In crisis management and crisis communication you must manage the rule of thirds, as it relates to your brand and the management of your reputation.
Define the rule of thirds this way:
One third of the audience loves you – and nothing can change that.
One third of the audience hates you – and nothing can change you.
One third of the audience swings like a pendulum and they love or hate you based on what is trending at that moment.
Please see exhibit A: Justin Bieber.
His self-made series of recent crises have eroded his credibility with the middle third.
Do you know parents who have supported their daughters, who love Bieber? Did those parents in some way also think Bieber was a nice guy?
If you had asked them a year ago, they would have said, “He’s a nice kid, he has great God given talent, and his mom seems to be trying to keep him grounded.”
Ask them today, they might say, “Justin Bieber is a spoiled little a**hole.”
Want more proof of how this works?
1) Bieber is officially the butt of an increasing number of jokes. During the Olympics, the trending joke was that the loser of the U.S. versus Canada hockey game had to keep Bieber. Hashtag – that’s funny for us. Hashtag – that’s sad for Bieber.
Our last article focused on the need for public relations experts to be more strategic as they accomplish tactical tasks. You were reminded that the articles you write must result in behavior change. Your Tweets, Facebook posts and videos must also result in change such as better employee productivity, more sales, or a changed behavior in your customers.
Once you have set up your strategic goals for the year, you must fight what we will call, “Emergency News Release Syndrome.”
Symptoms of Emergency News Release Syndrome include:
1) Emails from an executive telling you in the middle of the day that they need an unplanned and unscheduled news release by the end of the day.
2) An executive walking into your office asking you for a news release immediately for something that he or she has known about for weeks, but did not trust you enough to share with you previously.
3) Someone from a random department, that achieved an internal goal, wants you to write a news release to brag about their accomplishment. No one in the outside world, or even outside of their department, cares about it.
Several years ago I worked as a Vice President at Best Buy, which had one of the best processes I have ever seen for dealing with Emergency News Release Syndrome. It was in place before my arrival, so the credit goes to my predecessors.
Best Buy’s communications department had a policy that no news release would be written if the information did not correspond with the strategic objectives of the overall corporation. For example, if a corporate goal was to increase sales, the news release had to contribute to an initiative to increase sales. Also, if someone in IT came rushing to the communications department asking for a news release about a gadget that did nothing to improve sales or productivity, their request was rejected and no release was written. They were told to write a memo and place it on the bulletin board within their department.
Another policy was that there would never be a request for a news release for something that the communications department was kept in the dark about. When the executive leadership held confidential meetings about big, future initiatives, or potentially negative issues, a vice president from communications was brought into these confidential discussions from the beginning.
Both of these approaches worked because the communications team instituted a “Gatekeeper” policy. All requests for news releases had to go to the Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper and her team would evaluate whether the information contributed to the company’s strategic objectives.
There are two somewhat sarcastic lines I use when presented with an Emergency News Release request:
• Do you want fries and a large coke with that news release?
This references the concept that you are not in PR just to take orders like someone at a fast food restaurant.
• Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.
This references the concept that in PR, your day, week, month and year should be planned out. Yes, you must be flexible on days when things are truly beyond anyone’s control, but man-made emergencies that result from poor planning or corporate secrecy are unacceptable.
You should do these things:
1) Set PR objectives annually that are in line with corporate objectives.
2) Appoint a gatekeeper and communicate to all what the PR department’s policies are regarding the gatekeeper system.
3) Push back and stick to your guns when people violate the gatekeeper system.
In short, be a welcome mat for strategically communicating and not a doormat for everyone to wipe their feet on.
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By Gerard Braud Our focus on media training, crisis communications and public relations extends into the Duck Dynasty controversy and three lost opportunities. Put your politics, religion and personaBy Gerard Braud
Our focus on media training, crisis communications and public relations extends into the Duck Dynasty controversy and three lost opportunities.
Put your politics, religion and personal views about gender, sexuality and race aside for a moment in order to put these observations into the context for which they are intended.
Today’s primary question: Did those reacting to Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson each miss a golden opportunity in their reactions to advance their respective causes?
