Monthly Archives: October 2009

As the person responsible for communicating your story to the public, media and your stakeholders, your organization’s spokesperson is critical to effective crisis management. An article for Crisis Response Communications, written by Bob Roemer, delves deeper into the role:

Refusing to comment or merely issuing a written statement does not constitute communicating and raises doubts about the credibility and competency of management. It also causes your stakeholders to wonder what the organization is hiding or whether the crisis is worse than was thought.

The role of the spokesperson is to implement that commitment.

The article also quotes BCM President Jonathan Bernstein on the effectiveness of media training, for which there is no substitute. There is no excuse for not training anyone who could potentially be exposed to the media, and choosing not to do is is choosing to risk highly damaging errors.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

When you are called in to perform crisis management for an organization, chances are the media will be involved. In a recent article, media/crisis management expert Rick Amme, President of Amme & Associates, shed some light on the reporter’s side of the issue, as well as what to do when someone gets your story wrong.

First of all, most reporters are trying to get it right. Occasionally they make mistakes out of ignorance, writing too fast, or overlooking a significant point. It’s not personal, they just screw up. Many times I have contacted a reporter on behalf of a client about a story error. Mostly they say, “Thanks for letting me know, I’ll fix it.” If the reporter is part of the problem, a call to an editor or more senior person sometimes reigns in a wayward journalist. In other words, if a story unfairly and mistakenly hurts you, don’t grumble about the !@#$%^&* media and ruminate. Call!

Featuring a look at the recent tussle between the Obama administration and Fox News, as well as several experiences from his own career, Rick’s article provides some insight into the complicated relationship between media and crisis manager.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Write this on a rock… In the future, more customers will connect with your business through online communities you build and serve than from any other marketing source.

I couldn’t agree more with business expert Jim Blasingame’s assessment, taken from an article for Mantra.com. As Blasingame says in his article, social media is not a completely new invention, but simply a new and expanded means of communicating. By understanding this, you make it much easier to convince unbelieving decision makers to include these platforms in their organizations overall crisis management strategies.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/