Crisis? What crisis?

For organisations, politicians, celebrities and just about everyone in the public eye, difficult stuff happens all the time. Building any sort of public profile involves dealing with things you might not like, but it’s unavoidable. However, from time to time, some of those problems go beyond the day-to-day and threaten to do serious damage to your reputation.

The dreaded communications crisis usually involves one or more of the following:

• Something that challenges the very existence of the party involved – toymaker recalls batch of toxic dolls, for example.
• Something that challenges the values of the party involved; negligence, perhaps.
• Something that runs across multiple news cycles.
• Something that occurs at a really awkward time. No time is a good time for a crisis, but some are undoubtedly worse than others.

If a storm is brewing, there’s no time to get flustered. Here are some quick guidelines that might help you out in a fix.

Be honest. Aside from the ethical concerns, it is never in anyone’s long term interests to tell lies. So if a journalist asks “Were mistakes made by your organisation?” and mistakes were made, answer yes – however uncomfortable it may be.

Focus on your audiences, not on the channels. In the midst of a crisis it can be tempting to bend with the latest article, blog, TV news clip or tweet. But it’s your audiences that matter! And the messaging you choose to use to address their specific concerns will differ; an existing customer will need to hear something different from a shareholder, or a supplier, or a regulator to be reassured that you are in control and can still be trusted.

Think long term. At the outset of any crisis project, get to grips with the long-term objectives and don’t let events in the short-term distract you from those goals. A message might make things easier today (e.g. “It was a mistake to hire staff from that recruiter – rest assured, we’ll never be doing that again.”) but it could come back to haunt you in the future.

Be prepared. If a potential crisis is looming then it could break at any moment. As soon as possible, pull together a project bible of facts, figures, lines to take and responses to difficult questions. 

Forewarned is forearmed. Make sure you know what is already being said about you across traditional media, online sites, blogs and microblogging sites. Negative speculation, accusations and threats can occur anywhere. If a disgruntled ex-employee or a dissatisfied customer has an axe to grind, they might take to a blog, or write a letter to a newspaper editor. The other advantage of monitoring these is that if inaccuracies occur, spotting them early can mean they are corrected at source before they become widely accepted fact.

Or, you could just bury your head and hope it all blows over?

Tom Yazdi

Consultant

tom@linstockcommunications.com