A secondary question: Is the media, in many cases, misreporting this story because most who are reporting on it are not reacting to the original GQ story? Instead, are they reacting to headlines they have heard from from others in the media, and from others who are reacting, who have labeled Robertson as homophobic, anti-gay and a racist?
Remember… put your politics, religion and personal views aside to look at the questions from a public relations point of view…
Also, read the Bible passage that Phil makes reference to.
Once you’ve done your background research, you can read on…
Here are the missed media opportunities by A&E, gay activist groups, and groups representing blacks.
Lost Opportunity #1 – Gay Organizations are failing to advance their cause because they opted to be reactive rather than pro-active in their statements. This is especially true for what I’ve read from GLADD. From a media training, crisis communications and public relations perspective, their statements vented anger back at Robertson. This approach divides all audiences into pro-gay and anti-gay factions. If GLADD took a calmer approach and removed anger, hurt and outrage from their statement, they could – from a media and public relations standpoint – leverage the situation to their advantage.
If I were writing their statement for them, it would have said, “We recognize that many people in America share a similar Biblical belief as expressed by Phil Robertson, including the belief that it is sinful for a man to sleep with a woman he is not married to and for a woman to sleep with a man she is not married to. What we share with Robertson is the belief that monogamous relationships have value, and therefore underscores our support that marriage equality be extended to partners of the same gender. We also recognize that many people believe homosexuality is a choice and we continue to strive to educate people that a person’s gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity are defined in the womb. This is a belief shared my many Christians, who are both heterosexual and homosexual.”
The statement calls Robertson “racist” and “homophobic.” (A side note – this joint statement surprises me since many Christian blacks very much share Robertson’s Biblical views and believe in the same Bible passage which he referenced in GQ.)
In GQ Robertson talked about his own perception of blacks he knew and worked with growing up. The statements referenced his perception from where he lived, and from my read of the article, spoke of no hate toward blacks, yet the joint letter and the media have labeled Robertson as racist.
Again, the NAACP and HRC are using angry and accusatory language that reflects the hurt they feel. They are effectively driving the story and the headlines in the first phase of the story. However, for the sake of gaining a headline, did they fail to seize on a greater public relations opportunity to advance their cause?
My advice would have been to issue a statement that would have said, “Some in the black community will interpret the remarks made by Phil Robertson as racist. We, however, see it as a personification of what blacks endured during the civil rights period. In many parts of America, our white brothers and sisters did not see the discrimination that many of our black brothers and sisters were experiencing. It is for that reason that we have spent the last 50 years fighting for equality and justice for all and the reason we will continue to our efforts to bring awareness to the need for equality.”
Lost Opportunity #3 – A&E could have addressed this matter without Phil’s suspension. A&E quickly bowed to pressure from the above mentioned groups, who are well organized, well funded, and have a public relations machine already in place. Television networks usually make their decisions based on their own revenue and the reaction of advertisers, who get pressured by activist organizations.
A simple statement without the suspension could have been the wisest way the network could have responded to the unfolding media crisis. They could have simply issued a statement that said, “We realize that many people will be offended by Phil’s remarks, while many people share his belief. However, even if we, as a network do not agree with all that Phil has said, we respect his First Amendment rights and his freedom of speech. We ask for understanding by all of our employees, viewers, and sponsors. We also apologize to anyone who may have been offended by Phil’s remarks.”
While Duck Dynasty viewers are not currently as well organized as the above mentioned groups, I think A&E will see that they too vote with their dollars and have the ability to organize and mobilize through social media to put pressure on the network and the sponsors of Duck Dynasty. This program draws one of the largest audiences on cable television and A&E.
Crisis Management for Duck Dynasty
Now consider this media relations, crisis communication and public relations truth – We’ve seen many people who are in the media spotlight for a controversy, make it worse when they either respond or attempt to issue an apology. Paula Deen was horrible in her live Today Show interview with Matt Lauer. Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon was forced out of his job because his apology was poorly worded and poorly executed.
The next move for Phil Robertson and the Duck Dynasty family is the most critical. A poorly executed post-crisis interview, like the one by Paula Deen, could spell disaster. While saying nothing in the short term is an option, every time any of the Duck Dynasty stars are in public, you can bet someone from the media will be there shouting a question or asking for a comment about the controversy.
