Badly Babbling Blogosphere

It pays to be part of the conversation, but how do you stay safe?

How you react to discussions on the Internet can make or break your reputation. Responses to blogger's comments, whether positive or negative, must be honest, tactful, and stay on message. In this week's issue of Crisis Manager, Tom Gable, CEO of Gable PR, uses examples from his own practice to demonstrate the difference between good and bad online crisis response, then provides a check list meant to get organizations on track for online crisis management in the "badly babbling blogosphere."

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

Too Little Too Late

Be ready for online crisis response...or else

The Internet is the center of information today. What this means for businesses is that when a crisis breaks, their fans, critics, and everyone in between will flock to the Web for the latest details. If this happens and the business has no web presence, then things get ugly, and fast.

In an article for this week's Crisis Manager newsletter, social media expert Lisa Chapman describes a crisis where a small group of angry bloggers caught direct sales giant Amway unprepared for online crisis management, costing the company hundreds of millions and further damaging an already-battered reputation in the process.

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

Crisis Manager Newsletter

PR Disaster & Dealing with a Badly Babbling Blog

It's that time again, a new Crisis Manager newsletter is out, and with it comes more guest articles from professionals aimed at improving your crisis management skills. This week, our focus was on the topic of social media - Twitter, Facebook, blogs and the like. First up, social media expert Lisa Chapman takes a look at the PR disaster that took a chunk out of Amway's reputation (and pocket book), all because of a weak Web presence and lack of social media skills. Following that, Tom Gable, CEO of Gable PR, gives some advice on how to deal with rumor and innuendo in the "badly babbling blogosphere," complete with a handy checklist!

Still not subscribed? Find this issue and many more, right here.

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

What is Social Media?

And what can it do for me?

Many business owners are still unsure what the purpose of social media is. Most have the general idea that it can be used for some type of marketing or communication, but the actual ins and outs are a mystery, and they often approach it from the wrong angle. In this quote from a post on the k2media blog, Kate McKinney describes the relationship between business and social media:

The bottom line is this: social media for businesses is about marketing – and lead generation and sales and reputation management AND customer service. YOU can’t decide that it’s going to be about only one or two things in that list. Your customers will decide for you. So you’d better be ready.

The only way to be ready is to prepare, and train, for potential situations. In addition to this, there needs to be some sort of base established. While it is better than nothing, it's just not enough to create social media accounts when the need for crisis management arises. You won't have the followers, and people looking for information won't even think to visit your page unless you've established that relevant news and information will be posted there.

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

Keep it Honest

Stakeholders reward transparency in communication

Maintain honesty and integrity:

Every business model should be molded around these two pillars, but while you’re in the eye of the media, (more than ever) maintaining honesty and integrity is crucial. Executing this simple concept can be difficult, but if you’re at fault, accept responsibility and always point to yourself before pushing blame onto others. In 1982, Johnson & Johnson conducted a nationwide product recall when seven people were killed from cyanide poisoning in Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules.  The recall resulted in a more than $100 million loss in sales, and although Johnson & Johnson was not directly responsible for the tampering of the product, the company assumed responsibility to ensure public safety. This act of morality helped the company survive and restored the public’s faith and trust in the Tylenol brand.

This advice, from an article by BLASTmedia's Julie Zaitz, seems simple, yet many organizations fail to meet these standards. In fact even J&J, the example provided in the article, has suffered enormous reputation damage after being called out for dishonest practices in relation to a more recent string of recalls, the latest event of which involved secretly sending employees throughout the country to buy up Motrin in order to avoid a recall.

Stakeholders reward honest crisis communication, and although things may look bleak initially, with the right response you can build their confidence in your ability to handle adversity.

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

UnGoogle Yourself

Not everything on the Web is forever

The general theory held by most people is that once something is published on the Web, it is all but impossible to remove. While this is true much of the time, in some cases you can actually modify or wipe damaging search results, and with the ever-increasing number of E-reporters expanding the grey area that many journalists now work in, this is quickly becoming a necessary skill. In an article for our Crisis Manager newsletter, crisis communications consultant Mark Macias gave some tips on, as he says, "How To UnGoogle Yourself" before permanent damage is done.

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

Lessons from Deepwater

BP insider gives observations on lessons to learn from the crisis

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was, hands down, the most talked about crisis of the last year. Overall BP received a serious bashing over its handling of the entire issue, especially after ex-CEO Tony Hayward's series of bad quotes, and, as smart organizations do, it has learned from the mistakes made during the crisis management process.

To that note, this weeks Crisis Manager newsletter features an article by Neil Chapman, ex-head of communications for BP's Refining and Marketing business and the man that ran the media room for BP's Unified Joint Information Center during the "Deepwater Horizon Incident." In his article, Chapman gives his own observations as to how others can look at the entire incident to find lessons relevant to their own organizations.

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

Crisis Manager: Goodbye 2010 - Inside Deepwater

Crisis management tips and advice from the pros

Our first Crisis Manager of the new year is here, and with it comes guest articles from two highly experienced professionals. First, we had the opportunity to bring to you an article by ex-BP head of communications Neil Chapman, that tells of lessons learned from doing crisis management for the Deepwater Horizon spill, as well as giving an insiders view of many things that BP was critiqued for during the incident. Coming on the heels of that is a piece by crisis communications consultant Mark Macias that seeks to answer the question of "How to UnGoogle Yourself," or how to combat an onslaught of negative online information.

