Author: Jonathan & Erik Bernstein

Would you be ready to respond?

Google Plus Pages for businesses and brands are barely a week old, and already the neophyte social network appears to have its first identity crisis: Someone has created a Google Plus Page for Bank of America trashing the nation’s largest bank with a series of mocking photos, images and other posts, according to Reuters social media editor Anthony DeRosa on Twitter Monday night.

Indeed, visiting the page at the time of this posting reveals a series of messages obviously meant to satirize the bank’s overall business practices.

 

 

“Starting tomorrow, all Occupy Wall Street protestors with Bank of America accounts around the country will have their assets seized as part of BofA’s new Counter-Financial-Terrorism policy,” reads a post on November 8, “You will sit down and shut up, or we will foreclose on you.”

This quote, from a Talking Points Memo article by Carl Franzen, describes the first Google Plus “brandjacking,” which began just after businesses got the go-ahead to create their own pages on the service. While it seemed fairly apparent that the page was a fake, it still hit the company where it hurts, portraying Bank of America leadership and practices in an extremely negative light. Although thousands viewed the page, and several active Twitter discussions popped up regarding the situation, it still took over a week for BofA to contact Google in order to have the offending page removed.

Look at the situation from this perspective – if it took that long, then it’s likely nobody at BofA even knew about the page for a WEEK.

Where was the social media monitoring?? Where was the brand protection??

This is the reality of business as we become more and more enmeshed with the digital world. Your reputation is at the very core of your organization’s success, and protecting it means staying aware 24/7.

There is no excuse.

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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, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is a writer, publicist and SEO associate for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

If you answered no, you’re fooling yourself.

Even those in the most benign of industries are bound to encounter situations where their reputation is in danger. Let your reputation get hurt and you’ll soon see the bottom line follow. One of the best ways to prevent this is by doing regular vulnerability audits, a multi-disciplinary risk assessment meant to determine both current and potential areas of weakness and strength, and to identify potential solutions.

Ragan’s Matt Wilson recently interviewed Jonathan Bernstein about why you need to conduct a vulnerability audit, now, and why some organizations still won’t. A quote:

Most companies simply don’t conduct vulnerability assessments, because they’re often regarded as unnecessary expenses.

But Bernstein compares them to an inspection from a fire marshal: necessary and thorough. They should look at every aspect of the company. “There is a dearth of crisis management fire inspection going on,” he says.

Most crisis plans are based on response rather than known vulnerabilities, Bernstein says. And that’s a big problem, because what if the company, in the middle of a major crisis, discovers its phone system can’t handle a flood of calls or its website can’t handle thousands of visits all at once?

“All the plans in the world won’t stand up if you don’t have the infrastructure for them,” he says.

Much like athletes run through countless drills to build muscle memory, your organization must practice crisis scenarios on a regular basis to stay in shape to react properly. To discover what type of crises you’re most likely to encounter, you have to have the courage to ask the question, “Where am I vulnerable?”

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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, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is a writer, publicist and SEO associate for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Preparation Pays

Are you ready for a crisis? You may think you’ve got your bases covered, but unless you’re running regular crisis simulations and training sessions, I’d be willing to bet that there are serious gaps in your planning. This weakness is a common one, as Jonathan Bernstein pointed out in a recent interview for Entrepreneur magazine:

The failure to plan tops Bernstein’s hit parade of crisis management mistakes. A close second? The failure to provide backup for critical suppliers, key personnel, computer systems (off-site, please) and pretty much any piece of your business that you can’t live without. He proffers this food services scenario: “If all the lettuce from a particular area is deemed to be suspect, and that’s where you get all your lettuce, what are you going to be putting on your burgers this week if you don’t have a backup supplier?”

With some slight imagination it’s not hard to change this situation to fit nearly any business. Rely on your website to do business? What happens when your provider’s servers go down? Do you have any key admin personnel without whom everything goes to heck? Got a backup for her or him?

Establishing secondary providers and other forms of backup are just a small part of a complete crisis plan. Take a look around your business and identify your weak spots, there may be more than you think!

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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, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is a writer, publicist and SEO associate for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Jonathan Bernstein was interviewed this morning by host Bo Bounds on the “Out of Bounds” ESPN radio talk show out of football-crazy Jackson, Mississippi. A solid 15 minutes of commentary on what is shaping up to be not only the worst scandal in college sports history, but also a classic case of wrong-way crisis management.

Thanks to the “Out of Bounds” team for making Bernstein Re Penn State Scandal .mp3 file immediately available to us.

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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, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is a writer, publicist and SEO associate for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Sparks fly over broken site

As the technical problems plaguing the new USAJobs website continue into a third week, Sen. John Kerry ( D-Mass.), called on Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel to intervene and to consider putting the website operation out for competitive bid.

The federal job search Web portal, which is the third version of the site, was launched on Oct. 11 after the Office of Personnel Management spent 18 months developing it in-house. Since the debut, the agency has been addressing thousands of user complaints about operation of the site.

In a letter on Oct. 26, Kerry asked VanRoekel to “intervene, investigate and resolve the problems with USAJOBS as soon as possible.”

This quote, from a Federal Computer Week article by Alice Lipowicz, illustrates the problems that have plagued the job search site that is supposed to help individuals find work, especially with federal agencies, in today’s rough economic climate. The problem is that once the government took over operations from the previous contracted (and very experienced) operator, Monster.com, things went haywire.

With the page becoming a practically unusable money sink, the government is facing criticism from users and the media. What’s worse for them is that the main option for fixing the whole mess is taking the site completely offline or asking agencies to post job opportunities on their own sites, both of which are far from ideal.