Every member of the Robertson family – if they want to manage this properly – must sit down with the best media expert and best media trainer they can find – and spend some serious time preparing for their verbal and non-verbal reactions. The clever one-liners used on the television show will not play well in media interviews. The media trainer must work with the family members to keep them authentic and to recognize that they can still speak their mind, but that each word they say is important and each word they do not say is important.
Careless phraseology by an authentic person is what started this controversy. Careless phraseology will make the controversy worse.
There are many moving parts to this media crisis and there are many opportunities that have been missed and are yet to be taken.
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It is a bold move; perhaps unprecedented. Certainly in my career in crisis communications and my prior career as a reporter, I cannot recall a community that has suffered a crisis, asking the media to stay away. However, officials in Newtown, Connecticut are asking the media to stay away on December 14th, the one-year anniversary of the tragic shooting that killed 27 people.
From a media relations perspective, I support this bold move.
As for the lessons for communicators and public relations professionals, Newtown offers many crisis communications lessons. Free information and a free webinar from one year ago are still online. Sadly, a bold post-Newton prediction I made in a blog post on CommPro.biz has come true.
I predicted that, “The Sandy Hook shooting will likely not raise any discussions about effective crisis communications, although it should.” With CommPro.biz, I presented a free webinar outlining what all schools should do in order to be properly prepared for effective crisis communications should they experience a shooting or some other type of crisis.
An effective crisis communication plan can save lives and move people out of harms way. With all my heart I believe it and advocate for crisis communications preparedness each day.
Sadly, I can report my prediction has come true, at least among the schools that contacted me immediately after the webinar and during the year. Of those who had more questions about writing a crisis communications plan, to date, not a single person who has contacted me has been able to get their school officials to endorse or believe in the premise that if you plan on a sunny day, all will go much more smoothly on your darkest day. So many organizations see communications about a crisis as a reactive response to media after a crisis rather than a pro-active event of planning that should be done long before a crisis ever strikes. Not a single person who contacted me was able to get their schools to allocate even a modest amount of time or money to begin the effort.
It would be a great day for children, parents and educations if my prediction were wrong.
I’m sorry about the spam that infiltrated the feed burner that delivers my blog to you. The system got hacked and the crisis guy had a crisis. Hopefully it has all been cleaned out.
I value the fact that you subscribe to my blogs and hope we’ve seen the last of the bad guys. However… if there is spam in this message sent via feed burner, then I’ve got more work to do.
With warm regards,
Gerard Braud
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Recently we have published two articles here about Lululemon founder Chip Wilson. The first focused on his foolish ad-libs in a TV interview for which he was clearly not prepared. In the article we said his failure to prepare for the media interview would affect his profits. The second article focused on his poor attempt to apologize for his first blunder, creating a social media fire storm. Now comes the news that he is out as Chairman of the company he helped found, because of… wait for it… wait for it… because of things he said.
Click image to watch video
Chip Wilson’s ad-libs and bad media interview caused him, in large part, to be ousted from the company that he helped start.
Verbal blunders have cost an executive his position in his company.
This should be a wake-up call to all public relations people, executives and CEOs. It should be, but it won’t. Most CEOs and executives will remain too stubborn and arrogant to schedule time for training. Most public relations people will be too timid and afraid of losing their jobs to get in the CEO or executive’s face and demand that they dedicate ample time to prepare for EVERY media interview.
Many CEOs and executives treat media training as though it is a bucket list item – something they do once in life. This is as dumb as me taking one class at putt-putt and thinking I can play golf against Tiger Woods in the PGA.
EVERY interview requires practice.
Media interviews are not something you should ever take lightly.
Media interviews affect your bottom line.
Media interviews are connected to money.
Media interviews affect profits.
Click to watch interview
I’m befuddled to see how corporations spend millions on branding, millions on product development, and millions on all the contracts lawyers write, all to protect profits. Why would any corporation or executive spend so much on all of that stuff… why would they place such a high financial value on all of that stuff… yet completely under estimate the financial value of a media interview?
