Question: How can a PR department boost its level of crisis preparedness?
ANSWER: By never being too ready. In the February 28 PR News Webinar "Advanced Crisis Management For PR Professionals," Steven Cody, managing partner of New
York-based Peppercom, cited startling statistics: According to a Fortune magazine annual survey, 85% of communications managers from Fortune 1000 companies
have a crisis plan in place, but less than one-third of them have ever tested it.
What's more, a 2004 Conference Board survey found that 70% of communications executives from the 1,000 largest companies in the United States don't think their senior
management would react well to a financial crisis.
Along with Richard Levick from Levick Strategic Communications, William Moore from crisis consultancy ViaNovo and Barbara Kolsun, general counsel from luxury
denim company Seven For All Mankind, Cody offered a checklist for getting in shape to handle crises. In brief, they are:
- Do a dry run-through: Simulating crises can help communications professionals anticipate potential snags.
- Divide and conquer: Divvying up responsibility to those most able to handle it - finance issues to the finance specialist, HR issues to the HR specialist - leaves no stone
unturned; just scrambling to deal with the media means other key areas are going unprotected.
- Understand your constituents: Knowing how to handle external and internal audiences is essential in mitigating crises.
- Create a crisis response checklist: Collect contact info of key players, notify related branches/operations, prepare for the media and, once they arrive, do not speculate and
do not drop the "no comment" bomb. "No comment is death in the world of crisis communications," Cody says. "You can win in the courtroom, but you can lose badly in the court of
public opinion."
Finally, as Levick suggests, the PR director should be the go-to person for information in order to best control the story. This includes utilizing search engine optimization
to make the company's Web site appear at the top of a search and updating said Web site at least twice a day with facts, not defenses.
"When you are explaining, you are losing," Levick says. "What we need to focus on is what key audiences need to hear. [In a crisis], their perception is our reality."
The full PR News Webinar can be purchased at http://www.prnewsonline.com.
Encouraging Bloggers
Question: It's not news that bloggers can harm a company's reputation, but can they be courted and used virally to combat negative coverage?
ANSWER: Judging from Wal-Mart's recent actions, yes - but proceed with caution. On March 7, the New York Times reported the retail giant is looking beyond
traditional media to help repair its war-torn image and reshape public opinion in its favor. Wal-Mart's PR representatives send bloggers exclusive news, topic suggestions and
even invitations to corporate headquarters to confront the recent assaults on its reputation. The self-generated good news has already appeared around the Web.
While Wal-Mart and its PR firm, Edelman, assert they never compensate bloggers for coverage or shroud the source of the communications they send out, the strategy has
caused some controversy. A company spokesperson called the activity "part of our overall effort to tell our story," but questions on the relationship between PR professionals and
the blogging community still linger.
"In terms of advising a client on strategy, it's deceptive to have your hands on a blog," says Rich Klein, president of the White Plains, NY-based Riverside PR. "On the
other hand, bloggers are like journalists now, so it's similar to a PR person calling a journalist with a story,"
Thus, the ever-shrinking line between church and state - or in this case, PR executives and the media - finds itself under scrutiny. When looking to blogs to combat
reputation-bashing, tread carefully; transparency is best, as is approaching bloggers as one would approach a journalist - that is, up front.
"It's a double-edged sword," Klein says. "Blogs are great, but PR professionals have to be careful in terms of disclosure."
Contact: Steven Cody, 212.931.6114, [email protected]; Richard Levick, 202.973.1302, [email protected]; Rich Klein, [email protected].