Crisis communication resources to help you protect your revenue, reputation, and brand.
Effective crisis communications when “it” hits the fan.
Welcome to Our Crisis Communication Blog
Our blog is filled with deep resources to help with your crisis communication needs. Whether you are writing a crisis communication plan, seeking the best media training tips, or digging for case studies on crisis situations, you’ll find it here. Our goal is to give you all of the public relations resources you need to protect your revenue, reputation, and brand.
For those of you who love DIY and taking on a challenge, we’ve worked really hard to give you a good road map to follow. However, sometimes the fastest option is to bring in a pro. If that’s the case, we’re fully vaccinated and we’re ready to meet your needs, anywhere and anytime.
Here we are at the beginning of a new year. It’s that time of year where people make New Year’s Resolutions… most of which they abandon before the month is over.
What if instead of resolutions you selected continuity? And
what if the goal you set was to protect your organization’s revenue,
reputation, and brand? And what if you allowed me the honor of being your
accountability partner this year?
Why Not Resolutions?
Resolutions are indicative of one year ending and another
beginning. Resolutions personify stop, start, stop, start.
Continuity, on the other hand, represents the setting of
goals and standards, such as continuous improvement.
When I first conceived the idea of “The 5 Steps to Effective Crisis Communications,” my purpose was to help organizations, and the people in those organizations, set a course for constantly being prepared.
If a situation rises to the level of a crisis, then you and your organization are prepared to protect your revenue, reputation, and brand through effective communications with the media, your employees, your customers, your community, social media, and all of your stakeholders. If you are blessed enough to make it through the day, the week, or the year without a situation, good for you for being fortunate… but you can rest knowing you are prepared.
Five Steps to
Effective Crisis Communications:
Assessing your Vulnerabilities – not once, but all throughout the year.
Writing your Crisis Communications Plan – not just writing it, but working constantly to make it a living document that changes as communications and trends change.
Having a Library of Pre-Written News Releases – and constantly adding to that library as new vulnerabilities are discovered over time.
Annual Media Training – Yes, not just once in life, but at least once a year. Media training is not a bucket list item, but rather a skill set that requires regular practice. In addition to one major training a year, you must practice before EVERY interview.
Crisis Communications Drills – Like Media Training, drill at least once a year. Make it hard and real, hold tough news conferences. Bombard the drill with mock social media noise.
In the next few weeks, I’m going to dig deeper into each of the Five Steps to Effective Crisis Communications. When you follow the five steps you are continuously taking steps to protect your organization’s revenue, reputation and brand.
Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…”
https://braudcommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Braud-Communications-New-Year-Resolution.jpg7201080gbraudhttps://braudcommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Logo-white-01-300x138.pnggbraud2020-01-06 14:46:032021-05-18 03:47:29Start the New Year with Continuity and Not New Year’s Resolutions
You made it. Another year down. It is just about that time to turn your corporate work brain off.
It is time to rest.
We’ll be taking our blog silent until about January 6th, 2020. But before we go, you deserve a special thank you. Your loyalty, support and readership over these many years is constantly appreciated.
A number of you have evolved from being colleagues in a professional organization, to being clients, to being great personal friends. That’s really cool.
It is truly a blessing to serve you by doing the things that come natural to me. Today day marks 22 years since I left television news and embarked on this journey with you. You’ve paved the road for me and for that I am most grateful.
It’s also worth noting that each year around this time, many public relations people tell me they feel undervalued in their professional careers. For example, many who hoped to do media training or write a crisis communications plan were told, “No, we don’t have time for that,” or, “We don’t have budget for that.” This negative response is also true for many of your other strategic communication and brand goals.
Before the end of the year, take five minutes to read this article to help you with those frustrating work experiences. Then, rest your mind and put those negative thoughts out of your head for the next few weeks. We’ll revisit your goals in January.
Focus on spending time with your family. Focus on giving love, joy or gifts to all, whether they are best friends or complete strangers.
Take time to experience the joy of the season.
Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…”
https://braudcommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/matt-popovich-lwnAz-uauDc-unsplash-scaled-1.jpg13812560gbraudhttps://braudcommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Logo-white-01-300x138.pnggbraud2019-12-17 16:31:122021-05-18 03:45:58Take 5 Minutes to Shape Your 2020
December is filled with end of year meetings, budget reviews, and overall wrap up of your budget year. Not to mention your calendar is booked with office parties, gift-giving, and a to-do list the length of your arm.
That’s why January is the time to plan your crisis communications strategy for 2020. Before you just stroll in to the New Year and get back to the grind, let your C-suite, your executives, your public relations team, your communications staff know in DECEMBER that there will be crisis communication training and media training on the books EARLY in 2020. If you need help explaining this to your staff and team members, view this video:
Start by learning about the 5 Steps to Effective Crisis Communications. Now is the time to encourage your team that they can spread the project out into manageable tasks over the four quarters of the year. A free 5-part video series is online here to get you started:
Quarter 1 is the time to conduct your Vulnerability Assessment, which is Step 1. Mid-Quarter 1 is the time to write your Crisis Communications Plan, which is Step 2.
