Posted by Tom Gable
The debate about how well Domino’s and Amazon handled their recent crises raised a new priority for crisis management PR: speed to respond. He who hesitates in lost, particularly when faced with millions of observers and critics circulating instant updates via Twitter and FaceBook, then posting evidence of any transgressions via blogs and on YouTube and Flickr, to be followed by mainstream media coverage, such as in the L.A. Times.
This increased need for speed led us to review crisis management programs conducted over the years for common threads. The most successful programs included:
1. Developing a crisis PR plan well in advance
2. Rehearsing the plan regularly (including surprise mock disasters)
3. Setting up news tracking, media and social media and other research tools for 24/7 monitoring
4. Launching your plan and responding immediately to even the slightest hint of pending crisis, even if only to let all targets know you don’t have all the answers but will get back to them as soon as you do
5. Following up consistently and in a human voice
6. Being aggressive at countering rumors and inaccurate information
7. Analyzing the trends in coverage, buzz
8. Adjusting the program as needed to meet new issues, attacks
That’s the short course. To help determine how fast to move and the steps to take in an emerging crisis, we created a five-page outline that helps quickly walk through the details of dealing with a crisis. The outline can be adapted to individual company or organizational needs. The concept is to be as professional, pro-active and quick as possible in responding to the crisis, to the ultimate benefit of long-term reputation and, often, company survival. If you’re interested in taking a look at the outline, please click here: Gable PR Crisis Outline.
Reputations can be made, severely damaged or even destroyed in a crisis, particularly in the new age of omnipresent reporting/scrutiny/criticism. Responding immediately, strategically and with integrity and confidence, can make a difference.
Tags: Crisis PR, issues management, news, reputation, social media, Twitter
