Does your crisis communications plan address social media? In a crisis, don't make these mistakes!
1- Be an ostrich and stick your head in the sand- Believe me, it won’t work. Times have changed. If your brand is under a social media attack, you need to respond, quickly and appropriately. Make sure social media is a part of your crisis communications plan, and monitor it 24/7/365.
2- Responding in kind- Keep your emotions in check. Many an executive has caused significant brand damage by...
Catastrophic oil spill? (or negligence and arrogance). Racism? (or a big ego). 40 million credit card records hacked? (ignored warning signs).
Each of these examples represents a business crisis that damaged reputations, hurt sales, and negatively impacted the bottom line. What do they have in common? The financial damage could have been minimized with an effective crisis communications plan. The key word here is “effective.”
Don’t have a plan? Where do you start?
At some point, nearly every organization will experience a crisis. For many, unfortunately, their crisis planning strategy is denial: “That will never happen to our company.” Except that it just might. When all hell breaks loose, and management is freaking out, remind yourself of these “truths” of a crisis.
1. There will be short-term pain, there can be long-term gain. Try to stay calm and objective. There is no reason that short-term pain has to turn into long-term damage to the...
TNT’s newest drama, The Last Ship, has drawn me in over the past few weeks, and as the story unfolds, it has become a weekly lesson in crisis management and communications. Based on the novel by William Brinkley, The Last Ship is a compelling chronicle of the USS Nathan James, a U.S. navy warship sent on a top-secret, radio-silent mission in the arctic with a team of epidemiologists. When the mission ends, and the ship is ready to head home, the captain and crew learn that in their absence, a...
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Last year certainly saw some significant data breach cases, including Target, Neiman Marcus and Michael’s. This year, we continue to see reports of data breaches in the news, and not all of them involve huge retailers. Some companies have communicated effectively with their stakeholders, while others have failed miserably. Moreover, those failures have a cost in revenue, profitability, and reputation.
According to the Identity Theft Resource Center (www.idt911.com), in the United States...