Wake-up executives.
Wake-up public relations people.
Wake-up corporations.
Wake-up CEOs.
Wake-up Chairmen and boards.
If you invest time and effort in media training it will pay huge dividends.
I’ve witnessed corporations lose millions in moments in a bad interview.
I’ve witnessed corporations make millions in a moment in a well planned and practiced interview.
If you could attach a dollar to every word you say, would you make money or lose money?
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Watch the news coverage as winter storms move across the United States, leaving many people without power in the cold for up to two weeks. Much of this story is being told through the eyes of the so-called, “citizen journalists.”
Citizen journalism is one of the reasons breaking news got broken. While corporate communicators, corporate executives and corporate lawyers haggle over every word and comma in a news release, eye witnesses to news events are posting their pictures and videos online with astounding speed.
Corporations around the world need to wake up. They need to rethink their approach to media relations and crisis communications. They need to think and act like citizen journalists. They need to post fast to the web.
When I hear a corporate communicator tell me, “Our people will never let us do that,” my first instinct is to channel my inner Ron Burgundy because, “I’d like to punch you in the spleen.” Trust me, in 1994 I heard these same people telling us that we couldn’t use e-mail and websites. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.
But seriously – stop saying you can’t. Here are 5 things to consider.
#1 The Miracle on the Hudson
When U.S. Airways had a jet full of people land in the Hudson River in the media capitol of the world, all of the world’s media used the same image taken by a guy with a smart phone who posted the image to Twitter. I’d wager that U.S. Airways might have not even known they had lost a plane when those first images hit Twitter. You must be that fast to post images of your own news events.
#2 The Virginia Tech Massacre
On that sad day when 32 people died at Virginia Tech, University officials were slow to meet, slow to make decisions, and slow to issue both news releases and emergency communications to their student body. Instead, an engineering student used his smart phone to capture video of police officers on campus as 26 gunshots from the gunman are heard on the video. There was no national news media on the campus at that moment, yet when the students uploaded his video to CNN iReports, the media had all they needed to tell the story from a location where no media would have been allowed. You must be that fast to post video of your own news events.
#3 Stop Analyzing Words and Commas
After more than 30 years in communications, I still don’t understand why corporations spend so much time scrutinizing a written news release, only to have the spokesperson say dumb, un-vetted comments in an interview. If the interview isn’t going to match the written news release then stop spending so much time on the news release and spend that time in media training with the spokesperson.
#4 Stop Writing News Releases from Scratch
Every crisis communications plan should have a huge library of pre-written and pre-approved news releases that can be easily modified through strategically placed fill-in-the-blanks and multiple-choice options. If 100 things could go wrong in your organization, you should have 100 pre-written news releases. The pre-approval process will allow them to be posted to the web and read to the media in less than one hour of the onset of your news event or crisis.
#5 Practice
To be as good as a citizen journalist you must have the necessary Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounts set up. You must set up accounts with CNN iReports and other media uploading profiles. You need the right phone or tablet device and it must be configured to interface with your social media accounts. You need Skype for live reports. Here is the big one – you must practice your performance on camera as well as your ability to share and publish online from your smart device. This isn’t easy to do, yet you must do it and make it look easy.
The bottom line is someone will be telling your story. It can be an uninformed, yet technologically advanced eye-witness, or it can be an official source who understands the technology, as well as good media relations and crisis communications.
Who will tell your next story?
Want to learn more? Register for this free CommPro.Biz webinar on December 16, 2013 at 1 p.m. EDT
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Crisis Communications, a working Crisis Communication Plan as well as good media training skills will be critical in the next few days as bad weather moves across the United States.
Before the weather gets to you, now is the time to begin managing the expectations of your customers and employees. Many of you will experience power outages that may last up to two weeks. Let your customers and employees know this through effective communications today.
In your communications to them, be very clear about the pain, problems and predicaments they will face.
#1 Do Not Sugar Coat the News
Tell people exactly how bad things may get. Make sure your messaging is direct and simple. Deliver the headline, give a good synopsis, and then give the details. Write your communications the same way a reporter would write a news story. Don’t overload your communications with corporate jargon, acronyms and politically correct phrases that may confuse your audience.
