Author: Jonathan & Erik Bernstein

Control your story online

As it stands today, crisis management is very much entwined with social media. Whether you like it or not, when trouble hits you’ve got to quickly meet your stakeholders in the places they frequent in order to maintain control of your story, and that means being ready. In an article for business2community.com, David Vap provided some solid tips for getting your organization in position to handle social crises:

1. Understand your organization. Review external communication processes, social capabilities, and corporate culture. This is where we recommend scenario planning. Key questions could include: how would we respond if a vocal customer complaint suddenly went viral? How would we respond to a brandjacking attack?
2. Create a new social mindset in your organization. The social shift calls for a mindset characterized by transparency, accountability, employee empowerment, and planned spontaneity. Technology is certainly a crucial component of dealing with crisis communication, but preparing processes and practices must come first.
3. Know your consumers. Listen to conversations unfolding on the social web about your brand, and respond/employ proactive social support. Also identify your customer advocates on the social web – they will be invaluable in the event of a crisis.
4. Form a social crisis team. A successful social strategy must cross the boundaries of department and hierarchy because consumers expect a seamless experience. Build a cross-functional team, including a social media manager, a product owner, and at least one executive sponsor. Draw up a social team charter to clarify roles and responsibilities and create an internal collaboration space for this team.
5. Roll out a social crisis communications plan. Develop a playbook with guidelines for the social crisis team. Define an escalation process for potential PR issues. Build feedback into every step so you can adapt. Your plan needs to think through three areas – process and culture (what / who needs to change), technologies and tools (what to use to get there), and key metrics (what to track).

I especially like this list because of step two, “create a new social mindset in your organization.” Far too many businesses create social media accounts and install fancy managing programs but neglect proper training and education, not only stifling possible gains but also creating the risk of improper use, which raises the chance of crisis even further.

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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.]

Bad move sends Food Network star scrambling for crisis management

The Make-A-Wish Foundation is heralded as a fine organization, and celebrities and athletes are more than happy to spend some time making dreams come true. Well, most of them are. Apparently Ina Garten, star of the Food Network’s “Barefoot Contessa” doesn’t have much care for the wishes of a dying child or her own reputation, because she has twice denied the request of one boy and now the press has gotten ahold of the story. A quote, from PR Daily:

The boy, whose name is Enzo, suffers with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and he wanted to meet the celebrity chef after watching her while he was sick in bed. But a rep for Garten said, “As much as [Garten] would like to, it’s absolutely impossible for her to grant every request she receives.”

Really? She has that many request from sick 6-year-olds?

The public outrage toward Garten was so intense—after Enzo’s mom wrote about in the family’s blog—that she finally relented, saying through a spokesperson:

 

 

“Ina became aware of Enzo’s story this weekend and will be calling him today. She looks forward to inviting him to spend some time with her at the Food Network studios.”

Regardless of her eventual acquiescence, no amount of backpedaling will remove the stain that the initial denial has put on Garten’s reputation. The only guaranteed way to improve her image now is to publicly display her willingness to help others through unforced volunteer or charity work.

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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.]

Virginia Tech has just been handed a $55,000 fine for failing to notify students in a “timely manner” following the shooting incident of April 16, 2007. That morning, two students were found murdered in a residence hall, but no notification went out for over an hour, leaving thousands of students vulnerable to another attack, which happened shortly after as 23 year old Cho Seung-Hui began another rampage, killing 30 more people. The school is appealing this decision, and made these statements, quoted from a CNN article:

Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations at Virginia Tech, said Tuesday the school “respectfully disagrees” with the fine.

“As we noted before, neither the Department of Education nor the Clery Act defines ‘timely,’ ” Hincker said in a prepared statement. “The university actions on April 16 were well within the standards and practices in effect at that time.”

And,

University officials disputed the federal findings.

“We believe that Virginia Tech administrators acted appropriately in their response to the tragic events of April 16, 2007, based on the best information then available to them,” Hincker said.

Regardless of who is technically right, Virginia Tech is now taking additional reputation damage as a result of the four-year old case resurfacing and, should it continue to respond in a cold and impersonal manner, will suffer even more. It is possible to claim innocence while still showing remorse and humility, something that the statements from university officials are sorely lacking.

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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.]

