Crisis communications in today's age leaves many of our best practices arount it moot. It's an issue and an opportunity really.
One rule I'd like to think that has stood the test of time shouldn't have to be a rule in the first place: tell the #&$^$ truth!
Take Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. It's ironic that his crisis has kicked off because he DID tell the truth. But it looks as if he tried to cover up his on camera moment of weakness. And that could be the just the start to the end of his political career.
It Takes More than Truth (and truthiness)
But regardless of whether the client is a person or a brand, the odds are good their crisis began because someone did not tell the truth. As a result, even admitting to the lie is not enough to begin coming back from the crisis.
Take Martha Stewart for example. She screwed up. She eventually did the right thing. And today her brand is arguably stronger as a result.
Focus as much on what you're doing to ensure it doesn't happen again as you do apologizing. Apologizing is simply telling the truth about lying or whatever it is that got you into this mess in the first place.
What other golden rules of crisis communication do you think withstand the level of change we've experienced in our industry?
:: Kevin Dugan, @prblog
Getting an organizational statement out as soon as possible. As you stated, crises are an opportunity.The opportunity being that a crisis is a chance for an organization to either appear as the hero or the villain. As such, getting ahead of the crisis and putting a face to it will not only help redefine the crisis in your favor, but it will also provide to your stakeholders the illusion of organizational control. Whether or not a company truly has control; however, is another strategy altogether.
ReplyDeleteIf I have learned one thing this year in my PR classes at the University of Oregon, it is that lying to cover up your mistake does not make the mistake go away. I agree, I think that apologizing is crucial to having any chance of getting out of your mess. The public will sympathize with someone who owns up to their mistakes and apologizes.
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