How to write a news release for a crisis event is one of those questions that can cause a fight among public relations professionals, corporate executives, and anyone tasked with some part of the information chain during a crisis. Read more
Whether you are in the field of public relations, media relations, crisis communications, or corporate communications, you no doubt have had to do your fair share of writing news releases and releasing statements to the media and your stakeholders. You may have even had to write a public statement specifically to release on social media. Read more
This is our crisis communications news release contest.
Rules: The clock is ticking. You need to get a statement posted to your website, emailed to the media, and emailed to your employees. Below is the statement that you have been given.
Time edit begins ________
Fire at Houston
Time edit ends ________
Total time spent editing _______
Photo by Evy Prentice on Unsplash
It was both the weirdest and most challenging presentation to prepare for. After years of preparing my presentations for PRSA, this particular presentation for PRSA ICON2020 has adapted and evolved in a number of ways due to the smoldering COVID-19 crisis.
What I can promise to you crisis communications and public relations professionals, is valuable lessons on what has gone right, what has gone wrong, what we can do moving forward, case studies, tools, and takeaways that you can start using immediately in your organization.
See you on October 28, 3PM Eastern Time.
Download the slides here if you would like to prepare, take notes, review, or debrief: https://braudcommunications.com/prsa/
Use this link to schedule a free, private call, or in other words, a virtual “drink” with me after the presentation to debrief, discuss, and ask questions: https://calendly.com/braud/15min
For the video course to write your crisis communications plan visit: https://braudcommunications.com/5-steps-to-effective-crisis-communications/
By Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC
The crisis dominating the news this week is the viral video of students from a Catholic High School in Covington, Kentucky shown in contrast to a Native American drummer.
It’s a crisis. It is requiring serious crisis communications and crisis management. The high school is in reaction mode. The student pictured most prominently is in reaction mode.
What could have been done to prevent this?
That is the question we are asking this week on The BraudCast.
While many PR people pride themselves on managing crisis communications after a crisis, I pride myself on all of the many times I never had to do crisis communications on behalf of clients because of the techniques we used to keep the crisis from ever happening.
Please share your idea and answers.
Please keep your answers objectively professional. This is not intended to be a conversation with snarky, politically volatile answers. We’re looking for professional public relations wisdom.
You can post answers:
Here on the blog
Tweet and follow me @gbraud
Connect with me on LinkedIn
Subscribe to The BraudCast
I’ll collect your professional wisdom and share it with everyone next week.
Thank you for participating.
Answer Hint: Part of the answer lies in the 5 Steps to Effective Crisis Communications. If you haven’t watched these 5 free videos, register here.
This question is one of a series of debates in the media relations, crisis communications, public relations, and social media industries where you and your colleagues can share observations with each other. Yes, YOU are invited to share your bite size bits of best practices. Here is how:
Step 1: Subscribe to The BraudCast on YouTube
Step 2: You will see a short video that poses a new question every Monday. You then post your best practices and observations on The BraudCast YouTube channel.
3: Once your opinion is shared, you can follow the discussion online so you can compare your best practices to those of your professional colleagues.
Step 4: Watch the Follow up Friday Video where you will see a short YouTube video outlining some of the most interesting observations. Yes…your comments may actually show up on our BraudCast video, bringing you world-wide fame, fortune, a big raise, glory, street parades, and more.
Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge. Please take 2 seconds now to subscribe to The BraudCast.
By Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC
There are many great articles about the biggest PR crises in 2018. Rather than write such an article this year, I thought it would be more effective to help you plan your 2019 crisis communications strategies based on what happened in 2018. Read more
By Gerard Braud
The poem, Twas the Night Before Christmas, is only 56 lines long. As writing goes, it’s pretty perfect. But we all know there are people where you work, who feel compelled to make edits, no matter how perfect your writing is. Maybe it’s the CEO or CFO, or an engineer, IT guy, accountant, doctor, or even the lawyer. Sure, they just want it to be more accurate and legally correct. But are all of those edits really necessary?
