Crisis Communications Plan | Gerard Braud Communications

Take This Step FIRST to Begin Effective Social Media Communications

August 21, 2018/0 Comments/in Media Relations /by gbraud

In every crisis communications workshop or media training I teach, people ask, “How should a public relations team, company, non-profit, or government agency best use social media for effective crisis communication?” They ask it from New Orleans to New York and everywhere in between.

I respond by asking, “When ‘it’ hits the fan, and you need good crisis communications, is social media right for the company or organization you work for?”

Your job will be discernment. Your assignment is to discern what is right for you, your PR team, your company or organization, and your audiences.

You are invited back to these informative blog articles as you wish, to spend a few quick minutes absorbing the perspectives shared here, then decide what is the RIGHT fit. (Good ‘ol option B is to just pick up the phone and call me at 985-624-9976 and we’ll talk it out now.)

Unfortunately, public relations communicators are often like sheep in the social media world, following the flock, taking the advice of consultants who tell you that you MUST use social media. I say bull! I’d rather see you as a lone wolf charting your own course of action than to see you as a sheep.

Make no secret about it, I have a love-hate relationship with social media. In certain situations, it is the right fit and in certain situations, it is a wrong fit.

But before we get into the specifics of social media, we need to agree upon the rules of engagement “When ‘It’ Hits the Fan.” As we go through the various steps we’re going to outline for you, I’m going to give you a specific list of action items to place on your to-do list.

First, let’s agree that in a crisis, the organization you work for has an obligation to talk with several key audiences, which include employees, the media, and your other stakeholders, which could be your community, families of employees, government leaders, etc. If you work for a school, the audience extends to students and parents. If you work for a hospital, the audience extends to patients and their families. A retail company needs to talk with customers. A non-profit organization needs to talk to contributors. Each type of company or organization has a unique set of audiences.

That being said, today’s assignment is for you to make a clear list of audiences you must communicate with in various types of crises, so you can decide how you can best reach them and how they want to get information.

Step ONE: Make a list of audiences, how to reach them, and how they want to be reached. Set aside 5-15 minutes and do this right now.

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…”

Are You Ready, Getting Ready, or Getting Ready to Get Ready?

August 3, 2018/0 Comments/in Crisis Communications /by gbraud

By Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC Crisis Communications Expert

How ready are you to communicate quickly, like an expert, in a crisis?

Adjacent to your Business Continuity Plan should be your Crisis Communications Plan. Your crisis readiness should position your organization to communicate quickly with your employees, the media, your customers, your community, and other stakeholders. Read more

Papa John’s Pizza Crisis: 3 Crisis Communication, Public Relations, & Marketing Lessons to Learn

July 12, 2018/0 Comments/in Crisis Communications, Media Relations /by gbraud

by Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC

Papa John’s Pizza has a crisis. The crisis communications lessons, lessons for CEOs, for marketing and public relations teams, seem endless. This is a public relations and marketing crisis that appears to lack an expert in public relations and marketing. If you don’t believe me, look at the Papa John’s website as well as the images that I have included here.

(Watch and share more about the Papa John’s crisis case study on YouTube)

Lesson 1:

If you could attach a dollar to every word you say, would you make money or lose money?

Papa John’s founder John Schnatter has resigned as of 10:59 p.m. on July 11, 2018 because he used the “N” word in a conference call conversation. As I write this at 10 a.m. CDT July 12, 2018, the company’s stock has lost $96-million dollars in value. The phrase, “If you could attach a dollar value to every word that comes out of your mouth, would you make money or lose money?” is from Chapter 2, page 3, of the book, Don’t Talk to the Media Until… 29 Secrets You Need to Know Before You Open Your Mouth to a Reporter. Of course, in this case, the “N” word was not said to a reporter directly, but the dollar impact and lesson of guarding your words still applies.

I had planned to stop with just this lesson until I went to the Papa John’s website to get more information, which brings us to…

Lesson 2:

Does your crisis communications plan include contingencies for your CEO’s resignation and if your CEO is literally the face of the company, does your crisis communications plan include steps to remove that face from the company’s website?

Yes, John Schnatter’s face is in the logo, and as I write this, it is still live on the web.

Yes, John Schnatter’s face is in the logo and the news release announcing his resignation. Really? Did the public relations, marketing, branding, investor relations, and legal teams… did none of them think, “We need to change the logo.”?

Really? Did no one in marketing, branding, public relations, legal, or any other department think, “Hey, we should take John Schnatter’s picture off of the news release that announces his resignation.”?

And look at the all-important About Us page. Here you will find a huge picture of the CEO with his team.

