Crisis Management

We’ve written about how founders’ personalities contributed to the downfall of Theranos, WeWork and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” And recently, we saw a similar pattern with the now-defunct media conglomerate Ozy and iconic game show “Jeopardy!.”

The ubiquity of cybercrime has made communication about it a subspecialty that PR pros need to acquire. Or they must hire communicators and lawyers with knowledge of cyber jargon, technology, rules and regulations.

The social media platform again is in the crosshairs. Instead of being defensive, transparency might have prevented a potential PR crisis.

It’s natural to want to respond fast to a negative story. However, patience sometimes is a better course, as one or two bad stories often fail to grow into a full-blown PR crisis.

The communication planet, Mercury, will appear to orbit backward soon. Similar to anticipating a PR crisis, planning for it now can help.

Bad stories rarely blow over or become tomorrow’s bird cage liner. Addressing them directly, promptly and truthfully usually is your best route.

You thought the last few years were challenging for crisis communication? Sure, we had a global pandemic and massive political upheaval. Disinformation and truth distortions reached record levels. Don’t forget the unprecedented changes to our planet. But, you haven’t seen anything like what awaits us in 2022.

Clearly, PR pros should update crisis communication plans to assure that weather and natural disasters are considered more likely, even in unlikely regions and at unexpected times of year. For organizations that lack a disaster communication or operation plan, there are free resources online that make planning much easier.

How has this moment influenced crisis, if at all? What crises can we expect to see in the next few months? We asked Justine Griffin, principal, Rasky Partners and Edward Segal, author, Forbes columnist and principal, Edward Segal Communications.

Communicating the withdrawal from Afghanistan included PR lessons, both what to do in a crisis and what to avoid. Here is a look at a few.