Author: Jonathan & Erik Bernstein

This past week on The Crisis Show, hosts Jonathan Bernstein, Rich Klein, and Melissa Agnes had no shortage of topics to cover. The Aurora theater shootings were a grim reminder to us all of the possible dangers in everyday life, and our hosts discussed the implications of this act, as well as some ways to detect the potential for violent crime early on. Also on the agenda was Tony Robbins’ insensitive response after several conference attendees burned their feet walking across hot coals (yes, that really is part of the conference!), Penn State & the NCAA, poor social media policy from the IOC, prejudice in the Boy Scouts of America, and more.

You can catch The Crisis Show live every Wednesday at 4 PST/7 EST. Of course if you can’t make it live, you can always find past episodes on our YouTube channel.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[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, and co-host of The Crisis Show. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Social media crisis prevention done right

Not long ago we wrote about the U.S. Navy making use of social media for crisis management and community building. Now, we’ve got another great example of social media policy from their counterparts at the U.S. Air Force. “Navigating the Social Network” is a comprehensive document that serves to educate and inform about the proper use of social media. The slick PDF contains guidelines for everyone from Airmen:

In general, the Air Force views personal social media sites positively and respects your rights as Americans to use them to express yourself. However, by the nature of your profession, you are always on the record and must represent our core values. When you engage via social media, don’t do anything that will discredit yourself or the Air Force. Use your best judgment because your writing can have serious consequences.

…to their families:

Don’t give criminals a chance to get your information. Be careful of the personal details, photos and videos you post to your profile on social networks. It’s highly recommended that you set privacy settings so that only “friends” can see specifics. Even after establishing privacy settings, don’t assume your information will remain private; there’s no guarantee. Always use common sense: For example, don’t inform potential criminals you’re going out of town!

“Navigating the Social Network” also covers several other common pitfalls of social media, and includes tips on protecting operations security and preventing social engineering scams. It also provides guidelines for analysis, and procedure for using social media during a crisis, including real world examples like the recent tsunami in Japan.

If every corporation created a social media plan of this quality…well, we’d have a lot less fodder for this blog! Being informed and prepared before crises strike is the key to managing them well, and by ensuring that airmen and their families see this document, the Air Force has drastically cut down on its risk of encountering a social media crisis.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[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, and co-host of The Crisis Show. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

THE OUTRAGE TRAP
Opinion Piece by Jonathan Bernstein

What do these three claims have in common?

• President Obama’s finance team and Nancy Pelosi are recommending a 1% transaction tax on all financial transactions.
• Mitt Romney said, “Of course I’ll win, I’m the white guy.”
• Target Corporation does not contribute to veterans’ causes and provides corporate grants only for gay and lesbian causes.

They are all examples of what I’m calling an “Outrage Trap,” which I define as follows:

Outrage Trap: A communication containing false information designed to elicit outrage that furthers the purposes of the trap setter.

You see them in your email and online every day, and sometimes you pass them on to your friends without fact checking at a site such as Snopes.com because the messages really push your buttons. They elicit outrage, as they’re designed to do, and further the cause of whatever political or activist group (or members thereof) from which the dishonest communication originated.

This devious form of crisis communications – designed to create a crisis for the target of the message – has been enhanced by the speed of the Internet rumor mill. The best way to quash any rumor is to get the facts out quickly. Unfortunately, within an hour or less. thousands or even millions of people online have already seen the inaccurate and unchallenged information.

The best solution, for all of us as communication consumers, is to remember that the buck stops with the person in the mirror. Don’t be a dupe. Don’t automatically believe what you learn from a single social or traditional media source. Fact checking is everyone’s responsibility.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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Hasty announcement will lead to trouble down the line

The Freeh Report contains seriously damning reports of Joe Paterno’s help in covering up allegations against Jerry Sandusky, and even as Paterno’s statue is removed from the Penn State campus, his family is continuing to rail against the idea that he played any part in the matter. Most recently, they have announced that they believe the Freeh Report has missed “critical information,” and stated that additional information clearing Paterno’s name “will emerge.”

While it is their right to disagree with the Freeh Report, and to seek their own answers, the way the Paterno family has handled the announcement has backed them into a corner. In the following quote, from an AP article, published by Sports Illustrated, Jonathan Bernstein explains what advice he would have given the family:

Public relations expert Jonathan Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management Inc. and the author of texts on crisis communications, said he would have advised the Paterno family to issue a “short message of compassion” for Sandusky’s victims and then conduct its own investigation quietly if it disagreed with the conclusions of the Freeh report.

