Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “crisis preparation”
Applebees and Olive Garden must take thorough steps to clean up reputations Two of the juiciest stories of the past couple weeks have involved Applebees and Olive Garden serving alcohol to small children. For Applebees, the incident was especially damaging to its reputation because a similar incident just last year. …
Own your mistakes or risk a crisis If a blogger or reporter publishes genuinely libelous statements and refuses to retract them, then pursuing legal action can force the issue in your favor. If you’ve done wrong though, then you have no choice but to own up and make it right, …
Crisis management lax following incident This past Friday, Applebees restaurants encountered a world of trouble when employees at one of its Detroit area locations allegedly served tequila mixed with apple juice to a 15-month-old child in, and this is the kicker, the child’s own sippy cup! While it’s very possible …
Savvy crisis communication wins trust of the people Japanese Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has been doing crisis management for the country starting mere hours after the brutal earthquake of March 11. Edano has put on a clinic since then, exemplifying the ideal spokesman through what was surely extreme stress, as …
Nothing beats a personal touch It’s been a long time since merely issuing a press release was considered adequate communication. These days, taking only that meager measure is almost inviting crisis, as criticism is bound to follow. BCM President Jonathan Bernstein recently addressed this issue in a Fox Sports article …
Take charge of communication You always want to be the primary source of information in a crisis. The best way to do this in today’s climate of near-instantaneous communication is to answer stakeholders’ questions before they’re ever asked, a crisis management tactic described here in a quote from a Mashable …
Simple communication pays off Google has received even more attention than usual (if that’s possible for a page that welcomes millions of users daily) due to a series of articles investigating flaws in its ranking system. While theories abound as to who is behind this sudden influx of attention, it …
Give the people want they want While communication will fall flat on its face without actions to back it up, in the immediate aftermath of a crisis the first thing the public wants is information. In a recent post on the LawFirmsPR blog, my colleague, crisis communication expert Rich Klein, …
Japan faces overwhelming need for crisis management The catastrophic impact of last Friday’s quake and tsunami in Japan shows that even the very best preparation can be overwhelmed by violent and unpredictable events of this magnitude. Japan has a well-drilled population, strict building regulations and some of the most extensive …
Everyone needs to be on the same page when it comes to crisis communication It’s not always possible to limit crisis communications responsibilities to one person, which can create damaging situations if everyone isn’t on message. This was evidenced after White House staffers gave varied responses to questions regarding the …
Choose your words carefully or your reputation will suffer Merrie Spaeth’s BIMBO Awards are a constant reminder of the power that words carry and the danger of using them without thinking. The latest edition of the BIMBOs features a medley of examples, including this outstanding one: “The crisis was not …
Shady SEO tactics create a reputation crisis While it can certainly net you temporary gains, in the long run it doesn’t pay to be dishonest. Retailer J.C. Penney is a perfect example, having been outed by The New York Times this week for using “black hat” SEO methods to unfairly …
Active crisis communication always pays off In the past, when all hell broke loose, regular sources of information could be hard to come by, unreliable, intermittent and downright infuriating; a phone number with a taped message on the other end, a sliver of advice, half-heard from the radio or a …
Obama’s leadership is no “how to” class In hard times, people turn to their leaders. For a business, this means the CEO, in the United States, it is the President. Even in the midst of a crisis, strong leadership can empower followers and turn things around. Unfortunately, Barack Obama has, at …
Not everything on the Web is forever The general theory held by most people is that once something is published on the Web, it is all but impossible to remove. While this is true much of the time, in some cases you can actually modify or wipe damaging search results, …
