Seven Reasons Your Company Needs To Prepare For Crises ...€¦ · Seven Reasons Your Company Needs...
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4/18/10 9:07 AM Seven Reasons Your Company Needs To Prepare For Crises | davefleet.com Page 1 of 12 http://davefleet.com/2010/03/reasons-company-prepare-crises/ retweet 63 tweets Home About Contact Pitching Tips Search Search for: Search davefleet.com Does Online Customer Service Encourage Dissent? Join Our Team At Thornley Fallis Communications Seven Reasons Your Company Needs To Prepare For Crises 10.03.23 Does your company have a communications plan for when it gets hit by a crisis? Chances are, you don’t. Time and time again I’ve seen organizations plow ahead with communications programs that focus on generating proactive results, but do little to prepare for the flip side. In the last few days we’ve seen another example of activism in social media, as Facebook users slammed Nestle for its environmental and business practices in the developing world. It’s yet another demonstration of the fact that if your organization is doing something that could be seen to be unethical, people now have a voice with which to respond. If you’re not yet convinced of the need to prepare for an event such as this, consider the following: 1. At some point, your company WILL do something that upsets people.
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4/18/10 9:07 AMSeven Reasons Your Company Needs To Prepare For Crises | davefleet.com
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Seven Reasons Your Company Needs To Prepare For Crises10.03.23
Does your company have a communications plan for when it gets hit by a crisis?
Chances are, you don’t. Time and time again I’ve seen organizations plow ahead withcommunications programs that focus on generating proactive results, but do little to prepare for theflip side.
In the last few days we’ve seen another example of activism in social media,as Facebook users slammed Nestle for its environmental and business practices in the developing world. It’syet another demonstration of the fact that if your organization is doing something that could be seen to beunethical, people now have a voice with which to respond.
If you’re not yet convinced of the need to prepare for an event such as this, consider the following:
1. At some point, your company WILL do something that upsets people.
4/18/10 9:07 AMSeven Reasons Your Company Needs To Prepare For Crises | davefleet.com
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It’s inevitable. At some point, you will do something that won’t make everyone happy – whether it’s raisingprices, laying off staff, recalling a product or something else. It’s going to happen. While that doesn’tguarantee the kind of backlash that Nestle received, the chances of people voicing their concerns online isconstantly rising as adoption of these tools increases.
2. It doesn’t matter if you’re using social media.
In Nestle’s case, their own property got hijacked. However, McNeil wasn’t using social media tools whenthe Motrin issue hit last year. While your social media properties may provide a lightning rod for criticism(which has pros and cons), not having them doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
3. You can’t plan reactively.
It’s too late to plan for a crisis when the crisis is already happening. It didn’t work in the old traditionalmedia world, and it certainly doesn’t happen in the world of social media, where things move many timesfaster.
4. It’s easier than ever for people to organize.
Recent Canadian examples like the prorogation of the Canadian Parliament and the proposed introduction ofa new Canadian Copyright Act have shown it’s becoming easier and easier for people to self-organizearound issues that matter to them.
5. Slacktivism still gets attention.
Slacktivism is a term most people hadn’t heard of a year or two ago. It essentially means the act of doingsomething nominal in support of a cause (signing an online petition; joining a Facebook page, etc) whichmakes the person feel good but does little to further the cause. The flip side of “slacktivism,” though, is thatright now it still gets media attention. While that may change over time as the novelty wears off, do youwant to take that chance?
6. Control is a myth.
I’ve been saying this in presentations for a long time now – you don’t control the message. A news releaseissued six hours after a crisis breaks is no longer sufficient – you need to be prepared to monitor in real timeand respond quickly if necessary. If you’re not prepared for when another party advances their agenda,you’ll be off-balance when it matters most.
7. Mistakes make the crisis worse.
Nestle compounded the problem with abrupt responses from their rep on their Facebook. Mistakes like thatcan sabotage any chance of calming the storm early. Having a plan, and practicing it, is critical – that’s whygovernments do things like emergency simulations (difference is their mistakes may cost lives), and whyyou should do them too.
Given all of these reasons, why would you NOT have a crisis communications plan?
(Image: Shutterstock)
Posted in: crisis communications, pr, public relations
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Tags: crisis communications, pr, public relations
26 Responses to “Seven Reasons Your Company Needs To PrepareFor Crises”
1. Ann Marie van den Hurk, APR says:March 23, 2010 at 9:38 am
I’m always amazed that organizations don’t invest in crisis communications planning. Withsocial media, the 2-hour window to respond to a threat is now less than 60 minutes in my opinion.Organizations need to be prepared. With all this talk crisis communications, I feel a blog post comingon because this is a topic we can’t talk about enough about.