Quarter 2 is the time to write Pre-written News Releases as Step 3, based on your Vulnerability Assessment.
Quarter 3 is when you should conduct Media Training as Step 4, based on the pre-written news releases you have written.
Quarter 4 is when you should conduct your Crisis Communications Drill, which is Step 5, based on completion of all of the previous steps.
Once you make the commitment to more effective crisis communications, I’m here to help you achieve your goals and I’m standing by to be your accountability buddy. When you sign up for the free 5-part video series, you’ll be given a chance to schedule a free 15-minute phone call with me to help you set your goals.
If you are the type to take the bull by the horns, and if you are ready to put things on the fast track, Steps 1, 2 and 3 can be completed in as few as two days with my fully customizable crisis communications plan system.
Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…”
https://braudcommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/brooke-lark-BRBjShcA8D4-unsplash-scaled-1.jpg17072560gbraudhttps://braudcommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Logo-white-01-300x138.pnggbraud2019-12-10 10:07:032021-05-18 22:05:22How to Get Crisis Communications Training on Your 2020 Calendar
It is painful to watch. It is painful to listen to. But it
is also painful when a trained public relations professional and writer, sends
their news release to the leadership team for approval. So I’ve created a
shareable holiday greeting designed to make a point.
Has it happened to you?
You submit a news release for approval, then the CEO, CFO, CIO, CTO and every other C-Suite title, goes to work. Red pens in hand, heads down, they begin making unnecessary edits.
In short, the approval and editing process can be ugly.
So for all of you who have taken your red pen to someone
else’s work…
For all of you who have been victims of the red pen…
I share with you (and I encourage you to share with those
around you), a painful, living example, of what can happen when you make
unnecessary edits.
Merry Christmas from Braud Communications.
Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…”
https://braudcommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Twas-the-Night-Before-Christmas-Gerard-Braud-Communications.jpeg.jpg7681024gbraudhttps://braudcommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Logo-white-01-300x138.pnggbraud2019-12-03 09:47:342021-05-18 22:06:23Twas the Night Before Christmas…with Unnecessary Corporate Edits
Are you prepared for social media trolls taking over your social media sites or even worse, your website or blog?
Is your strategy outlined in your crisis communications plan for your public relations team, communications professionals, or your CEO’s to see and follow?
What is a social media troll and why should you care?
Social media trolls are typically mean-spirited people who hide behind an anonymous persona and live for the joy of making other people miserable by posting mean or inappropriate comments on social media sites, corporate websites, and blogs. Trolls are the bullies of the social media playground.
A troll may target your social media site randomly and verbally attack your company for something they don’t like or disagree with. Trolls usually seek out corporate sites during a crisis to add their mean two-cents. Trolls may rise to the level of organized activists who attack your site as a group.
Trolls are the social media equivalent of either a single activist throwing eggs on your CEO at a high profile public event or the equivalent of protesters with signs picketing outside your corporate headquarters.
A clear sunny day is a good day to put time on your calendar to debate internally what your strategy should be for your darkest day.
Do you want to wrestle with those opinions in the midst of a crisis? I hope you say N-O!
What should you do now to prepare for social media trolls?
1) Schedule time on a clear sunny day to discuss and debate this issue with your corporate leadership.
2) Set a policy, then modify your crisis communications plan to reflect the policy.
3) Create a pre-written news release template that would be used to explain the rationale of your policy, should you be forced to use it in a crisis. For example, if you took your site dark, you would need to explain why to your audience. Likewise, if you allowed your site to remain up and be overrun by trolls, you might need to explain that to your audience via a statement. Remember, these statements could be posted to your website, e-mailed to employees and stakeholders, and shared with the media if necessary.
It may be best to consult with a public relations or crisis communications professional on your decision. When I proposed that a POSSIBLE option MAY be to take a social media site dark, many PR people cited examples of companies that could never do that. Well great, I say. Yes, there are clearly premier brands that would face harsh criticism if they took their sites dark. Yet, I clearly cited brands in my discussion that I think could go dark without anyone but the trolls noticing, because the social media reach for some companies is so tiny that no one really knows they exist, nor do they care. Where does your brand fit into this equation?
You may argue it is naive of some PR people or crisis communications consultants to say a social media site could or should never go dark, when in fact the final pulling of the plug could come at the order of the CEO. You can offer all of the wise counsel you want, but sometimes the boss ultimately has it his or her way, with complete disregard for what you think. All the more reason to have this discussion with your leadership team on a clear sunny day.
Making decisions that impact your reputation and revenue are not easy. Please schedule time to do it today. If you’d like me to sit in on the discussion, please give me a call at 985-624-9976.
Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…”
https://braudcommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/anonymous-1332384_1920.jpg12971920gbraudhttps://braudcommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Logo-white-01-300x138.pnggbraud2019-11-20 15:26:132021-05-18 22:07:00How Do I Handle a Social Media Troll? Crisis Communication Tips
The ability for the global community to post online comments in countless ways and forums makes the world even more frightening for those trying to manage their reputation. For the sake of discussion here, when I use the term social media, I’m talking about all postings to the internet that allow your reputation to be improved or destroyed, as well as the gadgets that make it all possible. There are
3 ways you can get hurt in the world of social media:
When your public actions are photographed or video taped, then posted to the web
When your reputation is attacked on social sites and blogs
When you willingly participate in on-line discussions and do a poor job communicating
For example, there is a video posted to the web of a county commissioner being hounded by a television reporter. When asked after a public meeting to justify the delay in opening a new county juvenile justice center, the commissioner asks the reporter, “Elliot, do you know that Jesus loves you?” The commissioner then dodges every one of the reporter’s subsequent questions by trying to engage in a discussion about why the reporter should accept Jesus as his personal savior. Regardless of your religious beliefs, the answer is inappropriate because it is not germane to the news report, and by repeating a variation of it as the answer to every question, it only makes the official look more like he is guilty of hiding something.
Prior to the advent of social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook.com and YouTube.com, such buffoonery would have been seen once or twice on the local evening news, the commissioner would have become the butt of some brief local mockery and embarrassment, but within a few days it would all pass.
But in the age of social media, millions of people around the world are able to watch the video and laugh at its absurdity on a daily basis. Some will post a link to their own website, or forward a link via e-mails to friends. This is what viral and social media is all about. This video lives forever on the world wide web and so does the commissioner’s embarrassment, mockery and humiliation, as people perpetually forward the video to their network of real friends and online acquaintances.
Issues like this are one of the reasons you should consider Social Media Training. Social Media Training is a program I pioneered to teach communicators and executives the realities and how their reputations can be damaged by public actions that are either voluntarily, or involuntarily captured, and posted to the web.
Numerous reputations and careers have been destroyed because of what someone says in a presentation to what is perceived as a friendly group. Inevitably, an audience member records the speech or presentation, then either posts a portion of it to the web or gives it directly to the media.
Cloaked with an audience of perceived friends, speakers often “cross the line” by their comments, only to face humiliation, embarrassment, and in many cases a long list of apologies and even the loss of their jobs because they thought their comments were made in private and off the record. If you are hosting a social media training class, you may wish to combine it with a presentation skills class.
Social Media Training is also needed before communicators and executives voluntarily attempt to participate in online communities. This is true whether one is responding to a posting made by someone else, or whether you are the one posting to a personal or corporate blog for your organization.
For instance, I found a random blog entry one day as I prepared to teach a Social Media Seminar. The blog entry was from a top executive from General Motors. The blog entry, posted on an official GM site, featured a photo of the executive. The guy in the photo looked like he was delivering an angry rant on stage at a corporate meeting. His blog entry, likewise, took an angry, rant style with a tone that personified, “I know better than you.”
His comment was a reply to a blog posting critical of GM’s poor gasoline mileage in its SUV’s. Because of how the executive worded his rather pompous response, many more participants in the blog criticized his parsed words and reply, which reflected the official corporate line.
In short, the executive’s poor choice of words was like throwing gasoline on a small fire, turning it into a bigger fire. It didn’t need to be that way.
CEO’s and executives need to think carefully before they participate in social media and corporate communicators need to think carefully before asking or allowing executives to actively participate in social media.
There are a few basic things communicators and executives should consider in the world of social media:
1. Are you good with traditional media? If you are not good with traditional media, what makes you think you can handle social media?
2. How do you behave in public? Do you realize that every public moment of your life is potentially being photographed or recorded? Your public behavior, what you do and say, who you associate with, and where you are seen in public, can all be posted to the web for the entire world to see.
My 5 basic rules for social media:
1) Every rule of media training applies to social media. Every word and how those words are phrased will be carefully scrutinized.
2) Edit what you say constantly to avoid having your comments taken out of context.
3) The rule of ethics is to ask whether you behavior in private is the same as the way you would behave if people were watching you. Congruency of behavior is important.
4) Before jumping into an online blog type discussion, you need to be prepared to use key messages and making sure those key messages have been run through the cynic filter. Bloggers are cynical and brutal.
5) Sometimes the best response to a blog posting is to ask a question. Rather than attacking a blogger for their point of view, simply ask them to further explain their point of view. Sometimes a blogger will back down as they are unable to defend their position. Sometimes other bloggers will come to your rescue with responses that match your point of view.
Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…”
https://braudcommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/hermes-rivera-AaqcxqvI08I-unsplash-scaled.jpg15142560gbraudhttps://braudcommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Logo-white-01-300x138.pnggbraud2019-11-14 10:12:342021-05-18 22:07:32You’re Ruining Your Reputation on Social Media: Use 5 Basic Rules
