Step one: stop lying. The Catholic Church just can’t seem to figure out how to deal with the seemingly endless stream of sexual abuse cases involving clergymen. Of course, as Bernstein Crisis Management President Jonathan Bernstein revealed in an interview with columnist Ruben Rosario of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, …
Social Media Crisis Management: Don’t Drink and Post
Should you really even need to be told? Most people wouldn’t hold a press conference or shareholder meeting after spending a few hours at the bar, yet for some reason many of those same people feel strangely comfortable sharing to social media when they’re in the midst of tying one …
Sober Honor Student Punished for Driving Drunk Friend Home
Blindly following policy is asking for a crisis management mishap We’ve discussed before how a refusal, or inability, to flex your policies in special circumstances can create crisis management issues for organizations, and now yet another example has reared its head, this time in Massachusetts. 17-year-old Erin Cox, honor student …
L.A.’s DWP – How NOT to Handle the Media
Communicating with media is a crucial crisis management skill Once upon a time, the thing to do when you came under scrutiny was batten down the hatches and avoid discussing the matter altogether. We’ve long since moved past that school of thought, but unfortunately many organizations insist on doing things …
UM and Missoula Still Making Crisis Management Mistakes
Errors become far less forgivable when you make them time and time again… The University of Montana, and especially its football program, have been making negative news for a couple years now. In fact, there had been so many alleged sexual assaults and other misconduct by student athletes, and so …
Why You Shouldn’t Copy the “I Quit” Video
Immortalized online…but is it a good thing? The latest YouTube video to go viral features a young woman quitting her job in what most certainly is a creative manner, but was it a smart move? Let’s watch: Marina Shifrin is the woman in the video, and it was filmed at …
Crisis Management Musts: Media Trained Leadership
If you’re not ready to be the face of your organization, don’t take the helm When you’re the face of your organization, you need to understand how to interact with the media. It doesn’t matter if you’re CEO of a corporation, captain of a football team, or, as in the …
AT&T Policy Fail During Crisis Management for Colorado
Don’t let crises for your customers create more problems for you Refusal, or inability, to flex with circumstances is a surefire way to land your organization in need of crisis management, and recently our colleague Phil Cox brought a situation to our attention that really hammers this point home. Juliette …
The Next Generation of Crisis Communication Pros
Newcomers to the field bring hunger, fresh perspective Graduates of communications programs are leaving school more prepared than ever to do the daily work required to excel in the fields of PR and crisis management. Of course, a student’s thesis is where they really get to flex the mental muscle …
Hotel Guest Sued over Tripadvisor Review
Can you be punished for writing a negative online review? In a suit that reputation management and hotel industry professionals alike will be following closely, a Quebec-area hotel is suing a former guest over a negative Tripadvisor review. Allegedly, Laurent Azoulay and his son checked into the four-star hotel, only …
Foot (Paw?) in Mouth Crisis Management from Chinese Zoo
Don’t make this major crisis management mistake A Chinese zoo has been accused of attempting to fool visitors by placing various not-so-exotic animals in cages marked for wild animals. In the most egregious offense, a Tibetan mastiff was passed off as a lion…at least until it began to bark. CNN …
Live College Crisis Management Chat
We talk crisis management in higher education this Thursday at 7 pm EDT Institutions of higher learning naturally encounter situations requiring crisis management. After all, they are tasked with maintaining the safety and well-being of students and ensuring the integrity of faculty and staff, with a wide range of potential …
Crisis Management Advice for Apple after e-Book Injunction
Zero reputation management and a lack of ethics collide once again Apple has found itself on the losing side of quite a few legal cases over the past couple years, cases which have exposed the fact that the company isn’t shy about bending, or outright breaking, the rules when there’s …
Ready.org Lends a Hand with Crisis Management
Education is a highly effective effective means of crisis prevention Our government has very clearly realized that one of the best ways to do widespread crisis management and crisis prevention is through education. The CDC was one of the first major agencies to really embrace this strategy, and many have …
Viral Video Crisis Management: Riley Cooper
NFL player is latest to be caught on tape behaving badly It feels like we’re seeing some type of public figure embarrassed by bad behavior captured on a smartphone’s camera just about every other day. Apparently, the memo still hasn’t gotten around – if you’re recognizable, and acting like an …