Don't Give Them The Finger

When it comes to crisis response, TV and Social Media can be either friend or foe. It all depends on how you handle it.

Consider what is called the Letterman-Leno Syndrome – when an incident that puts your brand at risk becomes fodder for network TV comedy monologues or skits. That's what happened to fast food chain Arby's last week when an unfortunate employee's sliced fingertip was found in a sandwich by a 14-year-old Arby's patron in Michigan. Guess what made CBS’s David Letterman’s popular nightly "Top Ten" List?

Arby's quickly posted a statement on its website explaining how they had "sanitized" the location in question and its food. But was that enough? Several PR and Crisis bloggers and experts say no – that the statement was generic, didn't explain in enough detail what Arby's was doing company-wide to prevent such a mishap from occurring again elsewhere, and that the chain failed to proactively engage publicly-visible sarcastic social media postings.

At CommCore we regularly advise our crisis communications clients that once a determination has been made that an incident requires public response, they should consider:

·         A rapid response on your corporate or "dark" website acknowledging the problem, stating how it has been (or is being corrected), and what is being done to ensure it won't happen again. If you can't give many details – because it's too soon or the response is not fully formulated – at least develop an appropriate holding statement

·         If the incident is deemed to be serious enough, include the face and voice of a senior executive expressing genuine, appropriate concern for anyone affected by the incident

·         Monitor social media and engage as necessary. (A corollary: be aware of the so-called Streisand Effect where efforts to quash social media commentary merely serve to spread the story even more widely).

·         Reach out to journalists and bloggers with whom you should already have pre-existing relationships, and let them know what you are doing to redress the problem.

Audio Interview with Andy Gilman: The Art of the Sound Bite at PRSA International Conference

Eric Schwartzman interviewed Andrew Gilman at the 2008 PRSA International Conference on the Art of the Sound Bite. Download the complete audio interview below to learn about the history of the sound bite and the ingredients that make a winning sound bite.

Eric Schwartzman - On the Record...Online with Andy Gilman - President CEO Commcore Consulting Group

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Catch the Spirit...

If a tree falls in the forest do you hear it?  You do if Spirit Airlines is holding the saw.

In case you missed the latest coverage surrounding Spirit...dying Vietnam vet Jerry Meekins tried to get a refund after being told by his doctor that he was too sick to fly.  Spirit refused his request for days citing its iron-clad no refund policy.  They even suggested that he should have bought travel insurance.

We're not privy to what happened at Spirit, but a company with a good monitoring policy and good antennae as to what could become a crisis would have picked this up and the rest of us would never have heard about this incident.

A firestorm ensued and finally, CEO Ben Baldanza said he would personally pay back the retired soldier and donate money to Wounded Warriors.  This was only after at least one media outlet sent Mr. Meekins a check for the $197.  We wonder if the "Boycott Spirit Airlines" Facebook page that went from zero to 41,000+ in a matter of days was a factor?

At CommCore we tell our clients to never underestimate the power of public opinion.  If management had fixed the problem quickly, it would have been our definition of an emergency:  A flash problem that was fixed and probably would have stayed out of the news.  It turned into a crisis when Spirit let it simmer into a full Social Media boil-over.

All-Time Tweet Twits

It's hardly news that Twitter gaffes are a professional communicator's nightmare. Once posted, it's impossible to recall your tweet and pretend it never happened. We all know intuitively that brand and personal reputation damage is difficult to repair once your "mistake" has gone viral.

Still, seeing one online social media commentator's current aggregation of the Ten Dumbest Tweets Of All Time is eye-opening. I mean, who pulled the trigger on these tweets, not to mention thought them up?  We've heard of several – Chrysler/Motor City Drivers is one we at CommCore refer to often when counseling our clients. Others, like the Kenneth Cole debacle, are new to us.

Reviewing these just serves to remind us that old communications rules apply more than ever to new media technologies and PR applications:

·         Resist the notion that speedy commenting on the Internet is THE   most important communications consideration

·         Think before you tweet

·         Then think again

·         Articulate clearly to yourself WHY you are creating and sending this tweet into the public ether, and WHO your target audience is

·         Show the post to someone else for their reaction

·         PAUSE one last time before hitting "send"

The After-Crisis Analysis.  Did it work?

It's always easy to analyze a crisis in real time.  But how do you measure the success of the crisis communications?   Simple.  Is the story still in the news?

A couple of recent examples...Former University of Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino.  A few weeks ago he lied about his unscrupulous personal and professional practices at the school.  University officials fired him quickly.  They also held a press conference, issued lots of statements and stayed really transparent.  Do a Google news search.  The story is out there, but the cascading river is down to a trickle.

Example two.  A couple of weeks ago, Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen in an interview used the words "love" and "Fidel Castro" in the same sentence.  Now the last thing you  want to do is alienate Miami’s Cuban-American fan base.  Huge protests were planned, people were screaming for his head.  The Marlins issued all kinds of communications disavowing those statements.  They made Ozzie stand alone in a press conference to take his lumps and suspended him for five days.  It looks like the only fan protests now are directed towards the umpires.   

The moral of the story is what we at CommCore always tell our clients:  Act fast and decisive, and above all, be prepared.

How To Ideas from Business Week

One of the more fun magazine reads is the current "How to" issue of Business Week .  There are plenty of short take ideas on how to admit a mistake by an NFL referee, how to talk to a Republican (by a Democrat) or how to talk to a Democrat (by a Republican).

My 3 favorites:

• How to Manage Creative Talent by Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry.  Angela has insights on blending right and left brain talent.
• How to Avoid Burnout by Marissa Mayer, VP of Google. Job "rhythm" might be a better term than “balance". 
• How to Design an Office, by Denise Cherry, director of design at Studio O+A.  To do it again in our offices, we'd have more open spaces. 

Take a look and let us know what you think.

How Does Your CEO’s Personal Mishaps Effect Your Company’s Reputation?

CEOs, Corporate Reputation, Trust, Crisis.  Each is intertwined and has its own role in the success of any company or brand.  When your CEO behaves badly in his own time, how does that affect your company’s reputation? Does it require crisis management? Attorney Michael W. Peregrine, in a NY Times post, says yes, and it is the board’s responsibility to hold their leadership responsible for their actions, even if the bad behavior happens off the clock.

Peregrine uses former Best Buy CEO, Brian Dunn, as an example.  The firm’s board is currently investigating Dunn’s alleged ‘misuse of company funds related to an inappropriate personal relationship with a female employee.   Other examples include: Highmark's board dismissing its chief, Kenneth Milani, after he was charged with assault and trespassing; University of Arkansas dismissing football coach, Bobby Petrino, over an inappropriate personal relationship with a female athletic department employee.

 “CEOs behaving badly” falls into the category of crises in which the reputation of a company or brand is at stake from criminal or civil charges, allegations of negligence or wrong-doing, social media rumors, or innuendo.  At CommCore we recommend that any company’s leadership develop its own version of our Reputation Protection Model, or RPM©.  It’s a methodology that goes beyond preparation and response; it adds a lens that views crisis preparation as an investment in an organization’s long term reputation in the eyes of its most important stakeholders.  When company leadership displays questionable behavior, there’s a set plan of action in reviewing and assessing the next steps.   

Utilize the Mirror Principle, which states that an organization must hold up the looking glass to its own issues and culture.

Bottom line: learn lessons from others, use the current bumper crop of unfortunate events to compare risks, and honestly assess your own.