So for those of you who feel compelled to make edits, and to those of you who have been victimized by a red pen, I offer to you this special version of the poem, with edits. ©2018
Twas the Night Before Christmas With Edits
Twas the nocturnal period preceding the annual Christian festival, when throughout the domicile
No one of consequence was moving, including the rodents
Long socks receptacles were suspended near the thermal unit, with safety as a top priority
in expectation that a legendary Christian Bishop, born in the region of modern day Turkey, in or about 280 A.D., who was later Canonized by the Pope, would arrive post-haste
The humans below the legal age of majority, were reclined comfortably within their sleeping apparatuses
While apparitions of dehydrated fruit, filled their subconscious
And the maternal figure donning a headscarf, and I, in a consensual relationship, did likewise
Had just reached a state of extended hibernation
When in an external grassy zone, a ruckus occurred
I spontaneously ejected myself from my sleeping device, to evaluate the situation
Away to an opening in the wall I expedited myself
With vigor, I forcefully opened a set of protective panels
The satellite of the earth unified with the flakes of ice crystals
Gave the reflective quality of noon, to objects below
When, while visibly curious there appeared
A smaller than common vehicle of transport and eight proportional deer, common to subarctic regions
With a demure heavy equipment operator, so agile and prompt
I surmise instantly that it must be the aforementioned Saint
More rapid than birds of prey, the mammals came
And he exuded a high-pitched sound, then proclaimed their given names
You may Google the historic names if necessary, since corporate policy prohibits us from releasing names without consent… and because some of the names imply behavior that may be deemed as inappropriate or suggestive, and not in keeping with our policies regarding sexual harassment in the workplace
To the top of covered shelter protecting the entrance to our domicile
To the top of the vertical structure supporting the inner and outer cladding
Now run or travel somewhere in a great hurry, bolt, and/or gallop
As foliage void of moisture within a tropical cyclone, having winds exceeding 74 miles per hour
When they encountered structures that hindered forward progress, they accelerating upward
So up to the structure’s ridgeline the beast maneuvered
With the vehicle at capacity with objects of play; and the Bishop inside as well
And then like chimes, I heard on the ridgeline
The exaggerated movement, and clatter of horny feet
As I extracted my head from the framed opening, and was moving in a circular motion
Down the vertical channel for combustion gases, came the Saint, with great haste, void of OSHA required protective gear
His wardrobe consisted of natural mammal pets with hair still attached, covering his entirety, much to the protest of certain animal rights activist
The garments were discolored with combustion residue
A sum of replicas were suspended to the rear of his torso
And like a merchant of goods, he displayed all of his wares
His visual organs – how they reflected the light
His facial indentions exhibited great joy
His face just below his eye socket, was reminiscent of blooming thorn-filled plants; his nostril area like ripe, round fruit
His pursed lips, they provoked such dry amusement
And his unshaven facial hair was similar in color to the crystalized precipitation
The extension of a tobacco burning device was clinched within the enamel-coated structures of his jaw
And cancer causing carbon particles were visible in a circular shape
His facial structure was wider than it was tall
His spherical abdominal region
Vibrated upon guffaw, resembling a food basin at capacity with sweet, semisolid preserve
His weight-to-height ratio was disproportionate; while he correctly personified a character portrayed in a seasonal holiday movie classic starring Will Ferrell
And there was humor in his antics, despite my presence
A non-flirtatious closing one eye, and a rotation of his neck
Soon indicated he was friend and not foe and therefore there was no need to seek outside mutual aid
He remained silent and demonstrated a commendable work ethic
And he filled the long sock receptacles; then made a quick, sudden movement
And he placed his index digit beside his nostril trunk
And with acknowledgement, he ascended the combustion chamber vent
He extradited himself to his transport, then repeated the high-pitched sound
And away the individual and his mammals departed through a control ascent in the atmosphere, similar in nature to the seed disbursement mechanism of certain plants
But I was able to discern his verbal proclamation as he departed from vision
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night… despite the edits.
©2018 Diversified Media, LLC dba Gerard 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…”
More crisis communications articles:
Please Pick Me to be Your Media Trainer
The Biggest Lie in Crisis Communications
4 Steps Every Company Needs to Take in Order to Avoid the Default Spokesperson
1) Too many people in public relations fail to ask for help when they need it.
There are many sources for expert help and advice. There are great professional organizations like the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRA), and the Southern Public Relations Association (SPRF).
Many members of these associations are willing to pick up the phone for free to answer a simple question. If most don’t know the answer to your question, they’ll gladly refer you to a colleague who is an expert. You could even give them a shout on social media.
2) Public relations folks cause greater problems for themselves by trying to tackle tasks that they are not good at or for which they have no professional passion.
In my own career, my passion for dealing with the media and crisis communications lead me to develop a niche’, rather than opening a full-service PR agency. If I need other aspects of PR, I call other experts who have PR agencies in New Orleans, New York, Toronto or other cities around the world.
Trying to do what you don’t know how to do is noble. Trying, learning, and achieving great things are commendable. But reaching beyond your capabilities often leads to failure, which then leads to you being further undervalued by your employer. Sometimes you get fired when the failure is too big. Often the difference between success and failure is simply asking for professional help.
And based on the personality type, you need to realize that most of your employers do not understand your craft or your profession. They think it is easy. Business leaders think you can work miracles. CEOs expect you to create magic on a shoestring budget. And often you do create magic with no budget and it feels great when you do. But when you do, you reinforce the notion of every CFO that you don’t need a bigger budget to do what you do. In reality, often you need to push back and say, “No, we need an outside expert to help us with that because the value of success is important and a potential failure would be more costly.”
Some of you are blessed to be in organizations with a huge PR team with experts in many areas of social media, internal communications, employee engagement, corporate social responsibility, and media relations. Many of you wear too many hats and do it all by yourself, including marketing, branding, advertising, and customer service.
