What is crisis communications?

Communicating reactively immediately after, or in the hours or days, following an incident that threatens your organization’s reputation or ability to operate. I would draw the line between when that communications is “reactive” and strategic—that is, when the outbound communications becomes part of an overall plan to influence customer or stakeholder thought and/or behavior about the organization or company.

What are the biggest mistakes you see people and companies make when dealing with the media?

Do we have 400 pages here? The list of mistakes I’ve made, my firm has made and that ALL organizational communicators make is endless, mostly because the risks associated with making choices about how, when and what to communicate are so high during the stressful, chaotic hours following an incident. But, if I had to list the top few, they would be: failure to “weatherproof the brand” before the incident occurs so that the company will have established a platform of good will among stakeholders; refusing to answer media queries at all; lack of clear lines of authority and accountability within the organization so that decisions about when, how and who will communicate can be determined quickly (if they weren’t pre-determined by drills and regularly updated plans); panic (and I mean, internal panic); failure of senior communicators to speak up and assume a knowledge-leader position within the management team structure; and lack of a monitoring plan, i.e., the resources in place, either internal or contract-based, to start monitoring web and social media coverage of the incident for new facts, perceptions and/or misperceptions and stakeholder attitudes.

How important is social media to our reputation management strategy?

Critical, critical, and, did I mention, “critical?” It is just as important, if not more important, to connect with stakeholders and potential advocates and monitor their interactions before, during and following a crisis to acknowledge those audiences, recognize their voices, and increase the frequency of the company’s own message to balance the groundswell of negative, informal, and often anonymous commentary posted via social platforms.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a PR disaster?

Breathe. And then marshal forces. Calmly.

How can CEOs help build and repair corporate reputations?

The CEO is the face and voice of the company/organization—the star of the show, the lead, the prime minister of that particular small-to-large nation state, for-profit or non-profit. We, the people, will believe or not believe in the sincerity of that organization in direct proportion to the inherent credibility and charisma of the CEO, and we (and that includes the board, employees, investors, community stakeholders, and the general public) don’t cut her/him much slack. What has changed is that the CEO is no longer a pretty face who can be one person by day, another by night. He/she must live the corporate vision 24/7, speak the truth (often) and take responsibility for all of the above (trust). Then the rest is easy.

What is crisis communications?

Crisis communications is the process of making people aware of your point of view and persuading them to accept it in the midst of circumstances that are harmful or have the potential to be harmful to your reputation.

What are the biggest mistakes you see people and companies make when dealing with the media?

There are many mistakes people make, but most of them boil down to a lack of respect for the people with whom they should be communicating. This manifests itself in several ways, including:

• a terse “no comment”
• a prepared, distributed statement full of “lawyer language,” i.e., a bunch of hedging and passive-voice phrases that serve no purpose but to give the client wiggle room.
• lying
• half-hearted attempts or no attempt to show sympathy for victims
• hiding from the media or not making key executives available
• finger-pointing, blame shifting or transparent attempts to downplay present or future damage

How important is social media to your reputation management strategy?

I find that my clients are interested in social media more as an ongoing marketing tool than as a key communications strategy tool. However, more people are starting to understand the power of social media, and as it becomes more evident to key executives and administrators that social media can be a powerful and versatile tool, they become more willing to allow it to be a part of their strategy. The issue often is that top executives tend to be older and not as adept to social media as are the middle managers. I find that I have to persuasively pull some of my clients into social media.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a PR disaster?

Ha! In my media relations seminar, I tell people the first thing they should do when there’s a crisis is to lock the lawyers out of the room. Many CEOs, executives, administrators, etc., are so focused on some inevitable looming court battle years down the road that they fail to see the problem in front of them. They lawyer up and inevitably make the situation worse.

The first thing a company should do is to stop acting like a corporation and Be Human. Demonstrate sympathy and caring for any victims. Get the facts, identify who your stakeholders are and communicate to those stakeholders in an appropriate manner. It is important to have a crisis communications plan, but it’s more important to be flexible to changing events. Too many crisis communications plans are so detailed and rigid that they fail to take into consideration that a crisis is a dynamic event.

How can CEOs help build and repair corporate reputation?

They have to have a vision of what their company is, and they have to share that vision with their employees, customers, vendors, etc. If the CEO says his company wants to be involved in the community in a positive way, how can he show it? Does he give his employees paid time to volunteer in schools, work at a food bank or at an animal shelter? Does he encourage customers to do the same through company-sponsored programs? You can fake a reputation for awhile, but if it’s just a stunt, you will be busted. Be real, and walk the talk.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

This may sound harsh, but I believe the best thing employees can do is to hold their company’s leadership accountable for doing the things the leadership says it is going to do.

What can companies do to better prepare for a public relations crisis?

A crisis communications plan is a must. A good plan should:

• detail the various stakeholders and message vehicles
• lay out a simple org chart with duties relative to the crisis so employees know what to do and what is expected of them
• identify spokespersons and guidelines
• identify a specific communications vehicle (newsletter, intranet, e-mail) for employees

Many plans overlook the importance of communicating internally in a crisis. You have to let your own people know what is going on, and you should give them a channel of communications that is separate from the general communications vehicle.

