Top 5 tips: When crisis hits

No one can plan when a crisis happens, but every business should have a plan for handling crises.  Emergencies can be natural or human in origin; your business may be interrupted because of a flood or other disaster, or you could be faced with negative news because of an employee’s or your own mistake.  A public relations professional can help develop a crisis communications plan that will be flexible enough to cover contingencies in notifying your stakeholders such as employees, shareholders, customers, regulatory agencies and elected officials.  A solid crisis communications plan will help protect your company’s priceless brand and reputation and help you to communicate quickly, working with stakeholders and media to minimize any potential negative impacts, rumors or incorrect information. 

1.       Have a plan, follow it and keep it updated: A good crisis communications plan need not be lengthy.  It should be available electronically or online if the company has a secure employee/intranet site, in all managers’ offices, and they should have a copy to keep at home.  People who have gone through natural disasters when power is lost for significant periods testify to the value of hard copies.  The plan needs to include essential information such as:

• Chain of command and notification tree, including employees and key stakeholders
• Home and mobile phone numbers of managers and key employees
• Emergency and regulatory agency contact information
• List of duties and job titles fulfilling them, which should include a command structure designating the person in charge (owner, president, CEO or onsite manager), media relations, facility protection/security, financial protection and tracking, employee/staffing of roles, customer relations and other key roles relevant to your company
• Company backgrounder and fact sheets – in case your website goes down
• Media contact information and media policy, including clearance of news releases and designation of spokesperson
• Online/social media policy encompassing use of website and social media such as Facebook and Twitter
• Recovery steps and evaluation

2.      Be prepared to move quickly: Hold mock disaster drills at least annually with different scenarios each time.  Going through a mock exercise for a few hours can pay big dividends when a real crisis occurs.  The rise of online media has created a nonstop news cycle.  Organizations need to be quick to issue statements that are as concise and complete as possible with information available at the time.  Frequent updates are important and can be facilitated by judicious use of social media.  Face the problem and always tell the truth.  Look into other similar crises and how they were handled.  Emphasize perspective by balancing bad news with positive actions.

3.       Don’t fight the media; they set the agenda: Blaming the media is pointless.  If inaccuracies have been disseminated, contact the media to request corrections.  You also have powerful online tools using your website, blogs and social sites to tell your story.  Consider empowering employees to do this, as well.  Chances are they’ll do it anyway, and if you give them facts, the viral message coming from people closely associated to the crisis will have credibility and impact.

4.       Use one spokesperson: This may seem contradictory to the idea of allowing your employees to blog and comment about the company on social media sites, but when it comes to official statements, the one-spokesperson policy is best.  That person should be on the company’s website, in front of the camera for interviews and quoted in news releases.  That individual usually is the owner, president or CEO.  This leader has the title, credibility and expertise to best offer an authentic and believable representation of the company’s story and, ultimately, to protect its reputation.  It’s also best for all of the stakeholders, including the media, to have the consistency of one primary spokesperson during the crisis.

5.       Remember recovery: After the crisis is over, don’t forget to thank all of those who have worked during the difficult circumstances of an unfortunate incident.  Make any adjustments necessary to prevent anything preventable and to mitigate damage in the future.  Announce those changes publicly; it’s important for your stakeholders to know what the company has learned from the experience.  Finally, evaluate your performance with your employees – and put the crisis behind you.  Many companies and brands, such as Tylenol, have weathered crises and come back stronger than ever as a result of solid crisis communications.

Amplifying a confused breast cancer message doesn’t really help anyone

Whatever you believe about the correct age to start mammograms, last week’s release of revised breast cancer screening guidelines from the US Preventive Services Task Force was an example of a poor communication strategy — and resulting confusion and backlash.

Thanks to the efforts of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and other cancer advocacy groups, communication heretofore has been clear, that breast cancer is a risk for all women and that mammograms are advised for screening, generally beginning at age 40. 

The Task Force acknowledged mammography’s effectiveness but also its less accurate results for women under 50 than for women older than 50.  The group went on to challenge the widely-established start time for annual mammograms of age 40, recommending that most women of lower risk (without family history) to start screenings at age 50 – and even then only every other year, rather than annually. 

The Task Force, an independent panel of experts in primary care and prevention from some of the nation’s leading universities, teaching hospitals and research institutions, is appointed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Many people reacted to the recommendations with distrust of in light of the coincidental timing with the current healthcare debate.  Could this be a harbinger of healthcare rationing to come?

The controversy seems not so much a conspiracy of timing as an unfortunate lack of coordination of message strategy on an important health issue.  The Task Force members looked at the best data currently available to draw their conclusions.  What they didn’t do was talk to health advocacy groups such as Susan G. Komen for the Cure and American Cancer Society to come up with a coordinated strategy to communicate the findings in the context of what the cancer groups have been propounding for decades. 

If they had, perhaps the results could have been better explained as based on the data that for every approximately 1,900 mammograms for women 40 to 49, one breast cancer is  discovered – along with many more false positives that for women 50 to 59.  For the older group, the rate of cancers discovered is approximately one in every 1,300 mammograms. 

Perhaps if discussion had occurred in advance, the call for further research into better screening, causes and cures for breast cancer could have been better articulated.  Breast cancer remains the most common cancer among women except skin cancer and the second-highest cause of cancer death, after lung cancer.  Death rates from breast cancer have been declining since about 1990, with larger decreases in women younger than 50. “These decreases are believed to be the result of earlier detection through screening and increased awareness, as well as improved treatment,” according to the American Cancer Society’s website.