Know them, use them

It’s important to remember that your social media accounts are now considered major crisis communications resources, and will be treated as such by the public when trouble comes around. In the midst of a crisis, the last thing you want stakeholders seeking information to see is a Facebook page covered in advertisements for the latest and greatest. While it is possible to handle the transition from typical marketing/communication mode to full on crisis management tool manually, there are several types of programs that can make the switch both faster and easier. This quote, from a PRSA article by Dave Armon, describes a few of the possibilities:

While I don’t know of a magical solution that lets a company’s entire marketing program instantly switch off, there are powerful tools to prevent gaffes within the most widely used social networks. Among the features that apply to crisis situations:

* Moderation consoles that capture posts and comments, matching them against “black lists” of words and phrases that an organization may not want on its Facebook wall. These tools also display comments made to pages that are only weeks or months old, eliminating the possibility of disparaging content being buried deep within a fan page. An “escalation” feature allows questions posed by fans to be e-mailed to experts for faster responses.
* Page management tools to schedule the publication of content in advance. Some crisis scenarios can be anticipated, so approved responses can be loaded into the tool for faster responses. These tools also let administrators suspend campaigns without the intervention of third-party vendors.
* Self-service application dashboards allow organizations to publish customized content quickly for their Facebook page. Using these tools, a company, agency or nonprofit could quickly move from a sales-oriented page to one that distributes information about an incident or engages fans to support benevolent nonprofits.
* Many of today’s consumers gather information in real time. This can lead to big rewards for organizations that learn to behave like media companies, attracting an audience and then earning trust by communicating continuously through the good times as well as the bad.

Tools like these make it possible to keep up the 24/7 crisis management pace that the public demands while still sneaking in the little things like say…food and sleep. There are versions of all of these tools made by various companies and all differ in price and capabilities, so take the time to familiarize yourself with a few and see which works best for your organization. It may seem like extra work now, but it will be much, much more if you end up facing a serious crisis unprepared.

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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.]

Quake leaves residents looking to Prime Minister

After an initial response slowed by the sheer magnitude of the disaster, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has stepped up to his role as the head of crisis management for the beleaguered country. Following yet another explosion at the Fukushima power plant, Kan took the reins, as described in this quote from a National Post article by Peter Goodspeed:

Within hours, the Japanese PM had announced he was personally taking control of crisis management at Fukushima. He appointed a committee of government and TEPCO officials to report directly to him; had the transport ministry impose a no-fly zone for 30 kilometres around the badly damaged plant; and ordered Japan’s Self-Defence Forces to shift their attention to relief, instead of rescue.

Later, at a nationally televised news conference, where he spoke to reporters while dressed in a powder-blue emergency services jump-suit, Mr. Kan acknowledged the radiation peril and called for calm.

“There is a danger of even higher radiation levels,” he said.

“We are doing everything we can to contain the leakage. I know that people are very worried, but I would like to ask you to act calmly.”

Much like the head of a company, a country’s leader is looked to in times of crisis for guidance and as an example of how to behave. With the immediate threat of nuclear meltdown and the task of reconstruction lying beyond that, Kan has a long road to travel, but by remaining strong and taking charge, he encourages his people to do the same.

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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.]

Twitter and Facebook lead the way following massive earthquake

Social media has been at the forefront of crisis communications during every disaster in recent memory, and this trend has continued in the aftermath of the massive earthquake in Japan. In an article for Mashable.com, Sarah Kessler described the various ways people are getting connected:

Google often creates Person Finder sites during emergencies that allow people to leave information about their whereabouts or information about a missing person. At the time of writing, there were about 158,700 records for Japan — more than 140,000 more records than were submitted to the last such site it set up for the victims of the Christchurch earthquake in February.

The Red Cross site operates in a similar manner, publishing a list of names with contact information of people who want to make it known that they are alive and people whose relatives have indicated they are missing.

But perhaps the most simple method people in Japan have turned to for connecting with loved ones throughout the emergency is posting to their social media accounts. Less than an hour after the quake, the number of tweets from Tokyo topped 1,200 per minute, according to Tweet-o-Meter. An interactive graphic created by Facebook to illustrate status updates related to the quake shows Japan’s activity on Facebook during that day was also high.

Hopefully the grizzled veterans at the Red Cross will eventually combine their experience with the tech prodigies at Google to further improve and advance the ability for people to both get in touch and find or request emergency services despite downed telephone lines or power outages. With incredible stats like 1,200 tweets per minute out of Tokyo, the demand is obviously there.

