Month: February 2019

Create a rock-solid foundation for crisis communications

Crisis communications plans cannot be cookie-cutter, but there are certain principles that apply to just about every situation. Get the core bits down pat, and you’ll leave yourself significantly more room to think about incident-specific actions or outside-the-box solutions to the issue at hand.

In a simple yet highly informative infographic, India-based reputation firm Astrum did a great job of presenting Crisis Communications 101 in visual form:

[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

We love to connect with readers on LinkedIn! Connect with Jonathan | Connect with Erik

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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When you run into a situation that threatens to disrupt operations, reputation, and your bottom line, a brand-new “To Do Now!” list snaps into existence with alarming speed. Over our decades of experience working with clients in nearly every industry, we’ve found a few steps to be most important in getting off to the right start.

Here are the 3 most important things to do when a crisis hits:

1. Breathe. Yes there’s an urgent need for response, yes you have 300 different things to do, but it won’t help to panic. Trust in your plan, take a brief moment to gather yourself, and head into the fray with confidence. You should probably cancel any dinner reservations though…you’ll be here a while. If you don’t have a plan in place it’s likely the cost of your recovery could double. We’ve seen it happen more than once.
2. Gather your team. Every organization should have a crisis team with the authority to make major decisions on short notice. You’ll want key representatives from groups like management, legal, PR, and any specific area experts called for, to give you a well-rounded view. It’s important that you can gather this team quickly, and while technology continues to make this easier every year you will need to account for the possibility of major events rendering even telephones temporarily unusable.
3. Evaluate. What exactly are we looking at, and what level of response is warranted? While you don’t want to under-react, doing something like sending the CEO to appear live in response to a smaller localized issue can lead audiences to believe there’s a bigger problem than truly exists. Gauging this is easier said than done, though some basic crisis preparedness – things like defining what constitutes different levels of crises for your own organization – helps tremendously.

The most important thing to remember is that this knowledge, along with things like crisis planning, training, and prevention efforts need to be incorporated into daily practice. It’s not fun to think “What could go wrong?”, but it’s a lot better than spending time looking at lost profits and customers flocking to the competition.

[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

We love to connect with readers on LinkedIn! Connect with Jonathan | Connect with Erik

Don’t create a social media crisis for your own brand!

Before posting anything to social media you need to ask yourself – “What could go wrong here?”. While the specific concerns vary depending on your industry, region, and any number of other factors, they may include items like “Does this mean something different when translated?” or, “Could this be taken the wrong way by those who aren’t insiders?”. The important thing is that you remain aware serious social media trouble is only one tap of the SEND button away. One thing that can help tremendously is knowing what entire categories of posts you should steer clear of, and the web experts at Red did a nice job of sharing “8 Types of Social Media Posts Your Business Should Avoid” in a recent infographic:

[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

We love to connect with readers on LinkedIn! Connect with Jonathan | Connect with Erik

Exploring the power of online reputation

Trying to push a case with gut feeling is rarely the most effective. Facts make the best proof, and a solid presentation like that found in this TrustYou infographic helps make it clear why more and more organizations are investing in online reputation management:

[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

We love to connect with readers on LinkedIn! Connect with Jonathan | Connect with Erik

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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