#2 Do Not Hedge Your Bets With Optimism
You are better off to tell audiences what the worst will be and then be happy if the worst does not come to pass. It is easier to celebrate good news than to apologize for a situation that drags on and gets worse.
#3 Be Ready to Use Every Means of Communications Available to You
Traditional media will be overwhelmed with many stories. If you want to get their attention and get coverage as a way to reach your audiences, do these things now:
Be ready to post updates to your primary website starting now.
Use iPad and iPhone video to record each update and post it to YouTube.
Send e-mails to employees with links to your website and video.
Post that same video to CNN iReports.
Add links to Facebook and Twitter that send your audiences to your website and your video.
#4 Media Training for Spokespeople
Anyone who records a video or does an interview with the media should have gone through extensive media training prior to this crisis. Additionally, do role-playing and practice with them before each interview in the coming days.
#5 Be Skype Ready
In a winter storm type crisis, media may ask you to do live interviews via Skype. Download Skype to your mobile devices now and practice using Skype. Additionally, all spokespeople on a Skype interview must be properly media trained in a Skype interview setting. Use my online tutorials to help you prepare spokespersons.
#6 Expect a Spike in Social Media Communications
Keep in mind that organizations that often have very little following on social media will see a spike in social media during power outages. As audiences have no computer access they will turn to their mobile devices. Your team needs to be prepared to monitor social media and reply to posts only when it is absolutely necessary. Too many replies to negative comments only lead to more negative comments and those comments keep re-posting more frequently in everyone’s news feed.
#7 Direct Tweets to Reporters
Increasingly, reporters respond quickly to Tweets. I find that in a weather crisis you can get a reporter’s attention faster with a Tweet than with an e-mail, phone call or text message.
#8 Be a Resource
Don’t confine your social media posts to only information about your organization. Post resource information that your audience needs, such as locations to shelters, information about emergency supplies, and any other creature comforts they need.
#9 Don’t Be Left in the Dark
Now is the time to review your list of emergency supplies and gather all of the devices you need to power your mobile devices. Devices like Mophies can charge your phones and tablets. Make sure you have batteries and flashlights. If you can, get a generator and ample supplies of gasoline. Gather extra food, water and blankets. Make sure you can heat your work environment.
#10 Rest When You Can
Rest and sleep well before the crisis. Work strategically in shifts during the crisis. Everyone doesn’t have to be awake all of the time. Naps are allowed in the middle of the day.
#11 Victory from Preparedness
Don’t judge your public relations skills by how well you were able to wing it during and after the crisis. Victory is measured by how much you did on a clear sunny day to prepare for your darkest day.
#12 Update Your Crisis Communication Plan
When this crisis is over, evaluate whether your crisis communication plan worked. It should be so thorough that nothing slips through the cracks, yet easy enough to read and follow during your crisis so that it tells you everything to do with a precise timetable for achieving each task. If it doesn’t meet these criteria, evaluate it during and after your crisis, then prepare for a substantial re-write or re-design as soon as this crisis is over.
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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has done it. So has Lululemon founder Chip Wilson. So have presidential candidates like Herman Cain and Sarah Palin. Each is guilty of saying dumb things in media interviews.
Why do powerful people say dumb things in media interviews?
Here are 3 reasons…
First, powerful people fail to dedicate the appropriate amount of time to preparing for and training for their interviews. Most people who run for office or lead corporations are usually sent to a media training coach so they can learn to effectively communicate with the media. The media trainer should never be a spin doctor who teaches people to avoid answering questions, but rather a thoughtful coach who teaches the spokesperson to craft thoughtful, well worded answers that provide the appropriate amount of context, quotes, and supporting facts. The essence of the best answers requires having a good writer who can write articulate, quotable phrases in the voice of the spokesperson. The spokesperson is then responsible for internalizing these phrases for use in the interview.
One media training class is never enough. Media interviews require practice before each interview, just as an athlete would practice before each game.
Training, practicing and internalizing key phrases requires dedicated time, and many powerful people fail to allocate time, thinking they can do fine without additional practice.
