Tag Archives: crisis communication

How (not) to Announce an Unpopular Decision

By Jim Licko | Published: February 13, 2013

The International Olympic Committee turned some heads, and shocked an entire sport, by announcing on Tuesday that it will be removing the sport of wrestling from its 25 “core sports” for the 2020 Games. While the IOC insists the decision is merely a “recommendation” and isn’t “final,” experts say that any move toward reinstating wrestling – despite fast growing and vocal opposition on social media platforms – won’t impact the decision.

While it is routine business for the IOC to review its 25 core sports following an Olympic year, what has many people up in arms is how surprising it was that wrestling – a sport that has been a part of every modern Olympics since 1896 – was even considered for removal.

Typically the IOC’s decisions on these matters are based on worldwide adoption/acceptance of a sport, or the need to appeal to a broader, younger audience. It was assumed that modern pentathlon – a sport that combines equestrian show jumping, fencing, freestyle swimming, a 3km run and pistol shooting,– would be the sport dropped from 2020 games. It only attracted 36 competitors at the 2012 London Games. But instead, it was wrestling, one of the Olympics’ more diverse sports with more than 200 countries competing at the 2012 London Games.

Wrestling and Olympic enthusiasts were quick to take to social media channels in protest.

The Year in Social Media Crises – What We’ve Learned

By Jim Licko | Published: December 12, 2012

As social media continued to weave its way into the day-to-day life of more and more of the population, there were no shortages of social media issues or crises in 2012. But rather than share a “Don’t Do This” advice column, we’ve compiled this brief list of things we’ve learned, or been regularly reminded of, in 2012.

1) Social media posts are (still) not made in a vacuum.

In what is probably the five-billionth time this has been said – everything you post on social networks is discoverable. That includes opinions, cheap shots, drive-by comments and even the tongue-in-cheek responses that will most likely be taken the wrong way by someone. Just as you try not to say the first thing that pops into your mind in front of your boss, your mother, or your children…pause before you post. Do you really want everyone in the world to read that post? And if they do, how will they react?

Related 2012 learning: We saw this dozens of times in 2012 – when you manage a social media profile for a business, check, double-check, and triple-check that your personal posts aren’t going up on the business profile (see “Montana Tourism” below).

2012 Examples:

Ashton Kutcher questions the firing of Joe Paterno
Montana Tourism employee says “F this job” on Montana’s Facebook page
NFL player Kareem Jackson tweets about his cock fight attendance

2) There’s a fine, yet distinct line between “outreach” and “spam”

Some people get it, most don’t. Reach out to people or other organizations. Talk to them, not at them. If you’re planning to automate your social media posts or responses in 2013, you should probably reconsider.

2012 Examples:

Ragu’s auto responses poke fun, earning them a “Ragu Hates Dads” Facebook page
Live Nation asked its followers to Instagram their Radiohead concert photos…after the stage collapsed, killing an individual prior to the show
Celeb Boutique clearly doesn’t read any news, not even on the day of the Aurora shootings

3) Don’t ignore the “human” factor – in fact, obey the “human” factor

Even if your auto-posts or your SEO-charged blog comments aren’t timed as poorly as the posts listed above, if you’re not genuine, it’s still apparent. Do your homework before interacting with people on social networks for marketing purposes, and by all means, show compassion if you are facing a crisis situation.

2012 Examples:

If you’re on Instagram, you’ve probably been told you can “make money” via comments. Facebook and Instagram are working to crack down on that issue
Oreo encourages movie-goers to smuggle cookies into theaters. AMC provides a “conversational” response
Red Cross offers a transparent apology after employee tweet

4) In a crisis, social media can give businesses a voice of their own

We talk a lot about crises playing out on social networks, but don’t forget that when used correctly, social media platforms can help businesses tell the other side of the story.

2012 Example:

Hurricane Sandy provided multiple examples of the good, and bad, social media can create in a crisis

5) Timing is everything

This is somewhat of a recap of all the reminders above, but when you post, what you say, how you say it, and how quick you are to respond all have a distinct impact on the fallout from any number of social media situations. A response, sooner rather than later, can mean the difference between a customer who feels cared for, and a social media debacle.

2012 Examples:

Spirit Airlines denies refund of cancer patient’s ticket
Papa John’s was quick to comment on employee’s racial slur

~ Jim Licko

Learning from the Presidential Debate: Can You Recover from a Bad TV Appearance?

