Moving Sale!

The Bernstein Crisis Management bookstore is now a part of our main site! Full of in-depth information created by me and others whose work I consider to be a superb investment for anyone wanting to improve their crisis management skills; everything in the store is currently 30% off!

This deal's only good until April 15th; use (case-sensitive) coupon code BCMblog1 when placing your orders!

JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Good Medicine

Successful reputation management strategies include ways to bolster image and increase exposure during times of economic upheaval.

Drug giant Pfizer's got the right idea, announcing Thursday they will be raising the income levels of uninsured people who qualify for discounted or free drugs by over $15,000. If a well-timed act of philanthropy helps people and in the process nets your company exposure from the big news networks, multiple articles on major pay-for-content sites, and acclaim from bloggers across the country, then everybody comes out a winner.



JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Rapid Crisis Response

In today's digital age crisis response needs to be nearly instantaneous, especially in a tight political race. A recent article from the Tech Daily Dose explains:

"As news breaks, people go online to find more information. Savvy political advertisers take advantage of that spike in interest to get their message in front of voters and lawmakers at the exact moment of relevance"

The use of targeted advertising services, such as Google's AdWords, to combat negative publicity is fast becoming commonplace in both the political arena and the business world. As ever greater numbers of people turn to the Internet as their main source of information, the power of ad placement and search engine optimization can only grow.


JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Focus on Reputation

According to an article from Property & Casualty Magazine, the numbers of companies throughout the world actively utilizing reputation management as an integral part of their crisis management strategies are steadily rising.

Conference Board’s Research Working Group made the following recommendations for companies to safeguard reputations:

- Actively involve boards of directors in reputation risk management.

- Demonstrate to leaders and management teams in business units the impact of their actions on reputation.

- Integrate reputation risk management with ERM or other risk management programs.

- Quantify the value of reputation.

The report defines reputation as "the way a company is perceived by each of its stakeholder groups" and more than 82% of respondents said their companies have increased their focus on reputation management over the past three years.

When your reputation is on the line, the way you react can have an effect that lasts long after the crisis has passed; if you aren't already a part of that 82% you need to get on the bandwagon!



JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

The Spy Who Doesn't Love You

Recently featured in Media Bullseye magazine, my article, The Spy Who Doesn't Love You, takes a look at the dangers of information leaks from a reputation and crisis management standpoint.

Did you know that every employee, every vendor, in fact - everyone with whom you have contact - is, potentially:

1. A corporate spy
2. A disgruntled person wanting to avenge him/herself against you and/or your organization
3. A news media "leak" source
4. All of the above

That's always been true, so you don't have to get too paranoid. Yet. That's because you haven't read the rest of this article.

Hooked? Check out the whole thing here!


JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

This Microphone ISN'T Off???

One of the first things I teach people when conducting media training is that you can NEVER assume a microphone is off, especially when you've been on or are about to go on the air.

Luckily for my readers, Sue Simmons of NBC News 4 has demonstrated exactly what can happen if you don't check yourself!

WARNING:
This clip contains profanity, clear the room of small children and/or supervisors before listening.


JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Weathering the Storm

The primary goal of crisis management is to provide an organization strong moorings from which to weather the storm that is a breaking crisis through training, crisis prevention and response plans, etc.

In this article from CNNMoney.com, management guru Jim Collins explains the ways in which great companies take advantage of this solid base to turn crisis into opportunity.



JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Come to the Dark Site

Dark sites are an invaluable tool in crisis management. Those of you not in the business may ask, what is a dark site? Ed Lee, managing director at online media marketing consultancy com.motion, defines it as "a pre-developed, non-public Web site that can be published to the live Web in the event of a crisis."

Dark sites can be created to deal with any number of possible situations and allow you to get your side of the story out before anyone else does it for you. In his article Dark Sites 101, Lee explains the why, what, and how of the dark site.


JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Missing the Point

In keeping with the theme of corporations with a complete disregard for reputation management, disgraced insurance group AIG's appearance before the House Financial Services Subcommitee yesterday did nothing to change public sentiment towards them.

"We understand that since our relationship with the Government and taxpayers had changed, our behavior as a company needed to change."

Edward M. Liddy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AIG

AIG's crisis management strategy is fundamentally flawed, Liddy's statement shows that their irresponsible behavior only changed because it HAD to, not because they realized the error of their ways. This article by Rich Klein investigates the mistakes that led to the destruction of the insurance giant's reputation and gives insight into how reputation is formed in the first place.

Did all of these mega-corporations blow budgets on advertising and corporate perks and forget to hire a PR team, except after the fact? What do you think?


JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Not the Best Buy

If there's ever been a company in need some serious reputation management it's Best Buy. They're in the news again for mistreating customers, this time busted by HDguru.com for lying about price matching and delivery, among other policies. The article also includes a list of excuses managers allegedly supplied to salespersons in order to increase profit margins and first hand accounts of attempted purchases. In addition, their media relations department has not responded to requests for comment, which of course makes them look guilty as sin. Whichever crisis management team (if the electronics giant has even heard of those) gets to deal with this situation is really going to have their hands full.


JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Pandemic Response

The business of handling national disasters is crisis management on a large scale. Currently, the Department of Health and Human Services is gearing up for a possible pandemic of avian flu. Predicted by many scientists, the timing of this pandemic is unknown. The government has done the right thing and prepared for the worst, stockpiling influenza vaccine and readying antiviral medications. Of course, public reaction must be taken into consideration as part of any crisis prevention or response plan and officials are concerned about the fact that our response will be slow because we as a society are "over-warned" - numbed to warnings for major events because we are exposed to so many minor warnings daily. This article from DisasterNews explains the issue and the actions being taken to combat it.



JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Can You Handle The Truth?

Knowing when someone is telling you the truth is very beneficial to those in the crisis management field; understanding the reality of a situation is critical if you want to cover all the angles. In addition, if you have to pitch your services, knowing when a potential client is really interested can be invaluable.

In this week's issue of Crisis Manager, sales and leadership expert John Boe gives a primer on using your detective skills to close more deals and protect your clients. Can you detect -- and handle -- the truth??



JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Attention Crisis Managers!

Another new edition of Crisis Manager just went out. This time we've got a fantastic guest piece as well as some thoughts from yours truly on the future of crisis management and Internet communications in the legal world.

While you're reading, please check out the extremely short (one question!) survey and let me know what you think! You can help me decide the future of the Crisis Manager here!


JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Blog's the Word

"When your company or your name is being bombarded with negative commentary, your reputation is on the line and fast response is critical. One of the most effective tools in your arsenal is going to be blogging."

Blogs have moved from obscurity into the mainstream, covering topics from the absurd to the extremely serious. Chesa Keane's latest article to be featured in the Crisis Manager, "Why Blogs Are Effective for Online Reputation Management," explains how and why blogs have become key in today's Internet-centered business world and how to maximize the gains from yours.


JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Hamburger - no make that Homeowner - Helper

President Obama's mortgage assistance programs give banks an excellent chance to get some good PR and repair their reputations simply by doing what was mandated - providing assistance to homeowners who are having difficulties. Unfortunately, it appears that not everyone is taking advantage of this opportunity.

After hearing a reader's story of their (alleged) frustrating attempts to use Citi's "Homeowner Helper" program, The Consumerist ran his story in full with the following lead-in:

"Did Citi set up its "Homeowner Helper" site to comply with Obama's mortgage assistance programs, but then not actually attach it to any humans that will help homeowners? After inputting his info on the site, Citi told reader CoarseLive to schedule an appointment with a representative. No one ever called him. When he tried calling Citi directly, multiple agents told him they had no idea what he was talking about, and they hung up on him, again and again. His story, inside..."

Now, a major part of crisis management is crisis prevention. It doesn't take an expert to see that, if your base-level phone operators are not made aware of a new service (much less one that has been the subject of intense national scrutiny) or even the proper way to escalate a call to management, trouble is on the horizon. Whether the site is legitimate or not, the bad publicity generated by stories such as this one are already reverberating across the blogosphere.


JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

New Issue of Crisis Manager

For those of you who are not subscribers, a new edition of our Crisis Manager newsletter went out a few days ago. This month the always-enlightening Chesa Kane of TAO Consultants shares her expertise on Internet reputation management and we get a lesson in crisis management from Newsforce CEO Vince Bianco.

You can find this issue and many previous ones here!


JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Bad Bank PR

Recently, CEOs from eight of the banks who received government bailouts were brought before the House of Representatives to detail what exactly taxpayers are getting for their $165 billion investment. This chance for them to make clear their good intentions quickly became a crisis management disaster with five of the CEOs admitting they had invested zero dollars of the bailout funds in their companies in the past six months.

This story, featured in Slate Magazine, has a review of the hearing as well as advice from professionals on what sort of reputation management steps the faltering banks should take. These financial institutions are really going to have to rethink they way they operate and interact with the public if they wish to change their image and regain our trust.


JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Preparedness

Preparedness LLC is a client-focused risk consulting company with a long track record of assisting their clients in safeguarding people, protecting property and minimizing business interruption. Their eNewsletter frequently covers topics of importance to anyone in the business or crisis management fields from advice on readying your home and office for major storms to preparing emergency management and business continuity plans and implementing National Preparedness Standards.

A crisis response plan will not save your business when it is struck by disaster. You must actively prepare and prevent for as many possible incidents as you can to truly minimize risk.


JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

SEO Growth

As marketers begin to better understand how Web site optimization fits into overall campaigns, budget investments in search engine optimization (SEO) will grow at a higher rate each year, compared with other types of search marketing strategies, according to a recent report from eMarketer. The report, "Search Marketing Trends: Back to Basics," suggests that growth will decline for paid search from 15.9% in 2009 to 11.3% in 2013--while SEO growth will jump from 17.7% to 20.3%, respectively. "Every company is losing some business because of the economy, whether they buy less, or not at all," said David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst. "There is a greater focus on customer acquisition. Search is the best tool for that."