3) Public relations folks often wear too many hats and do it all by themselves, including marketing, branding, advertising, and customer service.
Before you reach too far and fail, consider picking up the phone and reaching out to a professional colleague to ask for advice, help, and mentorship.
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…”
More crisis communications articles:
3 Lessons the Melania Trump Coat Can Teach All Public Relations People
The Biggest Lie in Crisis Communications
4 Steps Every Company Needs to Take in Order to Avoid the Default Spokesperson
By Gerard Braud
Public relations and corporate communications professionals: It’s time to look at your life. The kids are back in school. The Labor Day weekend is behind you. Co-workers have all wrapped up their summer vacations. For the first time since Memorial Day the entire staff is all in one place at one time. What was not even a second thought last week is suddenly urgent and important.
Is “work – life” balance possible for people in public relations? Experience tells me many public relations professionals get stressed trying to complete job tasks while also balancing their family or personal life, especially this time of year.
Do you feel invigorated to recommit yourself to achieving end of year goals? Or do you feel stressed because so much has gone unaccomplished all summer and now deadline pressures are looming?
If you had work-life balance you would feel neither re-invigorated nor stressed after Labor Day because you live your entire year in balance rather than the ups and downs and ebbs and flow of a chaotic corporate existence.
Develop a strategic communications plan based on a rolling 12-month calendar and stop planning your communications based on either your calendar year or your fiscal year. When PR people live by a calendar year there is the “fresh start” syndrome of January, complete with soon-to-fail New Year resolutions. Next you spend January and February getting ready to get ready.
March, April and May are your busy times of the year, with pauses for spring break and Memorial Day. Little gets accomplished in the summer because too many people who impact your goals and projects are on vacation. By the time you regroup after Labor Day, it takes several weeks to get rolling again, similar to New Years. By mid-September you are productive again and you stay focused through Halloween. Your mind then starts planning for Thanksgiving break and then for Christmas. Before you know it, New Years rolls around and you hit reset all over again.
Does this sound like you? If so, it appears you have five productive months a year and seven months of distractions.
Set a goal from September 2014, through September 2015. Strategically plan all of your goals and deadlines for training, publications, etc. On October 1, 2014, extend the strategic plans and goals by one additional month, through October 2015. Keep doing this at the first of every month and you now have a rolling 12-month calendar.
When you build your 12-month rolling calendar, set clear, hard deadlines. Identify the times of the year when people are inaccessible, such as in the summer, and plan around those challenges. If you need a team meeting or a training program next June, send the invitations out now, before people fill their calendars with vacation dates. That will make next summer more productive because you planned so far in advance. Everything won’t come to a grinding halt.
A 12-month rolling calendar will make the budgeting process easier. You should set clear goals now to spend your remaining budgets before the end of your calendar or fiscal year, so you don’t lose those dollars. But as you enter your new budgeting phase and make budget requests, you should also schedule on your calendar exactly when you plan to spend your dollars for training and projects using your 12-month rolling calendar.
Planning this way allows you to get contracts in place early, which legally commits your funds to vendors now, preventing the boss from taking your money away should conditions change for the worse down the road.
Stop losing momentum. Adopt a rolling 12-month calendar that resets strategic goals and budgets at the start of each month for the next 12-months. Too many people live start and stop lives. Recommit today to end the ebb and flow to achieve greater work-life balance.
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…”
More crisis communications articles:
3 Lessons the Melania Trump Coat Can Teach All Public Relations People
The Biggest Lie in Crisis Communications
4 Steps Every Company Needs to Take in Order to Avoid the Default Spokesperson
By Gerard Braud
Before every media training class I teach, I ask the PR team to provide me with their existing key messages. Most are word vomit.
Many public relations people “vomit” every word they can, every cliché they can, and every statistic they can onto the page they submit to me. As you might guess, I have to do major key message re-writes before every media training class.
While teaching interview skills in a media training class, a participating executive provided expert insight to the lesson I was teaching.
“So you don’t want us to word vomit everything we know in a media interview, right?” he asked.
That isn’t how I would have phrased it, but now that I think about it, many spokespeople, and the public relations people who write the key messages for the spokespeople, are guilty of “word vomit.”
When a spokesperson is being interviewed, more is less. You must help them fight the urge to say everything they know about the company or organization.
The more you say to a reporter, the more you subject yourself to editing that you may not like.
It may not be pretty, but today’s media training expert advice is:
If someone read your key messages right now, would they think, “Ugh. Too much information!”?
If you need help finding the perfect way to write your key messages, check out my “Kick-Butt Key Message” writing program.
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…”
More crisis communications articles:
3 Lessons the Melania Trump Coat Can Teach All Public Relations People
The Biggest Lie in Crisis Communications
4 Steps Every Company Needs to Take in Order to Avoid the Default Spokesperson