Announcing the probe now could wind up backfiring on the family, he said, because there will be pressure to release the findings publicly and “the results of the investigation could end up corroborating what was said in the Freeh report.”

In any crisis management situation, you want to have the facts in front of you before guaranteeing any specific information. Things would have gone much better for the Paterno family if they had simply run a quiet investigation of their own and shared their findings, if they did indeed contradict the Freeh Report, that is. If not, then they’d simply need not announce the investigation, and let the issue rest.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[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, and co-host of The Crisis Show. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Dishonest promotion leads to massive fine

Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline will plead guilty and pay $3 billion to resolve federal criminal and civil inquiries arising from the company’s illegal promotion of some of its products, its failure to report safety data and alleged false price reporting, the Justice Department announced Monday.

The company agreed to plead guilty to three criminal counts, including two counts of introducing misbranded drugs — Paxil and Wellbutrin — and one count of failing to report safety data about the drug Avandia to the Food and Drug Administration.

With reports like this one, quoted from a USA Today article, still making headlines weeks after the story first broke, you’d think GlaxoSmithKline would be running in crisis management mode. Not so, however.

Why, you may ask? Because, as BCM President Jonathan Bernstein put it in last week’s episode of The Crisis Show, the phrase “unethical pharmaceutical company” has become redundant. Glaxo and its peers act as if they factor billions of dollars in fines and legal settlements into the cost of doing business, and the majority of consumers live with the knowledge that these pharmaceutical giants don’t exactly share their sense of ethics.

The good news for those harmed by Glaxo’s dishonesty is that by agreeing to pay the government fines, Glaxo has made an admission of guilt, which should open the organization up to legal attacks, including batteries of class action lawsuits assembled by lawyers seeking an easy payday. And if they consider down that path, they should remember that Arthur Andersen was destroyed by the court of public opinion, not by a court of law.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[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, and co-host of The Crisis Show. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Why you should care

Editor’s note: The following is a powerful personal story from Dan Stoneking, Director of FEMA’s Office of External Affairs, that speaks to the importance of proper crisis preparation.

On Saturday, 29 June, I woke at 3:00 a.m., startled at how hot it was in our room. I looked around and saw that the clock and the night light were both off. We had lost power as part of the severe storm that raced across the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. With the air-conditioning off and the heat already rising during a record-setting heat wave, I was concerned for my baby daughter Chloe in her crib beside the bed and for my toddler daughter Ivy in her room one floor below.

I reached out and grabbed a flashlight, because it was there. I gathered bottled water, food and my emergency kit, because they were there. I went outside to load the car and found a tree on top of it. I removed the tree, because I had the tools. I gathered my family and we got in the car, able to go wherever we needed, because I planned ahead and we had a full tank of gas. Our family responded and recovered quickly because we prepared and had a plan. It is not a motto. It’s a choice. And each of you can help make sure that many more people make the right choices.

Earlier this year we kicked off our campaign to get all Americans to “Pledge to Prepare.” Based on requests from many of you, for the first time ever this is a yearlong campaign that will culminate with National Preparedness Month in September. The goal and theme this year is to turn awareness into action – in other words, don’t just sign up; sign up and do something meaningful, measurable and visible. And there are just a few – very few – key points:

• Even if you signed up last year, you need to sign up again. It takes 30 seconds (1/3 of the time it took last year because we listened to you.)
• When you sign up you get countless tools, forums and calendars to share, promote and re-purpose the best programs and ideas. Feel free to borrow the widget banner below.
• Don’t just sign up at your headquarters level; ask every one of your components and team members to take the Pledge. Why help one prepare when we can easily help so many more.
• Spread the preparedness word far and wide. After you sign up, put this in your newsletter, company distribution, leadership communiqué, et al.
• Lead by example. Don’t just do something, but tell us what you are doing so we can use it to encourage others to take action, and boast of your successes.

Please help us ensure that next time there’s a severe storm, power outage, flooding, wildfire or other disaster that all of the people that you touch in your business and your life know and have done what matters – because you invested this time, right now, in what matters. Take care.

Dan Stoneking
Director, Private Sector
Office of External Affairs, FEMA
daniel.stoneking@fema.dhs.gov

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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A $3B scandal, more Toyota recalls, and Swedish Tweets

Corporate crises were a major topic on this week’s episode of The Crisis Show. Hosts Jonathan Bernstein, Melissa Agnes, and Rich Klein talked about Glaxo’s $3B fail, resulting from a guilty plea to several federal charges involving unethical practices. They also hit on Toyota’s never ending recall, as well as the failed Twitter experiment in Sweden.

New to the show? We’re streaming live every Wednesday at 4 pm PST/7 pm EST, and you can find back episodes on The Crisis Show’s YouTube channel. If you’d like to be a part of the show, submit a question at our “Ask the Experts” page, or just Tweet with hashtag #TheCrisisShow during our live broadcasts.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[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, and co-host of The Crisis Show. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

A reputation at risk

Toyota just can’t get out of recall trouble. Some three years after the first runaway acceleration problems forced Toyota to begin recalling various models, the company is calling back two different versions of its RX SUV because their floor mats can trap the gas pedal down, sending the cars out of control. And this just weeks after other models were recalled for the risk of potential fires.

Obviously this is a huge risk to not only Toyota drivers and their families, but also everyone around them. Compounding the crisis, Toyota is once again facing investigation from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as to whether it informed authorities to potential safety problems in a timely manner. Here’s more on the situation, from a Huffington Post article by Tom Krishner:

If NHTSA decides to open an investigation, it wouldn’t be the first dustup between Toyota and the agency. In 2010 and 2011, Toyota paid a record $48.8 million in fines to the government for failing to promptly alert regulators to safety problems.

Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons said the company is cooperating with NHTSA and provided information in a timely manner after investigators asked for it.

Owners of the Lexus SUVs should take out the driver’s side floor mat and have their vehicles serviced as quickly as possible, NHTSA said.

They will be notified of the problem by mail in early August, and dealers will fix it for free, Toyota said.

Let’s see…you’re trying to convince the NHTSA and the public that safety is your utmost concern…but you’ll allow the owners of those runaway vehicle candidates to drive around for another full month (Tom’s HuffPost article was published 6/29) before they receive any type of notification.

Rebuilding a reputation that’s fallen flat is not about how you talk the talk Toyota, you’ve got to walk the walk (drive the drive?). Put real effort into making sure people are as safe as possible and it will show. Drag this crisis out for much longer, and the brand may fall too far to recover. If the name “Toyota” is inextricably associated with the word “recall,” it’s game over.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[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, and co-host of The Crisis Show. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

What’s going on in crisis management this week?

The Crisis Show won’t be airing this week due to July 4 celebrations here in the U.S., but in case you haven’t been along for the ride, we’ve got every episode waiting on YouTube for you to view.

In the third Crisis Show, hosts Jonathan Bernstein, Rich Klein, and Melissa Agnes looked at yet another incident in the string of data breaches that have plagued large organizations for the past year+. This time, it’s the Royal Bank of Scotland that was hit! Our hosts also examined how public opinion forced officials at the Toronto mall collapse to up their rescue efforts, took a look at the often-outrageous world of celebrity Tweets, and discussed the Congressional vote that led to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder being found in contempt.

Haven’t caught The Crisis Show show live yet? Give it a watch, and if you like what you see, join us once again on July 11 at 4 pm PST/7 pm EST.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[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, and co-host of The Crisis Show. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Don’t clam up when it comes to crisis management

When a crisis hits, communicators need to be ready to clearly explain the 5Ws: who, what, why, where and when, plus the steps they are taking to resolve the issue. Activity to communicate this across owned, social, hybrid and traditional should be carefully planned. Communicators should consider utilizing video to engage stakeholders as it has high search visibility and engagement rates, but most importantly is more authentic than a written statement.

We’ve seen many examples of the suggestion in this quote, from an article on Ben Cotton’s Social Web Thing, being put to work, and it’s undoubtedly the right path to take. Remember the footage of Domino’s employees violating customer’s food that went viral, throwing the company into crisis? That fire was put out by one CEO’s deft video response, which drew a huge audience itself, and kicked off positive discussion about the brand online.

The fact that we do so much of our communication via text today has not diminished the impact of seeing an actual human speaking, but rather enhanced it. When you make that eventual mistake, an accident strikes, whatever it is, stow away the legalese and corporate jargon, and just explain to your stakeholders what happened, who’s affected, and how you’ll fix it. Follow through, and you might even come out of the situation with a stronger reputation than you had before.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[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, and co-host of The Crisis Show. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]