By Barb Jones | Published: October 3, 2012

If you live in the Denver metro area, you may already be a little tired of hearing about the first Presidential debate set for Wednesday, Oct. 3. The road closures, the headaches, and the non-stop political ads. At least the first two will be done after tonight.

“CBS Sunday Morning” ran an interesting story this past weekend called Let the debates begin. It examined the history of presidential debates, going back 52 years to the first televised debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy in 1960. What has been well documented by historians about the debate is that it led Nixon’s downfall in the 1960 election (sweating is bad when you’re on TV and running for president); your appearance does matter.

The segment went on to cover the best sound bites delivered by presidents and candidates during these debates, frequently used by PR professionals during media training as examples of how to deliver your message in a short, pithy sound bite.

Best and worst of the London Games: Crisis PR edition

By Gil Rudawsky | Published: August 14, 2012

With the 2012 Olympic Games officially over, it’s time to recap the best and worse from a crisis communication perspective.

Social Media Games creates winners and losers: The London Olympics was unofficially dubbed the first Social Media Games, as social networks such as Twitter enabled athletes to chat directly with their fans for the first time. As with anything new, there were some hiccups, most notably when two athletes were expelled for racist tweets and a teenager was arrested for threatening British diver Tom Daley on Twitter.

Read the nine other crisis communication lessons at Ragan’s PR Daily.

Defensive Monitoring: How to Monitor What is Being Said About Your Company

By Barb Jones | Published: August 13, 2012

In today’s world where news, good and bad, spreads like wildfire, what can communications professionals do to stay on top of what’s being said and quickly respond when they need to?

While there is no silver bullet, knowing what is being said about your company, organization or brand in real time is a critical first step to reputation management. But before you set up just any monitoring tool, you first need to determine what to monitor. Here are some suggestions:

Company name, any legacy names, abbreviations for your company
Brand names, if your company has different products
Company’s senior leadership team and any spokespeople
Slogan or commonly used marketing phrases
Competitors’ names
Industry, including recent trends
Vendors or partners
Key customers/clients

Paid monitoring services, while thorough and potentially necessary in a crisis, can be expensive, and there is no one service that will capture everything that is being said online and through traditional media channels. Google Alerts is a simple and free tool that does an effective job in many instances. Here are some quick tips to help set up Google Alerts:

Include keywords (e.g. public relations, public relations + Denver, communications firms + Colorado)
Set up different alerts depending on urgency (e.g., for your company you’ll want to receive all mentions as they occur; for your competitors you may choose to have only the most relevant information sent once a day or even once per week)
Examine your own analytics (Google Analytics) to see how people are finding your site, looking at the search terms and then monitoring for those terms

You can use Google to search online for crisis-related terms, such as “ABC Company” + “lawsuit”, “scam”, “sucks”, etc. People who have an ax to grind with your company or organization sometimes purchase URLs with these names and set up their own websites.

Other free ways to monitor online include subscribing to RSS Feeds through news websites or company websites, or setting up Google Reader – this will help you consolidate key blogs and news updates from reporters and bloggers who write about your company and your industry frequently. Additionally, it is helpful to follow reporters and bloggers who cover your company or organization through Twitter and Facebook.

Use Twilert to keep track of tweets containing your brand, product, service and more; you can add certain search terms or hashtags to track conversations and determine how frequently you want to be notified. Using social media dashboards such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite, allows you manage and monitor multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts.

While Facebook doesn’t provide the same search capabilities as you can find on Twitter, you can “like” reporters and other influences and organizations/businesses to monitor what they’re saying. Remember that only about 20 percent of the conversations taking place on Facebook are public, so even with thorough monitoring practices, you won’t be able to see every relevant mention.

As you set up your monitoring tools, you’ll need to readjust the search terms depending on the amount and appropriateness of the content that you’re reviewing. I only shared a few of the more popular free monitoring tools above – there are many others that are free and you may find equally useful. The old adage, the best offense is a good defense, is never more true when it comes to managing an organization’s reputation. Don’t be afraid to dive in and see what is being said about your company, organization or brand; you’ll feel more in control and will be much better equipped to respond when a crisis strikes.

~ Barb Jones

Reputation Management and the Search Engines – Part II

By Matt Stone | Published: June 12, 2012

As we mentioned in our previous post, building a strong web foundation enables rapid and effective response to crisis situations. Assembling all the elements that comprise a strong search engine optimization (SEO) strategy requires advance planning and a strong communications background. At GFM we strongly recommend clients consider how to implement an SEO and content strategy sooner rather than later so their website is well positioned to reach readers if a crisis situation arises.