What is crisis communications?

It’s funny how we are always trying to fit everything into a definition or elevator speech.  To me crisis communications is the act of engaging your risk communications plan.  When injury or loss is imminent, occurring or recently occurred all communications are crisis communications.

What are the biggest mistakes you see people and companies make when dealing with the media?  

Not being credible in their statements whether it is in acknowledging their own role in the event, acknowledging the true impact on others or when discussing the future impact and how to deal with it.  In my time working for Governor Pataki, Governor Bush and while running my business, two of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen people make time and again are having the wrong person delivering the message and sharing the wrong information.  On the first mistake, in a true crisis, a spokesperson is the absolute last person the world should be seeing and hearing.  The public or customers need to hear from the leader of the company or the subject matter expert or in a catastrophic situation, the disaster response leader is suitable.  Regarding the second mistake, the public or customers must hear that you have a system, a plan and access to the necessary resources to handle the situation and they must feel that you are not holding back on them.  Any organization that makes any of these mistakes will face a much more difficult challenge emerging from their crisis.

How important is social media to your reputation management strategy? 

Social is such an important part of communication now.  At this point, as it relates to crisis communications, I use social for sharing important brief updates and letting folks know when and where they can get more in-depth info.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a PR disaster? 

Establish Command and Control.  Being accused of not letting folks in your organization talk with the public/media is nothing compared to sharing mixed/inconsistent messages. Next bring all the stakeholders together regularly for operational planning and agreement on the message.

How can CEOs help build and repair corporate reputation? 

The method to achieve these goals will vary based upon unique variables of that corporation’s situation.  That being said overall you have to show that the corporation has competent conscientious leadership and people.  A real world example from my home state is how Mayor Rudy Giuliani took ownership of the condition of New York City when he entered office.  He proceed to outline a plan to improve the city, provided regular progress updates and performed by changing for the better the unchangeable city.  His and the city government’s reputation had certainly improved dramatically by the time of 9/11 and the benefits of having residents, business owners and tourists trust in the mayor (the CEO) and the city is unmeasurable.  This is a model all leaders should aspire to follow when they find themselves in a crisis situation.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?  

Know the operational plan, the message and how to communicate with the public.  Then stick to the plan and message.

What can companies do to better prepare for a public relations crisis? 

Plan, drill, evaluate, update the plan and drill again.  Whenever there’s a change in their ‘universe’ or every 6 months they need to rinse and repeat.

Jimmy Savile, who died last year at 84, was the star of the 1960s and 1970s BBC shows, “Top of the Pops” and “Jim’ll Fix It.”  This entertainer was so dearly loved that when it was suggested that Savile might have been assaulted underage teenage girls, according to the Wall Street Journal, BBC chairman George Entwistle seemed to ignore the overwhelming evidence pointing to the entertainer’s guilt.  Instead of heeding these reports and airing an expose from his network’s own “Newsnight”, Entwistle instead shelved the reports and approved several holiday tributes of Savile on the BBC instead, according to news reports.

Entwistle’s refusal to run the expose was not taken lightly as reports of Savile’s alleged pedophilia spread throughout the world, and an expose about the entertainer aired on a rival network, ITV.   But that one incident is hardly enough to cause the resignation of the BBC’s top executive.  It took another botched news report right on the heels of the Savile issue to truly force the BBC top management to clean house.

“Newsnight” – keen to salvage it’s truth in journalism reputation, subsequently decided to pursue a different investigation, reported the Wall Street Journal “… into sex abuse at a children’s home in Wales dating to the 1970s and 1980s…the program appeared to accuse 70-year-old Alistair McAlpine of committing sexual abuse and gave the former House of Lords member no opportunity to reply.”  Later, the Wall Street Journal reported that McAlpine issued a detailed denial and the alleged abuse victim said he had identified the wrong man to the BBC.

Entwistle announced his resignation a few weeks later and the BBC appointed a former journalist who runs the Royal Opera House, Tony Hall, according to the Montreal Gazette.

So what happened? In a few short weeks, the BBC spiraled into a drama suitable for one of its televised shows. Entwistle had only been on the job for 55 days when his tenure was brought to an abrupt end.

Two of the most senior figures at the BBC said Tuesday that there had been “elementary” failures of the organization’s journalism and “appalling editorial judgment” according to the New York Times. “The BBC tells the truth about itself, even when the truth is appalling,” chairman of the BBC trust, Chris Patten said in a New York Times article. The New York Times continues: “(Patten) contrasted the broadcaster’s readiness to clean its stables with what he said had been an opaque and truculent reaction among Britain’s newspapers when confronted by their own scandals.”

Journalists, public relations heavyweights and reputation management companies will debate the appropriate next step for restoring the BBC’s trust and credibility.  What do you think the BBC should do next?