As a best practice, it’s worth assuming that everything you put in writing will go public. From emails to letters to flyers posted in a break room – despite your best laid plans it’s an unfortunate reality that sometimes information leaks outside your organization and the result isn’t always positive.
I can easily cite a number of times I or a client have received a call from a member of the media who has written communication in hand that wasn’t ready for public consumption. Start your crisis engines… it’s always a wild ride.
That said, if you’ve got a positive relationship with your key stakeholders – think executive team, board members and staff – they should be a trusted source that treats sensitive information as such. If sensitive information that you’re asking them to keep quiet until the time is right regularly leaks, it’s time to check your list.
I’m talking email lists, mailing lists, call lists and more. It only takes one ex-employee who’s now working for the competitor but still on your employee email list, or one disgruntled vendor with access to a shared Google Doc to get information they shouldn’t have and might find satisfying to leak.
Make a plan
Hopefully you have a plan in place to regularly ensure only current, trusted team members or agency partners have access to your brand’s social media properties. That’s certainly an easier list to manage – especially if you have a large organization with thousands of employees. Likewise, shouldn’t you have the same rigor to ensure that only current, trusted stakeholders receive regular updates – no matter how benign or how sensitive – from your organization?
Keep it up!
And once you’ve got your list nice and clean, make a plan for regular housekeeping. Weekly, monthly, quarterly or whatever works for you, it’s a good idea to check and recheck that list at a steady clip to ensure it stays as accurate as humanly possible. While a clean list can’t ensure that sensitive information won’t leak, it will certainly help limit the overflow of information that can sometimes lead to an issue.
