Don’t let leaked documents leave you looking foolish
Internal communications often contain information that carries plenty of potential for reputation damage, which is why they always need to be very clearly labeled as such.
Late last month, Twitter user @mynameischrisd tweeted this image:
.@sainsburys not sure this is supposed to be in your window… pic.twitter.com/Zk9GCliIWO
— Chris Dodd (@mynameischrisd) September 29, 2014
@mynameischrisd Yeah, I don’t think so either. Which store was this? I’ll give them a call. Ross. — Sainsbury’s (@sainsburys) September 29, 2014
…then proceeded to troll the company rep who responded:
@sainsburys oh I’m not sure about that Ross… I kinda like that they’re giving folks a heads up!
— Chris Dodd (@mynameischrisd) September 29, 2014
Before you knew it, the tweet had 4,000+ RT’s, and #50pchallenge was actually trending! Overall this was more of an embarrassment than a true crisis (after all, who doesn’t know that retailers want to push customers to spend as much as possible?), but anyone who’s worked in the corporate world has seen at least a few internal documents that would look veeeeery bad if they were put up in public view.
You already have the risk of someone sharing internal communications on purpose in order to cause damage, why run the risk of someone doing it accidentally as well? Prevent the one you can and prepare for the one you can’t, it just makes sense.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com