Crisis Insider

For this month’s Crisis Interview, we talked with Kelly Stepno and Jim Moorhead of APCO about risk and risk assessment.

A tweet, statement or leaked email from the likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and former CEOs John Schnatter (Papa John’s) John Schnatter and Travis Kalanick (Uber) could make or break a company’s reputation. Regardless of your organization’s size, preparing for leadership gaffes is an essential part of any PR pro’s job.

If you don’t have a crisis communication plan with designated strategies, roles, actions and follow-up, you will be hopelessly behind before the trouble starts. What follows are tips to serve as guides to best practices, and, depending on your level of acquaintance with crisis management, I hope they are helpful as new ideas, refreshers, jumping-off points, a checklist or a combination.

During a crisis, let others speak on your behalf. It can be an awkward feeling when the harsh winds and torrential rains are battering your company’s reputation.  Yet, in many cases, others can do a far better job of explaining who you are and what really happened.

This month’s terms to know: Hodl, FUD and Onlyness.

One of the biggest obstacles to effective crisis management is denial: company managers refuse to believe there is a risk that needs attention.   

For communicators, ethics permeate their daily activity. A new study reveals just how much

How do we, as communicators, ensure our shadow reflects our company, our organization’s culture and our brand values, rather than the news, accurate or not, surrounding a crisis?

Crisis pros know it’s important to have the right tools in their arsenal. A platform that can monitor traditional and social media is one of them.  Having  such data before,  during and after a crisis can be invaluable to crisis pros.    

In this month’s issue, we ask crisis pros whether the AP averted a crisis over its handling of Emily Wilder’s firing