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1. STUARTFOSTER (Stuart Foster) says:March 23, 2010 at 8:09 am
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Seven Reasons Your Company Needs To Prepare For Crises [link to post]
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Reply2. SophieJodouin (SophieJodouin) says:
March 23, 2010 at 8:14 am
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RT @davefleet: Does your company have a crisis communications plan? Here are sevenreasons it should: [link to post]
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Reply3. u2sarah (Sarah Smiley) says:
March 23, 2010 at 8:15 am
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RT @SophieJodouin: RT @davefleet: Does your company have a crisis communications
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plan? Here are 7 reasons it should: [link to post]
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Reply4. _vhd_ (Volker h. Davids) says:
March 23, 2010 at 8:22 am
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7 Reasons Your Company Needs To Prepare For Crises – and not using social mediadoesn’t mean you won’t need to [link to post]
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Reply5. emoticomma (Barbara Greene) says:
March 23, 2010 at 8:31 am
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RT @davefleet Does your company have a crisis communications plan? Here are 7 reasonsit should: [link to post]
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Reply6. GwenMcIntyre (Gwen McIntyre) says:
March 23, 2010 at 8:32 am
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Does your company have a crisis communications plan? @davefleet gives7 very validreasons why it should: [link to post]
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Reply7. yianniak (Y. Konstantopoulos) says:
March 23, 2010 at 8:33 am
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RT @chipgriffin: RT @davefleet: Does your company have a crisis communications plan?Here are seven reasons it should: [link to post]
4/18/10 9:07 AMSeven Reasons Your Company Needs To Prepare For Crises | davefleet.com
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Reply8. DonnaPapacosta (Donna Papacosta) says:
March 23, 2010 at 8:34 am
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RT @davefleet: Does your company have a crisis communications plan? Here are 7reasons it should: [link to post]
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Reply9. DJLitten (Dominic Litten) says:
March 23, 2010 at 8:36 am
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Seven reasons your company should have a crisis communications plan by @davefleet[link to post]
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Reply10. RJSchoenefeld (Ryan Schoenefeld) says:
March 23, 2010 at 6:42 pm
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Remain Proactive Regarding Crisis Communication. [link to post]. Source: Dave Fleet#communication #crisis #publicrelations #marketing
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Reply11. RJSchoenefeld (Ryan Schoenefeld) says:
March 23, 2010 at 7:32 pm
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Remain Prepared for Crisis Communication. [link to post]. Source: Dave Fleet#communication #crisis #publicrelations #marketing #CRM
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Reply12. 104kdrive (Tim Burrows) says:
March 23, 2010 at 9:31 pm
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Mitigate, prepare, respond RT @christammiller: 7 Reasons Your Company Needs ToPrepare For Crises [link to post] via @davefleet
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Reply13. christammiller (christammiller) says:
March 23, 2010 at 10:33 pm
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7 Reasons Your Company Needs To Prepare For Crises [link to post] (from @davefleet;PDs should read)
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Reply14. 4niruddha (aniruddha) says:
March 23, 2010 at 10:52 pm
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Seven Reasons Your Company Needs To Prepare For Crises [link to post]
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Reply15. Jasondevoy (Jason Devoy) says:
March 23, 2010 at 11:31 pm
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RT @104kdrive: Mitigate, prepare, respond RT @christammiller: 7 Reasons YourCompany Needs To Prepare For Crises [link to post]
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Reply16. 808Cop_Retired (daBigKahuna) says:
March 24, 2010 at 1:33 am
4/18/10 9:07 AMSeven Reasons Your Company Needs To Prepare For Crises | davefleet.com
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Reply17. Think Global, Pitch Local Atlanta | Marketing, Public Relations and Social Media Blog | Atlanta, GA
says:March 24, 2010 at 10:32 am
[...] Relations delivers great value for business, whether it’s managing a crisis or building strongerrelationships. For a small business that cannot afford expensive advertising [...]
Reply18. jaybaer (Jay Baer) says:
March 24, 2010 at 1:29 pm
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Great social media crisis tips from my man @davefleet [link to post]
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Reply19. MelissaPR (Melissa Rzeppa) says:
March 24, 2010 at 1:33 pm
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RT @jaybaer: Great social media crisis tips from my man @davefleet [link to post]
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Reply20. getzetgo (Stacey Getz) says:
March 24, 2010 at 1:51 pm
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RT @jaybaer Great social media crisis tips from my man @davefleet [link to post]
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Reply21. KCBizAlliance (KC Biz Alliance) says:
March 24, 2010 at 2:34 pm
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RT @northlandfox: RT @jaybaer: Great social media crisis tips from my man @davefleet[link to post]
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Reply22. KVBPRhealth (KVBPR Healthcare) says:
March 24, 2010 at 3:33 pm
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Make crisis plan now – not in the midst of a crisis! RT @jaybaer: Great social media crisistips from my man @davefleet [link to post]
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Reply23. marcusperry (Marcus Perry) says:
March 24, 2010 at 5:03 pm
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RT @laraineking: RT @jaybaer: Great social media crisis tips from my man @davefleet[link to post]
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Reply24. purplehayz (purplehayz) says:
March 24, 2010 at 10:14 pm
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7 reasons your company needs to prepare for crises [link to post]
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Reply25. sogeshirts (Tim Sogeshirts -Dave) says:
March 24, 2010 at 10:32 pm
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