Missed an issue? The Crisis Manager archives are available free, here.

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

Chik-fil-A Flubs Cri-sis Management

Lax response hurts popular fast food chain

Executives at Chick-fil-A had these days circled on their calendars long ago: It was to be Spicy Chicken Biscuit Premiere Week, a public-relations-sparked rollout of the company's most exciting offering since last year's Spicy Chicken Sandwich. Then on Tuesday, Good As You broke the news that the chicken chain is an official sponsor of two marriage seminars associated with the right-wing, anti-gay marriage Pennsylvania Family Institute -- not exactly the headlines the CEO's had envisioned.

After outrage spread over the Internet, the chain's name was erased from the website promoting the event, but no word yet on whether the sponsorship has been cancelled. A tweet from the Georgia-based company on Tuesday stated "For those seeing reports of a CFA sponsorship w/ the Penn Family Inst, we are looking into the issue and will provide a response ASAP."

As this quote from a Miami Times blog post by Lee Klein explains, it has not been a good week for Chik-fil-A, the popular chicken-centric fast food chain. While some backlash was unavoidable, Chik-fil-A's slow shift into crisis management mode caused unnecessary reputation damage to be taken . It took the organization a full day to do so much as issue a holding statement on Twitter and following that there was a gap of over 24 hours during which rumor and nasty sentiments toward the brand flooded the Web, before a follow up, or any more communication at all, was posted. While Chik-fil-A seems to have put out the fire temporarily with the claim that the donation was the act of a single franchise owner simply seeking to "serve his local community," the brand's past history of supporting controversial right-wing beliefs will continue to haunt it as long as these incidents keep popping up.

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

Leadership in a Crisis

Crisis management starts from the top

In times of crisis, people look to their leaders for guidance. Whether you're a politician or the CEO of a company, you will be expected to be at the forefront of any crisis management efforts. In a recent blog post for the Harvard Business Review, leadership expert John Baldoni listed some tips that apply to anyone in a position of authority:

Take a moment to figure out what's going on. An executive I know experienced a major disruption in service to his company. He was the person in charge and he told me that at the first response meeting everyone started talking at once. The chatter was nervous response — not constructive — so he delegated responsibilities and then called for a subsequent meeting in an hour's time. This also helped to impose order on a chaotic situation.

Act promptly, not hurriedly. A leader must provide direction and respond to the situation in a timely fashion. But acting hurriedly only makes people nervous. You can act with deliberateness as well as speed. Or as legendary coach John Wooden advised, "Be quick but don't hurry."

Manage expectations. When trouble strikes, people want it to be over right now — but seldom is this kind of quick resolution possible. It falls to the leader in charge to address the size and scope of the crisis. You don't want to alarm people, yet do not be afraid to speak to the magnitude of the situation. Winston Churchill was a master at summing up challenges but offering a response at the same time. As he famously said when taking office in 1940, "You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory; victory at all costs; victory in spite of all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival."

Demonstrate control. When things are happening quickly, no one may have control, but a leader can assume control. That is, you do not control the disaster — be it man-made or natural — but you can control the response. A leader puts himself into the action and brings the people and resources to bear. Think of Red Adair, who made a name for himself putting out oil fires that no one else could. A raging blaze may seem uncontrollable but Adair knew could control the way it was extinguished.

Keep loose. Not only does this apply to personal demeanor — a leader can never afford to lose composure — it applies to the leader's ability to adapt rapidly. A hallmark of a crisis is its ability to change quickly; your first response may not be your final response. In these situations, a leader cannot be wedded to a single strategy. She must continue to take in new information, listen carefully and consult with the frontline experts who know what's happening.

Competence in these areas comes with experience, although it can be augmented with tools such as crisis simulation and media training. Remember, the strength of the leader will be seen as a representation of the organization as a whole. A strong, confident, and active leader will go a long ways in shifting the public's perception into the positive.

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

Mayo Clinic Crisis Management

Active social media use makes crisis commmunication easier

The pages of this blog are filled with examples of what not to do, where crisis management has steered off course or just gone bad. That's not the whole picture though, there are organizations out there that get it, and put "it" into practice. One example is the famed Mayo Clinic, as described in this quote from a Liveworld SocialVoice article by Bryan Person:

Under the stewardship of Lee Aase, the highly regarded Mayo has played a leading role among healthcare organizations in creating and sharing content through social channels since as far back as 2005.

That social media presence extends into its Facebook, where the clinic regularly posts updates on its official Page, including hundreds of photos and videos, while also answering questions from the public on its Wall and in discussion forums.
 
So when fans spoke out on the Wall en masse last week in the wake of purportedly racist remarks sent in an e-mail by one its doctors, radiologist Aivars Slucis, Mayo was in a credible position to respond.
Mayo allowed its fans comments to stand on the Facebook page, making only periodic posts to acknowledge and communicate disapproval of Slucis' actions. With stakeholders already used to checking the Mayo Facebook for news and updates, the company was able to deftly shift the discussion from there to a specific forum and return the focus to what the organization does, rather than the inappropriate actions of one doctor.

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