Crises can strike quickly and vary widely in both scope and type, but there are some general rules that hold fast for nearly every case. An article, posted today on suite101.com, a marketing and PR site, discusses some of these steps, including one which I consider to be vital to …
Bad Programming
HP computers are racist? Who knew? In a humorous video that went viral on YouTube over the weekend, two sales associates point out a flaw in HP’s facial recognition software, which apparently fails to recognize black people. While the video’s creators, Wanda Zamen and Desi Cryer, say they originally made …
Averting A Crisis
Last summer, the American branch of Mensa faced one of the biggest crises in their history when news organizations latched onto the fact that the man responsible for a Washington, D.C. shooting had briefly been a member. An article was recently posted on the The Center for Association Leadership website …
Social Crisis Management
Prevention is the most effective form of crisis management because, if executed well, it can stop a situation from becoming a crisis at all. Social media can be very useful in this role, as this quote from the FreshNetworks blog demonstrates: I have a client who once said to me: …
Navigating Channels
The Internet is invaluable for crisis management because of the sheer number of communications channels which it provides. These channels do, however, require some planning to use effectively, as this quote from a Digital Stuffing post explains: Crisis planning is not something that should be left to a crisis. It …
Manage the Media
There have been at least two major structural changes in how and why the media cover companies: the first is related to the rise of shareholder coalitions, and the second is the continued advance of Internet-based communications. These two trends are catching many in top management by surprise. Organized labor, …
Media Double Standards
Often, it appears that the media has a double standard when it comes to what is deemed newsworthy. When the person involved is a celebrity, athlete, or some other polarizing figure, what would normally not even be a blip on the radar suddenly becomes the target of a media blitz. …
Flying off the Handle
This past week saw American Airlines suffering through a slew of bad press as a result of a stewardess, who clearly needed a mental health day, berating a passenger for asserting that he was indeed allowed to have orange juice as a part of his first class package. This quote …
Tiger’s Mistakes
Tiger Wood’s crisis management, or lack thereof, has been the subject of intense scrutiny and criticism since his car accident early November 27. Since then he has mostly allowed others to control his story, and, as we often tell our readers, that is one of the biggest mistakes anyone can …
Crisis at the White House – Party Crashers
[Here’s a guest commentary from Andrew Gilman, President & CEO, CommCore Consulting] The nearly-famous (will they soon become infamous?) Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the Virginia reality-TV aspiring couple who crashed the White House state dinner last week, present crisis communications challenges for a number of parties (sic). Start with, but …
New Crisis Manager Newsletter
We’ve just uploaded a brand new Crisis Manager newsletter to our website! This issue features an article by BCM President Jonathan Bernstein, which uses the negative effects swine flu has had on businesses as a launching point to discuss ways to prevent consumers making decisions about your product based on …
Kodak’s Camera Crisis
Brandy’s Kodak digital camera comes with several pre-set modes, one of which is “beach.” However, when her camera stopped working after a trip to the beach, she reports that Kodak’s mystifying response to her service request was that just because a digital camera has a setting for taking photos at …
Online Communications
Some of the most common crises that organizations find themselves facing involve reputation damage, and these days the origin of this damage is more than likely the Internet. In an interview for the Wildfire Marketing Group’s Thought Leader Thursday blog, reputation management consultant Andy Beal gave his take on why …
Make the Connection
It is now commonplace, even expected, that businesses have corporate blogs, LinkedIn and FaceBook pages and Twitter accounts. The thing that can lead to crises is the fact that many of these businesses do not take care to ensure that the sought-after connection is being made between them and the …
Apologies vs. Litigation
Crisis managers have long known the benefits of saying, “I’m sorry,” but many other business circles are just now catching on. In a recent post on his blog, “Crisis Guru”, James Lukaszewski, crisis communications expert, broke down exactly how this practice is changing litigation: Many in the legal profession remain …