Monthly Archives: April 2012

Cowboy Crisis Management

Published on 30th April 2012 by . Leave a Comment

It takes a village to solve a crisis

Like it or not, crisis management is a team activity. An individual may direct and coordinate the team’s efforts, but it takes input from every department to do things right. In a recent CPA Insider article, Lee Terry drew a colorful metaphor for the situation:

Don’t be a cowboy. Cowboys are the enigmatic personification of the American west — independent sorts who might kiss the pretty girl but then disappear forever, or maybe shoot the bad guy — or a good guy — just for the heck of it. So when you are in a crisis management meeting and everyone else disagrees with your suggestion or idea, don’t decide to implement it anyway on your own. If you do, you may find yourself in a new crisis pretty quickly, and you won’t have a six shooter or a horse to get you out of it.

This isn’t to say that going against the majority is never right, but when you’re facing a room full of your (hopefully) trusted peers and everyone’s telling you that your idea’s a bad one, you’d be a fool to not take a step back and think again.

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

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Citibank Stars in Fairy Tale

Published on 24th April 2012 by . Leave a Comment

Stay honest, or your reputation will suffer

No matter how badly you want more business, it never pays to deceive your customers. One reason is that it’s ethically wrong, another is that you never know if the person you’re attempting to fool has a larger audience than your average citizen, like say…one Jonathan Bernstein. Although his prose is tongue-in-cheek, his reputation management advice is no joke. So readers, sit back, relax, and read Citibank – A Grimm Fairy Tale.

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

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Crisis Management for Small Business

Published on 21st April 2012 by . Leave a Comment

Everyone faces crises, take this advice to make it through

It’s easy for small business owners to become lax in their crisis management. The constant appearance of multinational corporations’ troubles on the front page may lull them into a sense of complacency, assuming that their single shop or small chain is simply too small for a crisis.

That type of complacency, however, is the very thing that opens up gaps for reputation damage to slip through, especially with the ease and pervasiveness of social reviewing. Too much of that, and your entire business could be in jeopardy.

In an interview with Platform Magazine’s Margaret Bishop, BCM President Jonathan Bernstein suggested that small business owners and managers follow his “Three C’s of Credibility in Crises,” to help them navigate anything from an upset customer to a spate of food poisonings:

Be confident

Small business owners and managers usually have the additional responsibility of maintaining their image through personal PR efforts. When managing a crisis, it’s important for owners and managers to be confident in their business, employees and mission. It’s okay (and encouraged) to admit when you’re wrong, but don’t admit so many faults that you begin to belittle your business.

Be competent

Owners and managers alike need to remember to be competent when dealing with crisis management. Admit the mistake, correct it and make sure to minimize the chance of the mistake happening again. Bernstein encourages owners and managers to be honest and proactive. “Stay in communication with your customers until you are sure that they are pleased with the results,” Bernstein said.

Be compassionate

Bernstein emphasizes that being compassionate is the most important part of managing a crisis. “If you aren’t compassionate, people are less likely to hear what you have to say,” Bernstein said. It’s important for managers and owners to show empathy toward their customers when a crisis occurs, and to be understanding throughout the situation.

These aren’t magical rules found inscribed on a cave wall somewhere, but rather some bits of simple common sense. Keep pride in your business, do your job well, and have compassion for others as you’d like them to have for you. Take those lessons to heart, and your reputation will flourish.

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

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The Crisis Management Impact of a Single Tweet

Published on 15th April 2012 by . Leave a Comment

One false report can spiral out of control in a flash

As use of social media by legitimate news outlets rises, so too do the opportunities for irresponsible reporting to plunge individuals and organizations into crisis management mode. If you thought reporters that skipped that pesky “fact checking” part of of the job were dangerous before, check out this timeline of a one recent (and false) report that leapt from small town blog to national headlines, creating one massive headache for South Carolina’s Governor, Nikki R. Haley. Here’s the timeline of events, from an NY Times article by Jeremy Peters:

March 29, 12:52 p.m.: The Palmetto Public Record publishes an article online with the headline “Haley indictment imminent? Stay tuned. …” It cites two unidentified “well-placed legal experts” who said they expected the federal Department of Justice to indict Ms. Haley “as early as this week” on charges stemming from her involvement with a local Sikh temple.

12:54 p.m.: A blogger for The Hill, a Washington newspaper that focuses on government and politics, sends a Twitter post about the article to his 1,500 followers, who include several prominent political journalists with large Twitter followings that reach into the tens of thousands. Some then repost the item — BuzzFeed just two minutes later; The Washington Post 18 minutes after that.

1:03 p.m.: The Daily Beast posts a short article, which it later removes, about the Palmetto Public Record report, becoming one of many online outlets to write lengthier items, including Daily Kos and The Daily Caller. Headlines like one on the Atlantic Wire’s post, “Nikki Haley Probably Won’t Win Republican Veepstakes,” are common.

1:12 p.m.: A USA Today reporter contacts Ms. Haley’s office with a request for comment, the first of dozens of such inquiries that will deluge the governor and her staff for the rest of the day.

1:22 p.m.: The Romney campaign, which is reported to be considering Ms. Haley as one of many possible vice-presidential choices, receives a request for comment from ABC News.

1:25 p.m.: Mr. Smith seems bemused by all the attention his report is getting, posting on Twitter: “Well, now I know what it’s like to watch a story go viral in real time.”

3:29 p.m.: Matt Drudge, whose heavily visited Drudge Report can help drive decisions in newsrooms around the country, links to a Daily Caller article under the headline “REPORT: DOJ targets S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley.”

By the next morning, South Carolina’s largest newspaper, The State in Columbia, had an article on its front page.

If you still have ANY doubt about the need to be prepared for social media crises, take a good, hard look at that timeline. It wasn’t even two hours from the time of the original post that ABC News was seeking comment from potential Haley stakeholders, in this case the Romney campaign, who I’m sure were less than happy to hear of the indictment rumors.

Would you even be aware that you had a growing crisis at all before you picked up the phone, or read your name in the Drudge Report? Even more importantly, do you know what your first move would be afterwards?

This type of situation is only going to become more common as social media continues to blur the line between official and non, professional and amateur. You’ve got to keep your (digital) ear to the ground, and be ready for crisis management on the social front.

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

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Navy Gets its Feet Wet with Social Media Crisis Management

Published on 12th April 2012 by . Leave a Comment

Social media provides valuable platform for military crisis management

On May 1, 2010, Naval Support Activities Mid-South experienced floodwaters that displaced over 300 families, single sailors and geographic bachelors, destroyed office buildings, stranded cars and shut off electricity and telephone services.

After the first day’s flooding, David Crenshaw, NSA Mid-South’s public affairs officer, logged on to the command Facebook page and found the command had yet to utilize it as a means of providing any official word. But the base residents had been active, uploading their own photos of the flood, sharing stories and asking questions. The “fan” count had gone from less than 900 on April 30 to more than 1,200 in the few hours since the flooding began.

“We decided that if social media was where our base population was looking for information on the flood, then that’s where we were going to give it to them,” said Crenshaw.

It may come as a shock to some, but this quote from a Northwest Navigator blog post demonstrates that yet another government agency has began to show its intelligence when it comes to fluid communication using the Web, and social media in particular. Prompted, as many organizations are, by the efforts of individual members, the Navy has jumped on the social media bandwagon wholeheartedly.

Although they provide an invaluable service to our country, it’s an unavoidable fact that military groups have a constant reputation management battle to fight, especially in times of conflict. Having an active social media presence not only presents a powerful listening platform for the Navy, but also creates unique and powerful crisis management opportunities.

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

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