Monthly Archives: July 2010

Social Media Strategy

Published on 30th July 2010 by . Leave a Comment

More and more organizations continue to flock to social media channels in some form or another. While many plunge in headfirst, having a solid strategy is the best way to effectively use social media to your advantage. The Social Media Examiner explains:

Social media strategies will vary for each business and for each industry.  However, one thing is clear: social media needs to have “all hands on deck” in order to be successfully integrated into your company’s goals and objectives.

In general, I view social media as a strategy, not a tactic. I consider the social media platforms like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc., as tactics that tie into the social media strategy.  In other words, outline your social media strategy and support your strategy with tactics.  Without a carefully thought-out plan, you’ll eventually be overwhelmed with social media and even worse, get burnt out by it.

Whether your purpose is crisis management, marketing, or reputation control, how well you research, plan, and execute your social media strategy can mean the difference between great success and lackluster results.

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

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SPJ Stays Silent

Published on 29th July 2010 by . Leave a Comment

The previous issue of our Crisis Manager newsletter was made up of one in-depth article, Fight Back Using the Journalistic Ethics Code, a guide to using the Society of Professional Journalists’ (SPJ) Code of Ethics to change the behavior of reporters who choose to violate it.

For weeks before and after the article was published BCM President Jonathan Bernstein did his best to contact top SPJ executives for comments to no avail. As a result, he penned an article for this week’s Crisis Manager which ponders the question of why an organization whose membership is entirely made up of communicators would completely and repeatedly ignore a request to comment on a article showcasing their work.

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

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Gauging Success

Published on 28th July 2010 by . Leave a Comment

Measuring the success of a crisis communications campaign while it’s still in progress provides the opportunity to gauge ones performance against the expectations of both the public and media. The question that often arises, though, is how do you do the measuring? Lucky for our readers, BCM President Jonathan Bernstein has written an article titled “How to Easily Measure Crisis Communications Performance!” Published in the latest Crisis Manager newsletter, his simple solution can be used by anyone tasked with communication in a crisis.

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

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Heartless Hayward

Published on 27th July 2010 by . 1 Comment. Click to add yours.

It’s a fundamental rule of crisis management: Think with a little less head and a little more heart.

That’s a concept BP’s Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward should have embraced, some business school professors say. Instead, over the last 99 days, since the oil spill began in the Gulf of Mexico, Hayward has been criticized for a growing list of public gaffes in handling one of the worst environmental disasters in history, culminating in his departure as CEO, announced Tuesday.

This quote, from a CNN article, hits the nail on the head. Although the BP disaster would have required extensive crisis management regardless, Hayward’s thoughtless and uncaring behavior has caused an unnecessary and almost immeasurable amount of reputation damage to the oil giant, not to mention the costs now being paid by affected businesses, individuals, and the environment. Meanwhile, the gaps between Hayward’s foot-in-mouth moments were filled by a thundering silence from the organization, leaving plenty of room for rumor and innuendo to fill the gap and worsen the situation. Poorly played across the board, the entire situation will undoubtedly be immortalized as a case study by business and PR professors worldwide.

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

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New Crisis Manager

Published on 27th July 2010 by . Leave a Comment

This week’s issue of the Crisis Manager newsletter has just been added to the Bernstein Crisis Management page. Inside you’ll find two articles from BCM President Jonathan Bernstein. The first, a primer on creating a method for measuring success in crisis communications, offers a simple solution to an oft-asked question and the second is an entertaining follow up to last month’s article on the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics.

Also in the latest issue is an announcement that we are very excited about – Keeping the Wolves at Bay: Media Training is in the process of being translated for the purpose of publishing a Spanish language version of the book! Spearheaded by teacher and Crisis Manager reader Carla Mariel Vara, we hope to bring the comprehensive training manual to all Spanish-speaking countries.

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

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