Does your crisis communications plan dictate how to remove the founder’s face and image from your webpage if he resigns?

Lesson 3:

Every crisis communications plan should have a massive library of pre-written news releases.

Paramount in that library of should be a pre-written news release for the CEO’s resignation. Twenty years ago I created a library system that relies on a variety of multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank options. My theory is that on a calm, sunny day, your clarity of thought is better than on your darkest day. Hence, you can pick your words more carefully and have them pre-approved by your legal team.

But… and let us call this Lesson 3.2: You call this a news release?

This Papa John’s news release contains no context, empathy, or apology. Context, empathy, and apology are key components in crisis communications.

What should you do?

Every crisis is a time to gather your executive team, with your public relations, marketing, and branding teams to discuss the crisis of the day, the lessons learned, and to update your own crisis communications plan to handle just such a contingency. If you fail to do so, then you are failing to do your job.

Crisis communications should not be considered the art of putting lipstick on a pig after a crisis. To be a crisis communications expert you must anticipate every sort of crisis you could face, and write a living crisis communication plan to handle every scenario.

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…”

The Biggest Lie in Crisis Communications

July 9, 2018/1 Comment/in Crisis Communications /by gbraud

By Gerard Braud

Regarding crisis communications and crisis communications plans, does this adage apply?

“The person who says something can’t be done is always right.”

In so many crises, public relations professionals and the media proclaim phrases such as, “This is unprecedented. You can’t prepare for this.”

Pardon me, but that’s bull$h*t.

As a defiant, non-conformist, contrarian, nothing inspires me to do something more than doing something they said couldn’t be done.

If you want to prepare and you are willing to put forth the effort, you can write a crisis communications plan and a library of pre-written news releases that will serve you in any crisis. Public relations people without the expertise, who are unwilling to put forth the effort, take the easy way out by saying, “It can’t be done.”

Here is the backstory of how defiance turned into a process that allowed public relations teams to put an effective crisis communications plan in place in as few as two days.

In 1996, I begin doing extensive research on crisis communications plans and found each plan repeated the same flaws as the ones before it. All conformed to public relations standards of then and today. Being a contrarian, I researched the common communications mistakes made in each crisis. I poured over case studies from when I was a member of the media. I analyzed why spokespeople said dumb things to me in most crises when I was a television reporter. I analyzed why corporations were slow to communicate about each crisis.

The pain, problems, and predicaments of the communicator and the corporation were scrutinized. Once this was done, I began to work backwards, with the end in mind. Multiple end points were identified, which consisted of the intervals at which a statement would need to be made by a company to the media, a company’s employees, and the stakeholders most affected by the crisis.

From 1996 – 2004, I wrote crisis communications plans for a wide variety of businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. The process often took a year of collaboration, which for me was too long. Dealing with the slow pace of corporate collaboration didn’t fit my personality.

In 2004, while recovering from a near-death-illness, I began looking for the fastest way to deliver a crisis communications plan. I had so many plans written that I was able to condense the crisis communications plan writing process down to t wo intense days of a group writing retreat. I provided the expertise and base documents, while the public relations team provided a workforce to modify the documents.

Ten years later, the plan still works in every crisis. Granted, the base crisis communications plan is a living document that undergoes constant modification to incorporate the ever-growing list of communications outlets, such as social media.

The reality is, you don’t know how every crisis will unfold.

The secret is to understand the intervals at which you must communicate to key audiences. You must make sure your crisis communications plan has a system in place to gather information, confirm information, then release that information.

The biggest breakthrough for me was unlocking the secret to creating a library of pre-written news releases. Starting with the end in mind, I was able to analyze the questions that get asked in every news conference by the media. Based on those questions and a clear understanding of how journalists will write their news reports, I was able to create a series of statements that include multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank options.

Some of my pre-written news releases have as few as five paragraphs while others have more than 30 paragraphs. Some pre-written news releases are for an event that can be handled with a single press release. Others are three-part releases that can be used to issue advisories before, during, and after an event, such as for an electric company dealing with a winter storm. Still others must exceed three parts, to use during ongoing crises. These pre-written news releases can usually be edited and released in as few as ten minutes. This is in stark contrast to the typical problem of a public relations person sitting before a blank computer screen and writing from scratch, then facing hours of revisions and hours of delayed communications.

What are the constant realities for the company you work for? Virtually every set of scenarios can be broken down into fill-in-the-blank and multiple-choice options.

A crisis communications plan can be structured to identify your key audiences, the various ways you must communicate to those audiences, and the frequency of your communications.

Is writing this type of crisis communications plan easy? My original plan took about 1,000 hours to develop – that’s six months. Since then, it has evolved with many more hours.

