Ensuring communication is effective is core to crisis management success It turns out composer John Powell, perhaps best know for scoring movies like How to Train Your Dragon, Happy Feet and Kung-Fu Panda, knows a thing or two about verbal communication as well, making him the subject of today’s Crisis …
Infographic: Help Monitoring Your Online Reputation
Why online reputation management is a core component of crisis management, and how to do it right Monitoring your online reputation is an essential crisis management skill, yet it’s still viewed by many as something beyond their reach. Truth is, while it does take some practice to get it down …
UK Embassy’s Twitter Gaffe
Proof of the need to constantly keep your image, your mission, and your audience in mind when posting to social media It’s not entirely surprising to see brands getting too edgy or controversial as they compete to grab attention on social media, but one would hope for the folks running …
Crisis Management Musts: Alternatives to Apologies
Showing compassion without apologizing Apologies are powerful crisis management tools, but more and more often we’re seeing reputation-threatening situations that do not call for the ones taking flak to actually say “I’m sorry”. The most common situations are when organizations or individuals stand falsely accused, but other factors such as …
Harry Reid Inserts Foot in Mouth, Flunks Crisis Management
Insensitive remarks and a flop of an apology Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) is no stranger to criticism regarding public comments, especially when it comes to race, and he’s getting another lesson in why you should watch what you say after dropping a couple of doozies at the Asian …
Crisis Management Musts: Employee Communication
Don’t keep your employees in the dark When it’s time to go into full-on crisis management mode, many organizations are focused purely on A) cleaning up the situation, and B) communicating with outside stakeholders, whether that means customers, investors or the media. Here’s the problem with that – your employees, …
Crisis Management Tactics: Updates on Updates
“We’re working on it” can buy more time than you expect When you encounter a crisis, the pressure to immediately make a statement is immense. Not only will your stakeholders be clamoring for you to talk, and angry if you don’t, but you also risk damaging rumor or innuendo taking root …
Senator Walsh Stumbles on Crisis Communication
[Editor’s note: The following is a guest post from Brittany Foster, one of the talented members of the Triad Strategies team. Triad is a preferred Bernstein Crisis Management contractor.] Senator John Walsh (D-Montana) was already running a losing campaign for re-election, but he may have shored up his retirement with …
ESPN Benches Smith for Domestic Violence Comments
Understandably angry stakeholders and poor crisis management leave sports reporter in a bad spot ESPN anchor Stephen A. Smith won’t be stepping up to the mic for at least a week following his on-air comments regarding domestic violence – specifically that women should avoid “provoking” men into assaulting them. Smith …
OKCupid – PR Genius or Crisis Management Mess?
Dating site seems to be applying the dubious principle of “any publicity is good publicity” Move over Facebook, because OKCupid just hopped on the user experimentation train! In a blog post published Monday, one of the dating site’s founders, Christian Rudder, proudly proclaims “We Experiment On Human Beings!” From the …
Chase’s (ineffective) Compassion-Free Crisis Management
Lack of much-needed compassion leaves bank’s communications falling flat Having a debit or credit card charge declined is both frustrating and embarrassing no matter who you are or what you’re buying, something we would expect a bank to be aware of. That’s why, when we spotted the below email from …
Crisis Management Quotables…on Showing Through
150 year-old wisdom that still applies today Ralph Waldo Emerson was a legendary speaker, essayist and poet who, perhaps not surprisingly for a man who published dozens of groundbreaking essays and delivered thousands of lectures, has a long list of quotes that have survived the nearly 150 years since his …
Crisis Management Musts – Keeping a Healthy Trust Account
Considering how stakeholders will react to change is key The impact of stakeholder trust on reputation and the bottom line is at an all-time high, yet organizations are burning what little faith their proponents have left on a daily basis through penny pinching, poor customer service, or a simple lack of …
Lessons from American Apparel’s 4th of July Social Media Fail
Major mistake highlights importance of experienced guidance for social media managers Why is it that organizations feel perfectly comfortable handing full control of their social media accounts over to employees barely old enough to drive, or outsourcing to someone who doesn’t even live in the same country as their audience? …
Analyzing P.F. Chang’s Crisis Management for Data Breach
Was the popular chain’s crisis management a four-star effort? The data breach at P.F. Chang’s came to light in mid-June of this year, with the organization claiming to have learned of the situation June 10. Crisis management started out in troubled waters when a massive number of news organizations and …