Image courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What does it take to build a ‘strong’ website?

Well-constructed sites that can compete on the search engines for good placement (e.g., on the first page of search results) usually contain:

A great deal of focused and informative content
Searchable keywords within the content and page code
Frequently updated product pages
Meaningful, informative and useful blog posts

However, as we’ve mentioned before, search results won’t be achieved overnight. For example, developing focused and informative content may seem self-explanatory, but a little research may be required to determine what readers find valuable. The more technical page “tagging” strategies require understanding which words and terms consumers are using to search for your company, and then setting parts of the website pages so that search engines will more easily associate the content with those terms. Updating pages and posting regular blog posts are ongoing efforts and important parts of the investment in creating a strong and valuable Internet presence. And again, search engines need time to crawl all of this information and run it through their algorithms before ranking a page.

In the end, it is important to reach readers now – not later. Don’t wait until it starts raining before you build your boat!

Reputation Management and the Search Engines

By Matt Stone | Published: June 7, 2012

In this era of online communication, a person searching for a quick answer to a question will often simply “Google It.” Don’t know what that means? Google it or read this Urban Dictionary definition…

Image courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When times are good, searching for an answer online isn’t typically too scary for a brand, unless the company website doesn’t come up high in search. In bad times, however, risking inaccurate information or a negative consumer review or news story coming up ahead of a company’s official website or other communication channels could spell disaster.

In the field of reputation management, proactive action taken in the short-term enables a much more effective approach to any future problems. A website that regularly attracts traffic, has strong readership and distributes valuable information and content is highly useful in reaching the community when an issue arises. Not only is the site viewed as a trusted, valuable resource, but if search engine optimization (SEO) strategies are used to construct a valuable and informative website in the near term, the site will also be well positioned to remain a useful tool for reaching the community should an issue emerge in the future.

You wouldn’t build a plane while also attempting to fly it would you?

Relying on search engines to deliver qualified readers only when an issue or crisis has emerged is probably too late. Search engines need time, generally a few weeks, to evaluate an organization’s website and content before ranking the pages to appear high in search (e.g., on the first page of search results.) Strong websites that enlist a proactive, strategic approach to content and SEO will attract qualified readership in good times, and allow an organization to quickly reach readers with responses and messages if an issue arises.

Websites that proactively include frequent blog posts, individual product pages and customer service pages can also dominate the results pages on the search engines – making negative information more difficult to find.

Tune in next week for some tips on what it takes to build a strong website. In the meantime, we’d love to hear about your experience with SEO as it relates to reputation management.

Is the media phone interview dead?

By Gil Rudawsky | Published: May 7, 2012

It used to be that editors would do everything in their power to coax reporters out of their chairs and into the world where they could talk to their sources and cover stories in person.

Nowadays, that has evolved to the state where reporters hardly pick up the phone to talk to sources, let alone cover stories by face-to-face meetings. Interviews are now done via email, Facebook, Twitter, and Skype.

During a recent talk on social media and crisis communication, Dallas Lawrence, chief of global digital strategies for Burson-Marsteller, mentioned a survey indicating that 49 percent of reporters find story sources on Twitter.

For reporters, it takes the hard work out of searching for sources, because they can simply perform a hashtag search on a topic and find numerous sources, then contact one or more of them with a targeted tweet or direct message.

This phenomenon is particularly true with the new generation of reporters who have grown up with social media and texting, said Steve Myers, managing editor of Poynter.org, a site covering journalism issues, news, and trends.

“Maybe some of it is a natural evolution of our industry,” said Myers. “There still feels like there’s something transactional about it: Send questions on email, get answers on email, and put the story together without actually physically talking to someone.”

The email interview lacks the color a phone call can have, and it loses the natural back and forth that comes from a conversation. Plus, there’s no personal relationship building, however slight, when everything is done in written form.

Though Myers conceded it is probably not the best work practice, he adds that some reporters have better results contacting people through email. Sources can take time to craft responses to questions provided beforehand instead of being surprised by them on a phone call.

I work on many statements to provide reporters, but I will always make a point of calling the reporter back, or having them call me before I forward a statement. This way I can talk to them about their story angle and provide additional background that is simply too obtuse to be included in a statement.

I’ll admit that sometimes it feels futile. One reporter recently emailed me seeking a statement. I asked the reporter to call me before I provided one.

The reporter did not call and ran the story ran without the statement. I guess it was too much effort for that reporter to pick up the phone.

(This post also appears on Ragan’s PRDaily)