This article from MediaPost News discusses something I've also written about, search engine optimization. With the prevailing trend being to load up Google rather than open a phonebook, often whoever claims the highest search rank will have the eyes of the public first. Because of that, SEO is an irreplaceable tool in any online reputation management expert's repertoire.

JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Crisis? What Crisis?

As some of you know, I'm a monthly guest columnist for Media Bullseye and, about a week ago, was interviewed for one of their regular Radio Roundtable discussions, where I was interviewed by managing editor Jennifer Zingsheim. Media Bullseye editor Chip Griffin, got to add his viewpoints after I did my best to answer Jennifer's questions, which he acknowledged was the easier job (sez I, with a grin).

The topic was "Crisis? What Crisis" and we looked at everything from the changing nature of online communications to some specific case histories from which we all can learn. The 32-minute program is archived here.


JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Corporate Conscience

Today we've got an article from crisis management colleague and frequent Crisis Manager contributor Judy Hoffman's Quick Tips on Keeping Cool e-zine.

Like what you read? Subscribe here.


WHERE HAS OUR CORPORATE CONSCIENCE GONE?

If you are anything like me, you have probably been doing a lot of
head shaking recently. However you get your news, you've been
hearing numerous accounts of people highly placed in businesses of
all types who seem to have no shred of conscience any more. You've
probably seen stories about:

Senior management people at financial services institutions who
have engineered -- or at least accepted -- huge bonuses while the
organizations they led hemorrhaged profits that left their
employees and shareholders with little or nothing;
Organizations that happily accepted the 2008 bail-out funds meant
to be used to stem the credit crisis but instead used them for
fancy corporate retreats and other perks limited to a few people at
the top and then refused to reveal what they'd spent the money on;
Companies that knowingly shipped out contaminated products (from
peanut products to saline solutions and heparin) that made hundreds
of people sick and even caused the death of many.

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

I used to be proud to say that my father, God rest his soul, was
"an investment banker on Wall Street." If you mention either of
those two terms nowadays, the hair on the back of the neck of a
majority of people stands up on end. My dad was one of the most
ethical people I've ever known. Being honest in all of your
dealings was something Dad and Mom both emphasized to my brother
and me at every opportunity. When my father was getting set to
retire as head of the Government Bond Department of First Boston
Corporation (now Credit Suisse) back in 1973, there was to be a
dinner in his honor where the usual practice was to "roast" the
individual. My mother took it as the highest form of compliment
that his colleagues couldn't find anything bad to say about Dad!
After 30 years of being with the company, where he had started at
the lowest level, people spent the evening talking about things
like trust and their confidence in him when he gave his word and
his ethical conduct in all matters.

Too many times nowadays it seems that big business leaders are
playing a game -- seeing how many financial shenanigans they can get
away with and how far they can bend the rules and regulations, if
not outright break them. If rules and regulations are broken,
those who are willing to do so seem to be counting on the fact that
organizations set up to regulate them will not be capable of doing
their job properly - whether that organization is the Securities
and Exchange Commission or the Food and Drug Administration. Did
these folks actually rationalize to themselves that, if they could
get away with it, it must be OK?

WHEN AND HOW WILL THIS END?

I'd like to think that one of the first people to try to bring an
end to this type of activity would be whoever was going to have the
job of trying to explain the situation to a
horrified/angry/concerned public. This individual could have a
title like Public Affairs Manager or Corporate Communications
Director. Or it could be any employee at any level of the
organization who had a good sense of right and wrong. When
organizations do not DO the right things, there is no way that any
public relations person or crisis communications professional is
going to be able to come up with some words that will make it all
be just fine. (Even though I jokingly use a magic wand in my
workshops, I'm here to tell you that it really does not work,
especially in circumstances such as we've been seeing of late.)

Sometimes this individual has to be very courageous. It certainly
isn't easy to stand up against an arrogant CEO or other senior
manager who has come to believe that he or she can do anything
necessary to assuage his/her ego and achieve personal goals of
wealth and power. This person must have earlier established
credibility within the organization so that he/she will be listened
to by the appropriate people when the question is posed, "How is
this going to be received by the public when this comes out - as it
will?"

I have often said that the most effective form of crisis
communications is crisis prevention. It is always preferable not
to have to scramble to put together a statement attempting to
defend something that is basically indefensible. As one of my
clients in a recent workshop said, "If you do the wrong thing well,
it's still not good!"

Playing the role of the corporate conscience is not an easy task.
But it is needed if you hope to avert having your organization's
reputation severely damaged if not totally ruined. The stakes are
high for all of the employees of that organization.



JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

You're Caught!

The C.E.O. Survival Guide is a column featuring advice for well...C.E.O.'s. As an added benefit it often uses yours truly as a source! This month's piece by Caroline Waxler discusses the case of Whole Foods Market's head honcho John Mackey, accused of posting more than 1,000 comments on a Yahoo! stock market forum bashing competitor Wild Oats Market. He is now facing investigation by the SEC, which is trying to figure out what law(s) he broke.

Talk about needing appropriate crisis response to preserve your reputation! Give me a call, John, you need me!

JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com