Today, it is ready to launch and implement in as few as two days. If you would like to know more, call me.

If you think it can’t be done, you are correct for yourself. You are not, however, correct for everyone.

Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC (Jared Bro) is an international expert, coach, trainer, author and professional speaker, who has worked with organizations on five continents. Known as the guy to call when it hits the fan, he is widely regarded as an expert in crisis communications and media issues.

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3 Ego Driven Comments and 5 Ways to Combat Denial: Expert Media & Crisis Skills

June 11, 2018/0 Comments/in Crisis Communications, Media Relations /by gbraud

By Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC

Certain crisis communication and media interview scenarios send shivers up my spine. Would you love to know the top three?

When someone says they don’t need to prepare for something, I cringe.
When someone says, “I’ll wing it,” I feel a disaster coming.
When someone rejects writing a crisis communications plan with pre-written news releases and says, “We’ll just get everybody in the room when it happens and hash it out,” I gasp in disbelief and wonder which world they live in.

Why are these so cringe-worthy?

The answers are below and I’ll be discussing these issues with members of ACD during my presentation at their conference in St. Louis. [EDITOR’S NOTE: This post has been updated to reflect that The National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD) has changed its name to The Alliance for Chemical Distribution (ACD). This may affect some links.]

Attendees can download handouts here.

https://braudcommunications.com/pdf/2018-NACD-Hanout.pdf

Copies of Don’t Talk to the Media Until… can be purchased here.

https://braudcommunications.com/store/

In a world that moves at the speed of Twitter and mobile phone images, a crisis communications expert would tell you that seconds REALLY, REALLY, REALLY count.

But what do we see too often?

We see human egos telling executives that they can wing it and spontaneously crank out great media statements when a crisis hits.

Other companies operate on hope and denial, hoping a crisis never happens and denying the reality that it only takes one event to destroy the reputation and revenue of an organization.

The best companies take these five steps:

1. Conduct a Vulnerability Assessment

Hire a facilitator to help you build an extensive list of all of the potential issues that could affect your reputation and revenue. The facilitator will help you sort out the vulnerabilities that affect your incident command plan, your business continuity plan, and your crisis communications plan. Some types of crises will affect all three plans. But you’ll be surprised to see how many only trigger your crisis communication plan.

2. Write a Crisis Communications Plan

This task can take a year of collaboration to get it right. After too many years of exhausting collaboration, I’ve created a crisis communications system that can be licensed and put in place in a single day. If you are going to tackle this yourself, the key is to build a plan that can be read and simultaneously executed in real time, so nothing falls through the cracks. The more specific, the more terrific. When written properly, it perfectly captures the complicated process of gathering information, confirming the information, and then disseminating that information to various stakeholder groups. It is a fool’s bet to think you can hash out communications decisions spontaneously during a crisis. A great crisis communication plan should have decision trees built in to help your team select the best options based on the uniqueness of each crisis.

3. Write a library of pre-written news releases

Yes, with skill and time, you can write a news release today that is still perfect and ready to use ten years from now. The secret is to write statements with the proper multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank options, based on questions reporters are most likely to ask in a news conference. I typically license 100 at a time to most companies I work with. Short of subscribing to my library, your task is best achieved through a writing retreat. Realize that most companies take three to five hours before they release a statement during a crisis. In contrast, Twitter takes 60 seconds. Your job is to close that gap. Getting everyone in the room and hashing out a news release by committee during a crisis is the worst thing you can do.

4. Do Media Training for your spokespeople

The best athletes have coaches. The most successful business leaders have coaches. And yes, the best spokespeople have coaches. Oh, and yes, you will pay your coach a fair price for their skills. Interview your prospective coaches to see if they are a good fit. For crisis communications media training, be skeptical of a public relations firm that offers 20 different services plus media training. Also be weary of any trainer who tells you to ignore the reporter’s questions and talk about only what you want to talk about. That sort of bad advice will result in embarrassment, public outrage, and degradation to the company’s reputation and revenue. Media training should go hand-in-hand with writing your pre-written news releases. Those news releases, when written properly, should be the script you read to the media during a crisis news conference. Oh, and remember that one media training class doesn’t let you check this task off of a bucket list. Annual practice is a must.

5. Conduct a crisis drill to test your various plans and your people.

Many organizations conduct an emergency drill and only test their emergency response. Never do they role-play the scenario of conducting a news conference or facing an unruly mob of reporters. Likewise, many are not ready for the negative onslaught of social media during a real crisis. Hence, when a crisis happens, folks are outdone and beside themselves because the media and social media consume their time and attention, taking them off of their response game. These days, your drills must be holistic. Test every plan and every person all in one comprehensive drill.