Applying this to business, you could be left in a similar situation following a disaster, natural or otherwise. How would you communicate with employees and, if possible, keep business running? One minimal solution is to establish and maintain a list of Twitter accounts, while more involved solutions often involve things like employee-only message boards or Internet workstations. Regardless of what your solution is, educate and practice with everyone involved to ensure that things will run smoothly, even in the midst of a 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, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

Be prepared for crises

At the very core of crisis management is the fact that all businesses, no matter how well-managed, can and will be impacted by crises at some point. Because of this, it is crucial to put yourself in a position to both prevent and react to damaging situations before things get hot. In a recent article about the impact of real-time communication on crisis management, PR expert Bill McLaughlin gave a list that will help you jump start your defense:

1. If you don’t already have a blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook channel in place, get one and get it fast.
2. Start listening. See who is talking about you, your products or your customers. Assess their influence and reach out to them.
3. Create a crisis communications team. Your head of communications should lead it. Representatives from human resources, sales, customer support, legal, investor relations and executive management should be on the team.
4. Create a playbook. Set up a contact procedure and an issue escalation process for when it’s necessary to convene the team.
5. Identify potential types of crisis and rank their impact factors. For example, unhappy customers blogging about your products, interruptions in service, closing of offices and dismissal of employees, lawsuits filed by competitors or government agencies, and so forth.
6. Assign primary spokespersons responsible for handling the issues.
7. Respond quickly. Don’t let things fester. Make a statement, even if it’s as open ended as we’re aware of the problem and are in touch with the parties involved and will get back to you with an answer as soon as as we can.
8. Don’t let the lawyers dictate everything. In crisis, there is a natural tendency to rely on their advice to minimize legal exposure. This is a wise thing to do, but not at the expense of saying nothing.
9. Develop your position and communicate it through all the channels you have at your disposal — web site, press release, blog, Twitter, Facebook, conference calls, and so on.
10. Monitor the reactions, modify your message and respond as needed.

As you can see, social media continues to play a large role in the way we handle crises and communicate. If you’re not at least familiar with the big three (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) then the deck is stacked against you, and if your company doesn’t have an active blog then you’re really in trouble. If you want to maximize the value of these platforms, create a precedent of posting valuable information so that when the public goes searching for answers they will look to you first.

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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.]

The former inevitably leads to the latter

One of the most common cause of crises (business and personal!) is making poor choices, a problem that can usually be corrected by training and communication. Sometimes, though, underlying conditions make standard crisis management nearly impossible. One issue that often surfaces in the world of big business and celebrity is addiction, a disease that leads quickly to irrational behavior and repeated public downfalls. Charlie Sheen is a perfect example, but rather than that being the topic of discussion, reporters and bloggers like BNET’s Erik Sherman have focused on ego as the cause of his troubles. Below is my response to a post by Sherman on his blog:

Holy missing the point, Erik. Charlie Sheen is an addict, which means by definition he is an egomaniac with an inferiority complex. Treatment professionals say that “delusion and denial are the defining characteristics of addiction.” You write as if his ego was the problem while, in fact, this is a sick man, a man with a disease. That’s not an excuse for his behavior, it’s simply an AMA-recognized fact. If a tumor on the brain caused him to behave this way, would you criticize him the same way? Of course not. There is NO difference.

Sheen is literally incapable of going through the crisis management process until he deals with addiction. The people around him know this, evidenced by the departure of longtime friends and associates like publicist Stan Rosenfield, but unless Sheen himself recognizes that he needs help, there is little that can be done other than for his business and personal associates to “detach with love” and pray for his recovery.

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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.]

Social media has changed the way crisis management works

The impact of social media on crisis management has been the story of the year, with the maturation of services like Facebook and Twitter sparking a massive surge in use that has literally changed the way we communicate. To help illustrate that, the professionals over at MediaBadger have put together what they call a “message map” displaying the most common routes that communications now take:

As you can see, traditional media still has its place and can certainly be effective if used correctly, but the Web, and social media in particular, is clearly dominant in terms of variety of purpose because of its capability for simple, rapid and widespread communication across a myriad of platforms.

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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.]

Actions speak louder than words during a crisis

The way your organization communicates during a crisis is important, but how it fixes the underlying problem will be what determines its reputation in the long run. Those that choose to merely give lip service to an issue are playing with fire. In a quote from a recent blog post, social media consultant Mack Collier explained how to get it done:

Even if you respond quickly and appropriately, you still have to fix the problem. People are upset for a reason, and you still need to address that reason, and correct the problem. It might not be a quick fix, but you need to let people know how you are handling the issue, and what steps will be taken to correct the problem. This is where you can use your social media presences such a blog or Facebook page to communicate to customers and supporters what your plan is for handling the crisis. But you need to have a plan, you need to communicate that plan (not every detail, obviously), then you need to execute it.

This strategy has been proven in countless crises, and social media is making it easier than ever to communicate your message to large volumes of people. By following an honest and apologetic response with a genuine (and publicized) effort to fix whatever caused the crisis in the first place, most businesses should be able to quickly get back on track.

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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.]