telephone manners can result in prospects or disgruntled customers going somewhere else when they are treated rudely on the phone.”
In a poll conducted by his firm several years ago, 40 percent of business executives are either “usually dissatisfied” or “sometimes dissatisfied” with the way their calls are handled by a receptionist or secretary. Less than half were “usually satisfied” and only 16 percent “sometimes satisfied.” DeFrancesco cites the following as a short list of major offenses cited by survey participants:
- *Placed on hold too long” is by far the most exasperating phone discourtesy, noted by 76 percent.
- Unreturned phone calls, 59 percent.
- Screening of calls, 36 percent.
- General lack of courtesy, 22 percent.
- Asking ‘who is calling,’ 22 percent.
- Background music while on hold, 18 percent.”
According to Advantage Media, Inc. of Chatsworth, California, telephone courtesy does make a difference. “When callers are treated courteously, they normally respond by treating you more pleasantly and with greater respect,” says Advantage Media. “Courtesy even helps irate or angry callers become more reasonable. … Telephone courtesy not only smoothes your relationship with callers, it also helps you become the best you can be as a professional member of your organization’s team.”
Good telephone etiquette can be taken right to the bottom line. Dr. Robert Walker, vice president of development for Texas A&M University, will not allow any of his calls to be screened and he promptly returns all calls. He also is a good listener and was well-rewarded one day by a woman asking a number of questions during a 30-minute conversation. At the end, the woman asked him to call her attorney to make arrangements for a gift of $15 million she wanted to give the university. Her first choice was another university. However, she could never get past the gate guardians to speak with anyone in authority. Even though she had no direct contacts or past experience with the university, after hanging up from her first choice, she made a blind call to the Texas A&M development office. One university’s lack of respect for callers led to a generous gift for one who did understand the benefits of telephone etiquette.
Here are tips for good telephone etiquette:
- Return all phone calls promptly.
- For whatever reason, if a call cannot be returned, have an associate respond.
- For voice mail, your greeting should include your name, the day and whether or not you are in town that day. If you plan to be out of town, let the caller know when you will return. Voice messages should be changed daily and at a minimum, once a week.
- Never have another person place a call for you.
- Be sure all employees understand the organization=s policy.
- Don’t screen any phone calls. The only possible exception might the most senior executive. Employees who work for tax-payer-supported organizations should take all calls without question.
- Always be courteous and say “please” and “thank you.”
- If you’re calling someone, give the secretary or receptionist your name. If you’re not known to the individual you’re calling, also give your title and the name of your organization.
- Identify yourself by name when you answer the phone. In large organizations it’s also a good idea to identify your department.
- If it is late in the day and calls can’t be returned because you are in a meeting, have an associate or secretary return the call and let the caller know when you will be able to return the call. If the call is important, give the caller your home number or ask the caller for his/her home number.
- It is important to let the caller know when you can return a call. An extended meeting may prevent a call from being returned one day, but let the caller know if you will be in meetings the next day or even going out of town.
- News media representatives work on tight deadlines. All news media calls should be returned promptly or immediately referred to the public relations office for response.
- Keep a log of all incoming and outgoing phone calls with day/date and time. Then you know exactly when someone called your or when you called someone else.
- Take accurate and complete messages with the name of the callers, company, time, date, and message received, action to be taken, and the name of the person taking the message.
- If you are not certain how a name is spelled, politely ask the caller to spell it for you.
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.”
For all the praise that brand advertisers have for social media, they must be aware that it’s very much a double-edged sword. And for all the free marketing, advertising and brand promotion via Facebook , Twitter, Foursquare and other platforms used to help build an identity and relationship with your customers, it can just as quickly turn on you and your brand.
Social media disasters occur for a number of reasons, the first being that your company probably messed up. It may not have been intentional, but something, somewhere down the line, went wrong enough for someone to complain and it was enough for others to vocalize that complaint en masse. One mistake is all it takes for social media to turn against your brand.
No one is perfect and you can’t expect to please everyone all the time, so the best trick is to be prepared for how to handle things if your company finds itself under attack in the social realm. Here are three examples of companies who were attacked by social media and how they handled, or should have handled the situation. Learn from their mistakes or successes so you can stay on social media’s good side.
