Last week, President Obama was answering questions at a news conference. And one short sentence got him in big trouble in the court of public opinion.
I wrote about this in a post on LinkedIn just now.
Social Media
Crisis Management Lessons For Business After Napa Earthquake
Rich Klein gives some quick crisis management tips for business in connection with the Napa CA earthquake. This is part of a series of videos known as The Crisis Management Minute. (Recorded August 24, 2014)
The Crisis Show Turns 2 – Crisis Management Tips Here
As The Crisis Show marks its 2nd anniversary on air, here’s some highlights from the show from June 2013 to June 2014:
Pier 1 Imports Failing Crisis Management Test With HR Policy Wildfire
Episode #2 of The Crisis Management Minute with Rich Klein
The Crisis Management Minute – Episode 1 – Shootings in Kansas
Here’s Episode 1 of The Crisis Management Minute, about the tragic shootings in Overland Park, Kansas.
Quick Overview of The Crisis Management Advisor on Google Helpouts
This video will briefly explain how The Crisis Management Advisor works.
Here’s the link to The Crisis Management Advisor profile on Google Helpouts.
Get Your Crisis Management Tips in 15 Minutes
A few weeks ago we launched The Crisis Management Advisor on Google Helpouts. That means you can schedule, pay and immediately receive crisis management counsel in a confidential video call.
More recently, we added an introductory version of The Crisis Management Advisor for those who just want some basic crisis management / reputation tips. We call it Crisis Management 101: Quick Tips in 15 minutes. Right now, that costs just $10 – which is cheaper than two grande lattes anywhere in the world.
And, even if you don’t work with us, we highly recommend checking out the many great service providers with many talents who are now on Helpouts.
You can watch this video for more information about the format.
To learn more about Rich Klein Crisis Management, please visit http://www.richkleincrisis.com or visit us on Facebook and Twitter.
Introducing The Crisis Management Advisor on Google Helpouts
I’m thrilled to be selected by Google this month as the first Crisis Management advisor on the new platform known as Helpouts. Helpouts allows me to counsel clients around the world with high resolution video that also allows us to share screens and collaborate. It’s been made so easy to make an online appointment and to pay for your time with me, either by the minute or by the session.
I look forward to meeting and advising individuals, companies and organizations facing crisis situations in 2014 and beyond using this great tool.
On the Helpout, I’ll quickly gauge the seriousness of your crisis, make recommendations and then get to work on the process of protecting your reputation.
That can take the form of creating sharp content that influences public opinion, helping to identify the right spokespeople, conducting media training for mock interviews and news conferences, teaching you how to deal with the media and how to use social media at all stages of a crisis (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and more).
Remember – a few hundred dollars spent on a Helpout could save millions of dollars of lost revenue due to a crisis situation that catches you and your organization off guard and that could destroy goodwill and hard-earned reputation.
Honesty Remains Lonely Word: Royal Caribbean, Michael’s Stores
When three hundred 600 of your passengers fall ill to a virus out on the ocean, it’s big news and a crisis. When millions of your customers have their data stolen because they shopped at your chain stores, it’s also big news and a crisis. So why did the leaders of Royal Caribbean and Michael’s Stores this weekend try so hard to bury the bad news and insulting the intelligence of their critical audiences and beyond?
Both these companies have active Twitter and Facebook pages. But 24+ hours into their respective crises, only customers are reporting the obvious news while the companies offer little insight into what happened. One big problem in these situations is that company executives limit release of their crisis statements to the media.
That’s a huge miscalculation because the media is rarely going to run the full statement.
To have the best chance at defending reputation, companies need to post their own statements on their websites ASAP with links going to their Twitter and Facebook pages as well. CEOs and company presidents might also consider creating short YouTube videos about the crisis to show real compassion.
In a crisis, do you really want everyone else to tell your story?
I’ve written and lectured about this subject for more than two decades and remain baffled at this widespread disregard for honesty, ethics, social responsibility and their own corporate reputation. Is it the lawyers telling them to not say anything or is it their own decision-making? Or, do they foolishly not prepare for a crisis that happens over the weekend because no one is in their corporate offices?
Unless we are inside these (and other companies), we’ll never know. But it’s clear that withholding or burying critical information that customers need in a crisis is a great way to alienate loyal customers and impacts the ability to attract new ones.
I believe part of the problem is that many companies today are too worried about short term revenues, short term rises in stock prices and counting on short memories.
When they start focusing instead on long term reputation by dealing with a short term crisis head-on with transparency and compassion, they are more likely to be rewarded with repeat business by more loyal customers for decades.
Update: Michael’s finally put its CEO letter front and center on its website but didn’t mention it on its Facebook or Twitter pages.
Royal Caribbean finally acknowledged Sunday night on Twitter — for the first time — that there was a crisis. And here’s the statement that the company finally issued: It’s impersonal, shows no real concern for health of passengers and has no attribution.
Rich Klein Crisis Blog 