Crisis Insider

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

In this dialogue we look at the initial moments of a crisis, when communicators and companies decide, ‘Are we in a crisis? Should we react? When? How?’ Our dialoguers are TV-reporters-turned-crisis-pros Scott Sayres, Honeywell’s director, global corporate communications, crisis, reputation and issues management, and T.J. Winick, SVP, Solomon, McCown & Cence.

How many crises might have been averted just by asking a few more questions and offering a couple of clarifying points? The author provides some key lessons.

Recent attacks have become bolder and more sophisticated and include invasions of government agencies, healthcare providers, schools and organizations of all types and sizes, including the likes of Twitter and Microsoft and the National Basketball Association. But while most attacks are against large, well-known brands, small business also is a big target for bad actors. The ransomware attack on one of the United States’ largest fuel pipelines is an all-too-frequent reminder that more needs doing. Now.

Each month, we look at new terms picking up steam in the crisis landscape. In this month’s Buzz Box, we explain “Cryptoviral Extortion” and “Internet of Behavior.”

One of the communicator’s domains is online, where, among other things, they monitor social conversations about the company. As such, corporate leaders see them as having intimate knowledge of social and they’re the first call where online risk is involved.

This month’s Crisis Averted shows how a terrific campaign for a lucrative product can go awry quickly. The story touches on a bevy of things: crisis readiness, immediate and more measured reaction to crisis, #MeToo, cancel culture, media, social media, tremendous irony and a large cast of characters.

With so much reporting of how botched crisis response can harm companies and organizations, why do we continue to see so many crises mishandled? Crisis veterans Ayme Zemke and Gene Grabowski dive into this complex topic.