When meat processor Cargill recently found itself in the middle of one of the largest recalls in U.S. history, the company’s VP-corporate affairs, Mike Fernandez, picked up the phone to call Margery Kraus, CEO of crisis firm APCO Worldwide.
But he didn’t ask APCO to help stem the mounting tide of negative blog mentions about salmonella-tainted turkey, or craft a company line for Cargill to deliver to media. Rather, Mr. Fernandez told Ms. Kraus he wanted the communications consulting giant to train press-shy staffers at various levels within the company, with one focus being manufacturing employees.
“I needed them to help us prepare individuals who had not normally stood before a camera and weren’t used to being interviewed by reporters,” he said.
While empowering employees to speak up in the midst of a media firestorm is the opposite of most large companies’ knee-jerk reaction — telling staff to zip their lips is a more likely standard response — more firms are coming around to this approach. “What’s new is that more manufacturing companies, whether in food processing or auto and steel, are having their foremen and other people media trained,” observed Gene Grabowski, senior VP and crisis expert at Levick Strategic Communications.
Two key reasons to offer non-marketing employees media training? To make sure they are prepared in the event reporters circumvent established media-relations channels, and to put a human face on the brand in the midst of a crisis.
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.
If your employees are inevitably going to play such a major role at such a critical time for your company, how do you protect yourself and make sure that it doesn’t come back to cripple you even further?
There are some specific preliminary strategies for you to put into effect before a crisis, that will turn this potentially unpleasant reality into an efficient opportunity to regain control of the crisis quicker, resolve it sooner and come out of it in one very complete piece.
Step #1: Have a crisis plan in place
It all starts here. Your crisis plan is what will get you through a crisis quickly, efficiently and above all else, smoothly. If you skip this step, well, never mind worrying about your employees, because without a social media crisis plan, that’ll be the least of your worries!Step #2: Train your staff
Your crisis communication plan is your secret weapon, but should in no way be kept a secret. – Melissa Agnes
Once you have a crisis plan in place, it does no good unless all members of your staff understand it and know what’s expected of them – and there’s only one way to make sure of this: you need to tell them and show them. Your employees need to be directed and guided before a crisis strikes, so that just like you, they’re prepared and understand the rules of the game.
Step #3: Practice makes perfect
As a fire drill secures the safety of everybody within your building in the event of a fire, the same goes for your social media crisis plan. Once your entire team understands their role and what’s expected of them, it’s time to put them to the test and practice each scenario. The more you practice the higher your chances of coming out of the crisis in speedy time and with limited repercussions to your brand.Step #4: Be open and honest with every member of your staff throughout a crisis
Many companies make the mistake of not sharing all information with their staff, and in many cases this leads to more complications, misunderstandings and consequences that could have easily been avoided. It’s very important that you make all information regarding the crisis accessible to all. A great way to go about doing this is to set up some kind of an internal communication platform before a crisis presents itself. This could be by means of an internal blog, intranet, forum or any other communication platform that allows for real-time updates as they unfold, and two-way conversations between each member of your staff.
Organizations and businesses that don’t plan for crisis will be left behind when the inevitable happens. Thorough crisis plans don’t have to be 50 pages long, but you need to have one. Your organization’s crisis plan should include a social piece in the communications section. Real-time is the fastest way to join the conversation, provide help and information, and direct the messages. Social helps you be your own media. So, how can social media play a positive role in crisis? Here are five social media must-haves in crisis:
1. Emergency website home page or news page: Your website developer will be able to set this template up and keep it ready to go for a time of crisis. You can either re-direct your URL (depending on the severity of the crisis and need for real-time information), or just have it as a prominent link from the home page. If the crisis is severe enough, for instance involving public safety or tragedy of some kind, it might be worth having a home page re-direct for the first 24 hours of the event. Recently, Missouri University of Science and Technology initiated their “Emergency Home Page” when there was a shooter on campus. You can see the template and details here.