Next time you hear a colleague suggest you hash it out on the day of your crisis and then wing it in interviews, feel free to challenge them, their ego, and their denial.

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Continuity Insights Keynote Presentation 2018 – Gerard Braud – Don’t Talk to the Media Until…

April 24, 2018/0 Comments/in Crisis Communications /by gbraud

It was an honor and a privilege to deliver the keynote speech that opened the 16th Annual Continuity Insights Management Conference in Miami, Florida on Monday (April 23, 2014). The conference audience contained 400 professionals and experts in Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery. The keynote speech was titled, Don’t Talk to the Media Until... During the 90 minute speech and presentation, we discussed the need to be fast and effective in communicating with the media and other key audiences when an incident or crisis happens. The goal we discussed is to be nearly as fast as social media. I shared the concept of how I use a library of 100 pre-written news releases in each of the crisis communications plans that I license to businesses around the world.

To supplement the presentation, here are the

Additional resources I promised the audience while I was on stage:

1) This link will let you download a PDF of my slides.

https://braudcommunications.com/pdf/Gerard-Braud-2018-ContinuityInsights.pdf

2) For the free special report on the Three Most Critical Mistakes Made in Media Interviews, use this link to my web store:

https://braudcommunications.com/store/

3) To download a free copy of my First Critical Statement, also visit my web store. Select the First Critical Statement and use the coupon code CRISISCOMPLAN Please note that this is not a substitute for a crisis communications plan, but only one page out of a 700-page crisis communications plan and news release system that I license to my clients.

4) If you would like to purchase a copy of my book, Don’t Talk to the Media Until… visit the web store. The books will remain on sale for only $10 for the remainder of the week

If you have any questions, please reach out to me at 985-624-9976.

Who Gets It? The Surprising Reality of Crisis Communications Plans

March 26, 2018/0 Comments/in Crisis Communications /by gbraud

By Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC

“Only the people who get it.” That was my answer to a frustrated colleague.

“Crisis communications is critical to our company,” she said. “But I can’t convince my boss that I need time and money to write a crisis communications plan. I’ve sat in your workshops at IABC, PRSA, plus the one you did for our state chemical association.”

Her frustration escalated.

“We handle freaking hazardous and toxic chemicals that can kill people and we still don’t have a crisis communications plan,” she fumed. “And I don’t have time to write it. And they won’t give me money to bring you in. They say we’ll just figure it out. They don’t get it. How can they NOT get it?”

“The ego of executives often overrides their common sense or logic sensors,” I explained. “Most will hire a consultant to write an emergency operations plan and maybe a business continuity plan. They’ll pay big bucks. But they think communications during an emergency is something that they will just magically figure out on the day of their crisis. They refuse to allocate less than $10,000 for a world-class crisis communications plan.”

“I just got off of the phone with a power company CEO who is facing a customer uprising because of high winter bills,” I told her. “He told me, ‘We won’t be needing your plan. We just wrote an Emergency Operations Plan.’”

“He doesn’t get it, and me having an extended conversation and educating him wasn’t going to change a thing. He’ll never hire me,” I explained. “He doesn’t get it.”

Many of you are in the same boat. Communications is undervalued. Executives think it is easy and fast.

As a guy who earns his living writing crisis communications plans, it is a difficult sell every day.

It doesn’t necessarily help that I’ve figured out how to package a year’s worth of work into a two-day, turnkey workshop that delivers a crisis communications plan plus 100 pre-written news releases. Executives look at cost over value.

Here are some of the selling points that I use, which may help you with your discussions with your superiors:

Always calculate the combined damage to reputation and revenue when considering a crisis communication plan. If the financial damage of a single event exceeds the cost of your crisis communications plan, it is a no-brainer to purchase the crisis communications plan.

Not every crisis is a fire and explosion. Sexual harassment and data breeches can be just as damaging to your reputation and revenue.

Often, you will use your crisis communications plan even when you do not use your Emergency Operations Plan (Incident Command Plan) or your Business Continuity Plan (BCP).

The presence of social media makes it impossible to control the narrative if your plan doesn’t have a full library of pre-written news releases that can be edited and shared with all stakeholders during the first 30 minutes of an event.

Even with those points, many executives “don’t get it.” I’ve had to build my business off of working only with the people who “get it.”

My advice to those of you who are frustrated is to take a deep breath and then fight for what is right. If your boss won’t give you the tools to do your job, it never hurts to look for a job with a boss who gets it.