That leads us to reason number two, which is arrogance and overconfidence by the powerful person.
Powerful people have often had some success in the past with spontaneously saying the right thing in the right moment. Politicians have often been told early in their careers that they were good public speakers. However, the stakes get higher each day as a person’s public profile rises. Often, reporters begin to dig a little deeper and question the congruency between what a person has said in the past and their actions in the present.
The increased scrutiny generates harder questions, which requires even more practice and more time spent internalizing powerful, quotable phrases. Yet the arrogant and over confident spokesperson fails to recognize that what got them to this level will not get them to the next level. In other words, a good public speaker needs to become a great professional speaker. Many are never motivated to become as great as they should be.
This brings us to reason number three, which is the spokesperson’s failure to correlate the monetary and reputational impact of what they say and the massive damage that happens when they say dumb things. One of the worst examples I’ve ever seen is a spokesperson who said the wrong thing and derailed a $700-million industrial project.
Just look at the spokespeople we sited above. Rob Ford’s dumb statements have lead his city council to begin stripping him of his power. It is unknown whether his reputational damage will cause him to lose his job come election time. Chip Wilson has seen an outcry on social media as former customers abandon Lululemon yoga wear, all because of a careless adlib on Bloomberg TV. Herman Cain tried to run for president, knowing sexual harassment allegations were part of his past, yet failed to be prepared with a well-written response. Instead, when he was asked if he had ever been accused of sexual harassment, he responded, “Have you ever been accused of sexual harassment?” His campaign contributions dried up and his bid for President ended. Sarah Palin may be able to bring a crowd to their feet in a public rally of supporters, but in media interviews my opinion is she is consistently one of the worst spokespeople I have ever seen. Her failed interview with Katie Couric during her bid for Vice President derailed the presidential campaign of Senator John McCain. Many would say her verbal blunders have kept her from advancing her political career. Her statements may be acceptable to a certain loyal audience, but constant blunders erode her loyal support and empower her detractors.
Powerful people become powerful because they have certain skills or characteristics that propel them forward. The most powerful people are those who can recognize their own weaknesses and either hire people to do those jobs for them, or they hire coaches who will honestly critique their weakness and develop a process to improve in those areas.
Talking to the media is hard. It requires you to think like a reporter and organize your thoughts like a journalist is taught to write a news report. It requires you to know how to punch home a headline, how to begin and end with a great synopsis sentence, how to pepper the interview with well planned quotes, and how to give a few supporting facts without over loading the interview with irrelevant details. A journalist spends four years in college learning this system and practices it daily with each report they write.
No spokesperson should be foolish, arrogant or over confident enough to try to match their amateur status with that of a professional, anymore than they should think that one trip to the putt-putt course makes them ready to play golf in the PGA.
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When media training a candidate, politician, or elected official, one of the hardest things to teach them is when to shut up.
In every media training class I impart this expert advice to the trainee: “When you are digging a hole for yourself, put down the shovel.”
Toronto May Rob Ford has likely never heard this from his media trainer. One must ask, has Rob Ford ever had media training? Instead of putting down the shovel he has brought in a backhoe.
As repulsive as you may find Rob Ford’s latest quote, I’m going to give it to you here just to show what an amazing failure this guy is every time he is questioned by reporters. You can watch the video for yourself.
“Oliver Gondek says that I want to eat her pussy and Oliver Gondek, I’ve never said that in my life to her. I would never do that. I’m happily married. I’ve got more than enough to eat at home,” said Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.
From Vancouver to Toronto, Canadians have dominated the news for the past two weeks for saying things to the media that they should not say. Each time, they make the situation worse with a poorly executed apology. We saw that last week with Lululemon Founder Chip Wilson and now with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.
Each case, the spokesman created their own crisis by what they said. Dare I say the United States media has not covered this much news from Canada in my lifetime?
Admittedly it is difficult to media train certain people with certain personality types. Certain rich or powerful people are arrogant enough, or over confident enough, that their inflated egos preclude them from seeking expert advice and expert coaching in order to improve their skills in many areas, including talking to the media.
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In crisis management and crisis communication you must manage the rule of thirds, as it relates to your brand and the management of your reputation.