Emergency websites should include (above the fold) necessary contact information for the public, those involved or with family involved, and press. If you have a press room on your regular website, the link should be prominent in contrasting color in crisis time. Press may need background information, bios, pictures, fast facts, news releases and much more. If you have an online press room available, they won’t need to call or email for the basic info. The press room should also include a schedule of upcoming releases and press conferences. Icon links to social media platforms where crisis info is available should be above the fold and in contrasting color to backgrounds. News stories related to the crisis should be listed in chronological order with date and time in headline.
2. Main Facebook page: If you have one main Facebook page that engages on behalf of the organization, it should take on a newsroom feel temporarily. I would recommend posting the news releases and also a link to the main page occasionally where people can get more information. Use your social channels to push people to your main website in a crisis. Be sure and address internally who will post, when posts will be made, who will monitor, when to take a conversation offline, and how any associated pages will be handled (see #5 below). If there is more than one admin, I would recommend assigning one person/one voice to craft the posts, even though multiple admins can post the actual messages. Admins can be trained to respond to inquiries. Maintain good communication between all the admins–put your heads together and keep internal staff well-informed.
3. Main Twitter feed: The guiding principles here should be the same as above–business as usual on Twitter should be suspended for a specified period of time in order to deal with questions, concerns, and to push out news releases and contact info. Be careful not to post too often, as you could create panic by an obviously irregular amount of posts. Discuss frequency in your social media policy. The initial time period that Twitter deals with the crisis-only should be determined by the energy of the crisis. Don’t add fuel to the fire, but actively work on managing it and putting out the blaze.
Penn State couldn’t control whether its leadership participated in criminal conduct — or whether they covered up crimes — but it could control how it handled the fall-out.
Let’s face it: any situation revealing that your leadership’s moral center is located in its football team’s win/loss record isn’t ever going to be good news, no matter what the issue. But it needn’t have tarnished the school as a whole, alienated the student body, or made the school’s supporters ashamed of it.
In other words, the situation didn’t have to turn into a media circus.
Really? No crisis management plan?!
Astonishingly, it seems that the school didn’t have a communications plan in place to intercept this crisis at any stage: from the initial revelations of possible criminal conduct, to the numerous lapses of judgment by its leadership, to the disovery of the abject failure of moral leadership, to Jerry Sandusky’s arrest, to the firing of Joe Paterno, to the student demonstrations that followed.
In fact, Penn State continues to move forward in a completely reactive mode. It seems to have entirely abdicated any effort to shape the conversation around these stupefying events — ironic in light of the fact that its College of Communications offers a robust course of study on the mechanics and ethics of advertising and PR.
In other words, any second-year Penn State communications student could have offered the university some basic rules of thumb that would have helped them join the conversation rather than becoming the object of it.
Mostly, it’s about keeping it real
There are numerous lessons in the many ways Penn State has bungled its crisis communications. Here are the top four missed opportunities:
#1 Have a plan. Seriously. Penn State spent two years conducting an investigation on possible criminal conduct, yet somehow failed to plan for what might happen if the allegations came to light, much less if they prove true.
So make a plan, then review it at least twice a year. When the time comes, implement. Moving forward, incorporate your learnings and refine.
#2 Be transparent. Answer questions honestly. Especially the tough ones. No matter how bad the issue may be, trying to cover it up will make it worse. Learn from history: it was a cover-up that escalated a third-rate burglary into a scandal that brought down a presidency.
#3 Deliver your message. State it, restate it, then reinforce it yet again. Defining your message defines the shape of the discussion around your issue. Fail here, and the media will create the message for you.
Penn State didn’t just fail to answer any questions — they also made all of their decisions in closed-session meetings and then cancelled a press conference. Citing “the on-going legal circumstances surrounding the recent allegations and charges” — the very thing they needed to respond to — they left over 200 media outlets with nothing to report other than speculation, opinion and innuendo.
#4 Be part of the solution. Emerging successfully from a crisis isn’t about convincing anyone you were perfect. This is where transparency, sincerity and good intentions really pay off. No matter how badly you may have screwed up, truly trying to make things right goes a long way. That’s not just good PR — it’s good karma.
“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.
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.”
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
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.
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
“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.”
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
