Posts

The Worst Phrases You’ve Ever Heard in a Crisis Communications Statement

/0 Comments/in /by

I asked social media followers, public relations professionals, and media relations experts, “What are The Worst Phrases You’ve Ever Heard in a Crisis Communications Statement?”

A few years back I was running a series of videos asking subscribers some crisis communications and public relations questions. I would ask one question per week on LinkedIn and Twitter.  Next, I would seek their responses on social media, gather them, and then report on what they said the following week. It created an engaging relationship with my colleagues, followers, and professionals in the public relations, corporate communications, media relations and crisis communications industries.

Years later, there is one video that still remains a most popular video ever.

Have you heard things like “We apologize for the inconvenience?” Have you heard, “It wasn’t our responsibility?” Or can you name a brand that you just KNOW got it totally wrong in their crisis statement, press release, or press conference?

Here were their responses, as well as a few of my own professional comments as a media trainer.  Safety is a goal. Create your own compare and contrast statements. Direct the media interview.  Watch the video to see what I mean.

As a way to show your continued support and to see more of our most popular crisis communications videos, please hit Subscribe on The BraudCast YouTube channel.

And stay tuned for next week’s second most popular crisis communications video ever.

 

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…” and founder of SituationHub crisis communications software.

More crisis communications articles:

15 Questions to Ask Before You Use Facebook for Crisis Communications

Can You Handle a Crisis When it Hits by Winging It?

Where is Your Crisis Communications Funnel Clogged?

Change the Way You Write Crisis Statements

/0 Comments/in /by

It is time to change the way you write crisis statements and crisis communication news releases.

The world has changed and so must you.

The world doesn’t have time to read what you wrote. Yet, you need the world to comprehend your message. So, what’s the secret?

It begins with using short declarative sentences.

In crisis communications speed is critical.

If something is factually correct and fast it is better than overly word-smithed and slow.

If you tell the audience who, what, when, where, why, and how quickly, they will forgive the absence of writing in prose.

If you write the way people talk, your stakeholders will comprehend your message more quickly.

If you write your crisis statement like a TV news script, you greatly increase the likelihood that the media will copy and paste the bulk of your script into their script with minimal edits.

As a word nerd, I’m probably going to piss off a whole bunch of people with this blog. (Can we say “piss off”?) Ok… we don’t want to offend anyone, so let’s say we’re going to ruffle some feathers.

As word nerds, we were all taught proper writing styles by our English professors, our Public Relations professors, and even our Journalism instructors. If we wrote the way they wanted, we got an A. They were conditioning us.

But guess what? You are a grown-up. Your English teacher taught you something that worked great 20 years ago. Your Public Relations teacher is teaching you old-school techniques.

We’re going to give you permission to be a grown-up and carve your own path. We’re going to tell you to break the rules!

We’re going to dig deeper into this on our next Crisis Communications Master Class on Thursday, November 11, 2021 at 1 p.m. CST. Use this link to register for the class.

You’ll learn 10 reasons why you should change how you write a crisis communications statement.

You will learn how to:

  • Increase comprehension by your stakeholders
  • Ensure greater accuracy by the media
  • Speed up the statement approval process
  • …and much more

Sign up for the live class or sign up for the replay. Your free admission is courtesy of SituationHub.com