Bottom line, if you aren’t an expert, stick with someone who is. The government’s aim was to save money by taking the site’s operation in house, but without the experience and skill of Monster.com behind it, the entire situation became an embarrassing mess.

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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, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is a writer, publicist and SEO associate for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Protect your good name

Whether you know it or not, people are talking about your company. Thanks to the Web, customers, potential customers, stakeholders, and even reporters are communicating their thoughts and opinions about you. This is great while things are going well, but make a misstep and you’ll find the conversation quickly takes a darker tone.

Having a solid reputation in good times means more business and happy stakeholders. The state of your reputation when you encounter a crisis, however, could mean the difference between a minor blip and shutting your doors for good.

On Tuesday, December 13, Jonathan Bernstein will present a free webinar, “Reputation Combat: Protecting Your Company’s Online Reputation.” In it, Jonathan will lend his 25+ years of experience online to answering questions about how to monitor and respond to online threats, as well as other aspects of Internet-based reputation management. There will be valuable insights for experts and novices alike, so tune in and stay out of trouble.

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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, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is a writer, publicist and SEO associate for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

We’ve all struggled with the question: how do I get my message across? While there are many strategies, as is the case in life, simplicity is often best. In this guest article, PR pro Jerry Brown explains how to…

Simplify and Repeat

“Remember the . . .”

“Damn the torpedoes, full . . .”

“Ask not . . .”

“I have a . . . ”

Chances are pretty good you can complete all of the phrases listed above — even if you don’t remember who said all of them or precisely why.

Good messaging is easy to understand. It resonates with your audience. And it’s easy to remember. Your message is like the punch line of a joke. If you have to explain it, it doesn’t work.

Hearing a joke once is usually enough. It loses its punch after that. Your message is just the opposite. The more you repeat it — and the more the rest of us hear it — the more powerful it becomes.

The moral of the story? Make your message simple. Speak to the needs, fears or desires of your audience. And repeat it as often as you can. Once you’re so tired of saying it that you can’t stand listening to yourself the rest of us are beginning to hear what you’re saying.

Two books I strongly recommend if you want to add power to your message are Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s what People Hear by Dr. Frank Luntz and Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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Jerry Brown is a seasoned PR professional and former journalist. He currently heads the firm pr-IMPACT and can be reached at jerry@pr-impact.com.

Admit mistakes, create solutions, move on

At some point every organization will encounter a crisis. What sets the greats apart is the way they handle the situation, and what path they take after recovery. In a recent Businessweek article, leadership expert Marshall Goldsmith hit the nail on the head with this suggestion:

Ask each person to reflect on the question “What can I learn from this crisis?” Anyone can provide leadership when times are easy. Great leaders—and great teams—step up when times are tough. Have each team member, rather than get lost in whining, focus on how he or she can grow from this experience.

I would take this one step further and not only focus internally on how the individuals and company as a whole can grow, but also share these thoughts with stakeholders. There’s little that helps to move on after a crisis more than telling people what you’re doing to fix the issues. Stop, brainstorm, and move towards becoming a better business.

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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, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is a writer, publicist and SEO associate for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Fictional story stirs discussion

“Margin Call” is a new film that aims to recreate the rapid fire nature of today’s crisis management. While it misses the mark in terms of reality, especially in the ethics department, it does open up avenues for discussion of real world crisis management.

Forbes business writer Coeli Carr took this opportunity to speak with Bernstein Crisis Management president Jonathan Bernstein about the realities of crisis management today. A quote:

“Thanks to the Internet – social media, web sites, email – an organization can now suffer as much damage in one hour as used to occur in a week,” says Bernstein, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management (McGraw-Hill, 2011) which releases next month. “One of my five tenets of crisis communication is the need to be prompt. In the absence of communication, rumor and innuendo fill the gap.”

Jonathan’s new book aims to educate managers, both current and aspiring, on the best ways to handle the many aspects of crisis management, including policy,training, prevention, response, communication, and more.

It only takes one look at today’s news to see what you need a solid crisis management plan, so get going, or you could be tomorrow’s headlines.

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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, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is a writer, publicist and SEO associate for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

A simple way to defend against crisis

Dark sites have been around almost as long as the public Web, but their importance has never been more clear than in today’s “instant response” climate. In post on his blog, Blogging Me, Blogging You, social media pro Ed Lee explained why you need to develop dark sites of your own:

Online, it is vital to maintain a positive and accurate perception of an organization, especially in the face of a crisis, with timely and accurate information that your constituents care about.

Therefore, it is common for organizations, especially those facing multiple potential issues, to have several dark sites, one for each identified vulnerability or corporate risk. Typically, a dark site contains pre-approved messaging and documents such as news releases, pictures, official statements and other background information, as the specific details will only be added right before their release.

One of our mantras is, “in the absence of communication, rumor and innuendo fill the gap.” Having dark sites waiting in the wings means that you can be first out with the information that reporters and stakeholders are desperately seeking, which in effect gives you control of your own story. Honestly, you would be surprised at how much heat even a holding statement that acknowledges there’s been a problem and promises information soon can take off of a building crisis.

Of course, having dark sites for every known possibility won’t help if you don’t keep them updated. You have to respect confidentiality and legal concerns, but share as much information as possible about what occurred and what you’re doing to fix it. This should be coordinated with your social media team if they aren’t directly handling it, as you will be getting questions there, and Twitter, Facebook, and the like can be extremely helpful in funneling information to your stakeholders.

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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, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is a writer, publicist and SEO associate for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]