Crisis Management Musts: Owning Your Story

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Taking control of the narrative is essential One of the biggest battles you’ll fight in crisis management is the one to control the narrative surrounding whatever’s occurred. This doesn’t mean you can bury facts or cover up wrongdoing, but it does mean that you’re able to put your side of …

Crisis Management Quotables…on Making Communication Work

Erik Bernstein crisis communication, crisis communications, crisis management, crisis management quotables, crisis public relations, Crisis Response, Erik Bernstein, Jonathan Bernstein, public relations, reputation management Leave a Comment

Ensuring communication is effective is core to crisis management success It turns out composer John Powell, perhaps best know for scoring movies like How to Train Your Dragon, Happy Feet and Kung-Fu Panda, knows a thing or two about verbal communication as well, making him the subject of today’s Crisis …

Infographic: Help Monitoring Your Online Reputation

Jonathan Bernstein crisis communications, crisis management, Crisis Prevention, crisis public relations, Crisis Response, Erik Bernstein, internet crisis management, internet reputation management, Jonathan Bernstein, online crisis management, online reputation management, PR, public relations, reputation management, social media, social media crisis management, social media reputation management Leave a Comment

Why online reputation management is a core component of crisis management, and how to do it right Monitoring your online reputation is an essential crisis management skill, yet it’s still viewed by many as something beyond their reach. Truth is, while it does take some practice to get it down …

Crisis Management: Through the Lens of Failure

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[Editor’s note: Thank you to our colleague Tony Jaques for submitting this post on how crises tint stakeholder’s views of the organizations involved long after they’re gone.] One of the underestimated impacts of a crisis is the fact that every subsequent event is magnified through the lens of the original …

UK Embassy’s Twitter Gaffe

Jonathan Bernstein crisis communication, crisis communications, crisis management, Crisis Prevention, Erik Bernstein, internet crisis management, internet reputation management, Jonathan Bernstein, online crisis management, online reputation management, PR, public relations, reputation management, social media, social media crisis management, social media reputation management Leave a Comment

Proof of the need to constantly keep your image, your mission, and your audience in mind when posting to social media It’s not entirely surprising to see brands getting too edgy or controversial as they compete to grab attention on social media, but one would hope for the folks running …

Crisis Management Quotables…on Thinking Differently

Erik Bernstein crisis management, Crisis Prevention, crisis public relations, Erik Bernstein, Jonathan Bernstein, public relations, reputation management Leave a Comment

Differing viewpoints are essential to crisis management success Is there anyone more expert in crisis management than a successful battlefield commander? Not only are they tasked with applying limited information to make life-and-death decisions on a moment’s notice, but they must remain calm and precise, even while taking fire. Today’s Crisis …

Crisis Management Musts: Alternatives to Apologies

Jonathan Bernstein crisis communication, crisis communications, crisis management, crisis public relations, Crisis Response, Erik Bernstein, Jonathan Bernstein, public relations, reputation management 2 Comments

Showing compassion without apologizing Apologies are powerful crisis management tools, but more and more often we’re seeing reputation-threatening situations that do not call for the ones taking flak to actually say “I’m sorry”. The most common situations are when organizations or individuals stand falsely accused, but other factors such as …

Shock Marketing Often Results in Need for Crisis Management

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It’s easy to go too far when trying to grab attention through shock value Shock marketing can grab you some easy attention, but in many cases it’s really not the attention you’d like to receive. Take the case of Australia’s Wicked Campers, who was forced to remove sexist, misogynistic, and ridiculously immature slogans …

Crisis Management Musts: Employee Communication

Jonathan Bernstein crisis communication, crisis communications, crisis management, Crisis Response, Jonathan Bernstein 3 Comments

Don’t keep your employees in the dark When it’s time to go into full-on crisis management mode, many organizations are focused purely on A) cleaning up the situation, and B) communicating with outside stakeholders, whether that means customers, investors or the media. Here’s the problem with that – your employees, …

Crisis Management Tactics: Updates on Updates

Jonathan Bernstein crisis communications, crisis management, crisis public relations, Crisis Response, Erik Bernstein, Jonathan Bernstein, public relations, reputation management 1 Comment

“We’re working on it” can buy more time than you expect When you encounter a crisis, the pressure to immediately make a statement is immense. Not only will your stakeholders be clamoring for you to talk, and angry if you don’t, but you also risk damaging rumor or innuendo taking root …

Senator Walsh Stumbles on Crisis Communication

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[Editor’s note: The following is a guest post from Brittany Foster, one of the talented members of the Triad Strategies team. Triad is a preferred Bernstein Crisis Management contractor.] Senator John Walsh (D-Montana) was already running a losing campaign for re-election, but he may have shored up his retirement with …

ESPN Benches Smith for Domestic Violence Comments

Jonathan Bernstein crisis communication, crisis communications, crisis management, Crisis Prevention, crisis public relations, Crisis Response, Erik Bernstein, Jonathan Bernstein, PR, public relations, reputation management, sports crisis management Leave a Comment

Understandably angry stakeholders and poor crisis management leave sports reporter in a bad spot ESPN anchor Stephen A. Smith won’t be stepping up to the mic for at least a week following his on-air comments regarding domestic violence – specifically that women should avoid “provoking” men into assaulting them. Smith …

OKCupid – PR Genius or Crisis Management Mess?

Jonathan Bernstein crisis communications, crisis management, Crisis Prevention, crisis public relations, Erik Bernstein, internet crisis management, internet reputation management, Jonathan Bernstein, online crisis management, online reputation management, PR, public relations, reputation management Leave a Comment

Dating site seems to be applying the dubious principle of “any publicity is good publicity” Move over Facebook, because OKCupid just hopped on the user experimentation train! In a blog post published Monday, one of the dating site’s founders, Christian Rudder, proudly proclaims “We Experiment On Human Beings!” From the …

Chase’s (ineffective) Compassion-Free Crisis Management

Jonathan Bernstein crisis communication, crisis communications, crisis management, Crisis Prevention, crisis public relations, Crisis Response, Erik Bernstein, Jonathan Bernstein, public relations, reputation management Leave a Comment

Lack of much-needed compassion leaves bank’s communications falling flat Having a debit or credit card charge declined is both frustrating and embarrassing no matter who you are or what you’re buying, something we would expect a bank to be aware of. That’s why, when we spotted the below email from …

Crisis Management Quotables…on Showing Through

Erik Bernstein crisis communications, crisis management, crisis management quotables, Crisis Prevention, crisis public relations, Erik Bernstein, Jonathan Bernstein, media consultant, media training, PR, public relations, reputation management Leave a Comment

150 year-old wisdom that still applies today Ralph Waldo Emerson was a legendary speaker, essayist and poet who, perhaps not surprisingly for a man who published dozens of groundbreaking essays and delivered thousands of lectures, has a long list of quotes that have survived the nearly 150 years since his …