If you need to have a “therapy session” and talk, give me a call at 985-624-9976.

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How to Deal With a Crisis? 5 Expert Crisis Communications Tips

March 12, 2018/0 Comments/in Crisis Communications /by gbraud

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By Gerard Braud

Crisis communications is vital when bad weather strikes. The March 2018 wave of winter storms is demanding expert crisis communications from schools, universities, electric companies, government agencies, airlines, and a slew of other types of businesses.

People are often surprised when they ask, “How to deal with a crisis?” when I respond, “Don’t let the crisis happen.”

The secret: Manage expectations

Winter weather, much like a hurricane, has two crises in one. The crisis of the natural disaster cannot be prevented. But the crisis of public outrage can be mitigated if you manage expectations of your audience before the crisis begins.

Here are 5 steps you can follow:

1. Scare the pants off of people.

Don’t beat around the bush. Let people clearly know the pain, problem, and predicament they may face. If you are an electric company, warn customers of the harsh conditions they may face because the power may go out. Use strong, direct crisis messages, such as, “You may be without power for hours, days, or even more than a week.” Then give a specific list of steps they should take, such as evacuating, having backup generators, having ample food and water, or having ample gas or wood for heating.

2. Empathize before the storm hits.

Open your warning statement with an empathetic preamble, such as, “We know that our customers expect {Insert Your Service Here}. We want the same thing for you. However, we could all soon be facing the effects of {Insert Name of Effects}. We are prepared to respond as quickly as we can, but you may face some serious hardships because of events beyond our control.”

3. Blanket all communications channels.

Do media interviews with newspapers, radio, and television. Make your warnings strong. Consider purchasing commercials or ads to supplement your news coverage. Blanket your website by putting the warnings on the homepage. Blanket your social media with shareable images and videos. Email all employees so they become your message ambassadors. Email all customers, if you have their email addresses. Let public officials know the potential impact, to keep them from grandstanding their outrage for the media and voters to see.

4. Don’t feel compelled to respond to every social media post.

Frustrated customers quickly vent frustrations on social media. When possible, take your response offline with a direct message or a phone call. Reject the misguided notion that responding to every message on social media implies transparency. The truth is, replying on social media will boost the negative comments to the top of everyone’s newsfeed. Then trolls and haters add more hate, causing you to reply, causing the post to go to the top of the newsfeed again, which invites more hate. In a crisis, you can get sucked into a vortex of negative comments, which you ultimately can’t manage. However, if you’ve previously managed expectations with clear warnings (Step 1), empathized with the potential suffering (Step 2), and blanketed all communications channels (Step 3), the negatives on social media should be minimized.

5. Blanket communication channels with updates.

If your storm recovery is going better than planned, announce it and create hope. If your storm recovery is hitting glitches, announce it and manage expectations while adding an extra layer of empathy.

In conclusion, if you see angry elected officials, citizens, or customers lashing out, there is a strong likelihood that the targeted organization allowed the crisis to become a bigger crisis, because they failed to manage expectations.

Media Training Discussion Question: How to Get to Know Your Local Reporters?

March 5, 2018/0 Comments/in Braudcast /by gbraud

In a crisis, whether it’s a school shooting, a fire, a natural disaster, or a white-collar crime, your local reporters will be the first to come knocking on your door at your business, school, or organization. You want the media on your side. You want the media to work with you so you are able to tell your story for yourself. You also want the media to be there and be engaged when you have great news to share, whether it be an announcement of new leadership, the opening of a new branch of your franchise, or any important milestone in your business. So, how do you get to know your local reporters so that you can establish these types of positive relationships?

We are asking you, our readers and followers, expert public relations and media training professionals, to share your expert opinion this week. Comment here and on our social media pages to join in. You and your answers may be featured in our follow-up video!

Today’s question is one of a series of debates in the crisis management, media relations, 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.

Step 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.

Tips from PR Experts on Writing a Crisis Communication Plan

January 11, 2018/0 Comments/in Braudcast /by gbraud

Earlier this week, we polled social media to find out how public relations, crisis communications, and corporate communications experts write their crisis communications plans. They have provided their tips on our social media pages, with comments ranging from gathering a team of expert PR writers, to addressing the vulnerabilities of their organization. Many followers described what they would do to respond and react to a crisis, but Gerard Braud provides a few tips on how to prepare a crisis plan before a crisis ever develops.

Now we want you to not only learn from these followers’ best practices, but continue to chime in on the discussion. What would you do differently than these subject matter experts? What strategies have worked for you in the past? What strategies have you tried that didn’t work well for your company, school, or hospital? Comment here and on our social media pages to join in.

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: