INCIDENT RESPONSE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS

Transcription

1 INCIDENT RESPONSE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS MANAGING CRISIS AND SUSTAINING THE BRAND An introduction Professor Rebecca L. Cooney, MSC

2 CRISIS PLANNING Process of an organization communication with its public, stakeholders, investors and customers when an unexpected event occurs that potentially negatively impacts a company's brand or reputation. Crisis communication strategies are also used to inform employees or the public of a potential hazard such as weather or health epidemic.

3 The flooding of our senses and mental capacity will continue. More and more studies are making clear that emotion is the key to breaking through the clutter not reason, not logic, not prosaic facts. Hence the emotion-packed stories that grab us on the news, info sites and YouTube. Gerald Baron Crisis Communications Guru ww2.crisisblogger.com Gerald Baron Crisis blogger, innovator, thought leader

4 THE CRISIS TEAM War room (central place to gather) Spokesperson (this individual is also typically responsible for providing media training in advance to those leaders or stakeholders who may speak on the company s behalf during a crisis) Lead writer (serves as primary brand and message liaison, creates and monitors templates Writers/editors (quality control) Web authors Web technician Media relations Leadership liaison

5 THE CRISIS TEAM PROCESS Trigger Event Activate Crisis Response Team Initiate templates for immediate response, press release, web postings Follow through with media relations, dissemination of information to the public and internal constituents + monitor, adjust, update Recovery Review and analyze responses Adjust templates, policies and procedures Re-establish normalcy Evaluation Learn Reflect Update

6 The office of Public Relations Lead is Communicator responsible for notifying the public. Other divisions within the organization handle legal issues, role of law enforcement, human resources and other impacted areas. Crisis Communications Team Confirm if an incident has happened Research what has occurred ensure accuracy Assure control measures for retrieving and handling evidence Determine internal and external communication channel adjustments Minimize daily business disruptions Involve legal counsel Provide reports and recommendations

7 The keys to crisis communications success are anticipation and preparation. It's important to take the time to think exhaustively about what could go wrong, before it goes wrong. George Regan Regan Communications Group and blog contributor for PR Week Planning and Preparation Considerations Speak or not to speak Internal and external communication channels Anticipation Scenarios Communications plan

8 REPUTATION MANAGEMENT Reputation management is the act of shaping public perception of an organization by influencing audience perception through messages and incident management. It is an ongoing process that is constantly monitored, managed and adjusted.

9 Bad Rep Top 10 Reputation Crises of 2013 Bloomberg.com All is great, until it s not. A problem with a person spills over to the brand. Add in the toxic subject of race and it s very hard to come back. Daniel Diermeier Professor, Northwestern Kellogg School of Management and author of Reputation Rules #4: Paula Deen Allegations of racism and sexism Others on the list 1) The U.S. Government debt 2) Big Data and the NSA 3) Rana Plaza Garment Factory, 4) Paula Deen 5) Barilla Pasta 6) Nasdaq OMX group software error 7) JPMorgan Chase - The London Whale 8) SAC Capital Advisors 9) American Intl Group 10) Tesla Motors

10 SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONSE 1. Positive (for any favorable comment) 2. Neutral (neither good or bad) 3. Negative (respond) 4. Negative (ignore) 5. Negative (remove) 6. Crisis (legal or criminal ramifications threat of violence, breach of confidentiality, defamation of character, PR disaster) 6 levels of social media comments to plan for The 6 critical types of social media comments you must plan for by Toby Jenkins jeffbullas.com on August 20, 2014

11 Lead Communicator The [most] important role social media plays is extinguisher. We can use social media effectively before, during, and after crisis to mitigate the damage, and in some cases actually eliminate the crisis. Gerald Baron Crisis blogger, innovator, thought leader

12 14 Lessons digital crisis planning No matter how good your communication department is, it matters how you handle situations as they arise. You could do nothing wrong in today s social environment and still have a crisis develop; you must be ready for that. Dallas Lawrence Mattel Corporate Communications Officer

13 Success During the debate tonight, a member of our Twitter team mistakenly posted an offensive tweet from the KitchenAid handle instead of a personal handle. The tasteless joke in no way represents our values at KitchenAid, and that person won t be tweeting for us anymore. That said, I lead the KitchenAid brand, and I take responsibility for the whole team. I am deeply sorry to President Obama, his family, and the Twitter community for this careless error. Thanks for hearing me out. Result: Viral Twitter storm Lead Communicator: Cynthia Soledad: Brand leader for KitchenAid Cynthia Soledad Brand leader for KitchenAid

14 INCIDENT RESPONSE A coordinated approach to addressing and managing a negative action, attack or breach of security. The primary objective is to manage the issue in a way that limits damage, reduces recovery time and costs while maximizing publicity opportunity toward positive coverage.

15 Transparency Owning the problem and effectively managing communications requires what we call the Four R s of crisis communications. They include: Regret Responsibility Reform Restitution This is essentially a road map for communicating in a crisis. Vox Global

16 Messaging Source: Social Media Influence 2011 Conference Presentations infographic

17 Access 3+ should have access to: Web login credentials Access to back-end programming of website All social media login credentials Main login credentials Passcodes for main phone number Direct lines to leadership and decision-makers

18 Templates As a guide, I advise my clients on the 15/60 rule. That means in a crisis, the organization should acknowledge the crisis within 15 minutes of it occurring, and follow up with a press release 60 minutes after that. CW Fong Building & Protecting Reputations Fill-in-the blank message for initial acknowledgement Fill-in-the blank press release template Crisis web page template at-the-ready for quick adjustments and implementation