Sports teams are vulnerable to crises just like any other business, sometimes even more so because of the large sums of money and public interest involved. Fans of Major League Baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates have become accustomed to their team bringing up the rear, but careless handling of questions regarding team …
The Ostrich Syndrome
There are many steps to be taken in a crisis, and while there are differing opinions as to which is most important, Davia Temin made a convincing case for one in a recent Forbes.com article. A quote: Most important of all–in any crisis–is to short-circuit denial! It’s a human trait …
Crisis Management Through the Customer’s Eyes
I’m probably the last person you want to hear from now. I’m what you call a customer. Chances are, you don’t know me. You’re fast asleep when you fly over me on red-eyes. You profess undying love for me in company lore—and ignore me in practice. You’ve built a Byzantine …
Public Lacks Trust for Media
A recent national poll found American’s faith in traditional media to be holding at extremely low levels, and with no signs of improvement in sight. Here are the numbers, from Gallup.com: Americans continue to express near-record-low confidence in newspapers and television news — with no more than 25% of Americans …
Semi-Transparent
A Washington State fire department is learning crisis management on the fly as it copes with an underage drinking incident involving several of its high-ranking members with a major funding vote approaching. While the response from the department’s Chief shows that he is aware of some of the tenets of …
Nobody is Immune
Large or small, even the best managed businesses may be hit by an unexpected public relations crisis. These can be recalls of dangerous or contaminated products, a civil product liability law suit, or some other unforeseen disaster that may hurt sales, the bottom line, and reflect badly on a company’s …
Crisis and Reputation Management
Your reputation is your most valuable asset. While crisis management can begin with very few reputation management practices in place, failing to bank the good will that it can create before a crisis hits is a dangerous choice. In a recent article Bret Giles, President of agencyside, gave a couple …
Hurd Hurts HP
Hewlett-Packard’s crisis management team has been hard at work this week following the sudden resignation of CEO Mark Hurd. Leaving after revelations of an inappropriate relationship and improper use of company funds, the formerly revered Hurd will float out on a $12 million dollar golden parachute loaded with hundreds of …
Brand Extortion
It has become incredibly popular to turn to the Web to find and post reviews of businesses. Led by services like Yelp!, Google Reviews, and Facebook to levels of use never imagined by the once-formidable Yellow Pages, most if not all remain free to use and profit from banner or …
Target Facing National Boycott
Target is in big trouble. The retail giant’s recent decision to donate $150,000 to Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer has drawn the ire of the public for more than one reason. Sam Stein reports in The Huffington Post: Target has already come under intense scrutiny for the $150,000 it has …
Does New Jersey Stink?
Merrie Spaeth’s BIMBO awards are a constant source of amusement and education as she compiles the poorest communications choices people have made in the previous month. This month the top prize went to the state of New Jersey, which has felt the need for crisis management after the recent rise …
Google Gives Businesses a Voice
Google is now letting businesses respond to reviews posted on their Place Pages in Google Maps. This should be huge for reputation management, particularly as Google continues to place increased emphasis on these pages. “Engaging with the people who have shared their thoughts about your business is a great way …
Own Your Identity
As part of an effort to promote a “road diet” on Chicago Drive SW, Grandville officials looked into creating a Facebook page. But they found out the city already has a presence on the social networking website. Although unofficial, the site looks like what city officials had in mind. “We …
Internet Reputation Management
As the Internet makes it increasingly easy for anyone to track, publish and spread information or opinions, online reputation management continues to become even more integral to crisis management. Just what does reputation management entail? iBusinessTip.com explains: Reputation management is the process of tracking an entity’s actions and other entity’s …
Room to Wiggle
Wherever there’s a crisis you are bound to find the media, and simply dropping a curt “no comment” is not going to cut it. While good crisis management dictates that organizations push a statement out quickly, leaving a big of wiggle room can prevent future problems. The Get in Front …