It’s clear that the price of maintaining those decreases and who and how to pay for them will be a part of any future presentation of new screening recommendations.  When we can so effectively save lives with early detection, it’s worth further discussion.  Bring on the discussion, include all of the players and maybe next time the communication will be more effective.

You @ social media: Does spelling and grammar really matter 2 anyone?

It seems many in Web 2.0 World already have abdicated the issue of spelling, grammar and sentence structure.  At the same time, grammarians and recovering English teachers such as I still are making daily use of our tsk-tsk reflexes as we navigate our daily cyber-activities.

No, I’m not talking about texting and tweeting, where character limits demand the barest bones of economy of expression.  This is about Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs, which are different from texting.  Your message may be a paragraph or pages, but you have just a few seconds to capture your reader’s attention with a compelling story – if they’re not confounded or distracted by unintelligible words or phrasing. 

Employers also are looking at the online presence of potential workers.  They’re apt to wonder whether a candidate can compose a business email, much less a proposal, if she doesn’t know that “irregardless” isn’t a word.

Social media and the widespread use of blogging have made publishers of all of us.  That’s a great democratization of what once was an elite form of communication.  In what now seems the distant past, only the very wealthy or fortunate few could make their thoughts widely accessible in print.  Websites, blogging and social media now belong to everyone: from the  very young to the very old, from the poor to the powerful: the marketplace of ideas is everyone’s mall. 

The proliferation of online information and opinion can stimulate higher levels of education and discussion worldwide.  Democratization doesn’t need to equal dumbing-down.  Readers want to be treated with respect, and using plain and proper language shows your regard for your audience and reinforces your credibility.  You have a message, you have a medium and you have a multitude of tools to check and even improve upon spelling and grammar skills.  So, express yourself – but don’t forget to use spell-check!

When it’s time for the television interview, think in threes — and nine more tips

Great news!  You’ve been asked to be interviewed for a local broadcast news program.  Even if this is your first time ever in front of a news camera and your immediate and primal reaction is nausea, you can prepare yourself to be a star when it’s time for your closeup:

1. Three things: Be prepared with three key points that you want to make.  You should know the topic of the interview, and most reporters will give you a general idea of questions in advance, which is not the same as giving a list of questions in advance.  News reporters and producers want spontaneity, and journalistic ethics also are involved.   If the questions asked by the reporter don’t allow you to make your points, it’s OK to bridge from another point or to add, “I do want to make a couple of important points…”  Editing may allow inclusion of your points, but only if you say them.   Some reporters even ask after the final question, “Do you have anything to add?”   But don’t count on it; make your points.
2. Eyes are the window: Look at the reporter who’s interviewing you, not the camera, unless you’re in the unusual circumstance of being interviewed via satellite or from a remote location.  Keep a natural eye contact, avoiding looking down or to the side. 
3. Prepare in advance: What questions are most likely to be asked?  Brainstorm even off-the-wall possibilities, and practice with a friend or family member.  If you have access to a video camera to review your performance with another person, even better.
4. Think in sound bites: These are the seven to 20 seconds usually allotted for an answer on the news.  Don’t memorize material, but do have important facts and brief anecdotes in mind.  Stories and examples bring more life.  Ideally, an interview should be  an educated, engaging conversation.
5. You’re the expert: You’ve been asked to appear due to your position and expertise, so you’ll very likely know the answer to any question thrown your way.  If not, pause, take a breath, and say, “I don’t have that information now, but I can get an answer to you later today.”  Chances are good this will be edited out of the interview.
6. Watch the news: Make some time to take notes on people who are interviewed on national news programs, morning and evening.  Notice what makes people look and sound credible and convincing.  Watch body language.  You’ll observe that engaging interviewees often lean forward a bit and have an open body position, arms not crossed defensively but relaxed at their sides or, if seated, on their legs, overlapping a bit.  Crossing legs at the ankle if seated will help improve  posture.  If standing, keep knees a bit flexed and one leg slightly ahead of the other to help prevent swaying from side to side – or fainting.   
7. Read faces: When you’re looking at television interviews, notice facial expressions.  It’s great to smile, if appropriate, but expressions should match the topics.  If someone is citing cancer statistics, smiling isn’t congruent with their words and can be reminiscent of an insincere beauty pageant contestant.
8. It’s all about your expertise – and your outfit:  Show up looking business-presentable (unless you’re an athlete or actor and have the uniform or costume for credibility).  For women, that means a tailored blazer or shirt, avoiding tight knits or party looks.  You want your clothes to not distract; you want them to say, “I’m a competent professional.”   For men, a suit or blazer and shirt with tie are almost always the right choice, but if you don’t ever wear a tie, go with a tailored shirt and blazer.  Solid colors are best for everyone.  Avoid prints and stripes (except for ties).  Avoid black and white, which don’t look as good on camera as color – it’s color TV, after all!
9. Makeup is your friend: Women should always wear makeup; outdoor light and the bright lights of the studio can have a bleaching effect.  Men should consider powder to eliminate shine – including top of the head!  Women should avoid shiny earrings or those that move and bracelets that jangle, which can be a distraction. 
10. Finally, be confident: You know your material.  Take a minute to be friendly with the reporter and treat the interview as an opportunity to bring important information to the reporter and viewers.  You are the trustworthy, believable, knowledgeable representative of your organization, company or cause.  Believe it, and your confidence will shine!