Archive for crisis communications
Crisis Communications Tip #4: Now is Not the Time to Be Insular
Posted by: | CommentsThere is an excellent article in the current issue of The Public Relations Strategist about the Penn State child-abuse scandal an
d the role their “we are the school” attitude played in the mishandling of the crisis and the resulting price it will be paying.
In our experience this attitude is prevalent when a crisis hits — regardless of the type of entity trying to deal with it. This includes a client that, just a few months into it, believes it has successfully weathered an ugly headline-generating situation. However, we’ve counseled them that they are instead at the beginning of it. We hope our prediction is wrong, but that sound you hear are their wagons circling.
Crisis Plans Need to be Continually Refined
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Our client AHC, Inc., a developer of affordable housing communities in the Mid-Atlantic region, just completed a revise of its crisis communications plan that focused on streamlining the notification process in the event that a crisis situation occurs.
AHC, Inc. reviews and revises as needed its crisis communications plan on a semi-annual basis to ensure its plan is up to date, relevant and reflects best practices.
However, this review has the added benefit of keeping the plan and the important role it plays in front of its leadership on a regular basis. Is it time to take a look at your company’s plan?
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations Named Agency for FCC Environmental, LLC
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BALTIMORE, Md. (September 21, 2011) – Sawmill Marketing Public Relations, a Baltimore public relations firm, has been selected by FCC Environmental, LLC, one of the world’s largest environmental services companies with an expertise in waste oil collection and processing, for a comprehensive awareness campaign for its first sustainable used motor oil recycling facility.
The campaign will include strategic message development, traditional media relations, website development and management, community relations, crisis communications planning and spokesperson training.
The $50 million facility, to be located in Baltimore, is the first of several used motor oil recycling operations planned by the company in the United States.
About FCC Environmental
FCC Environmental, LLC provides recycling services for the automotive, commercial and industrial sectors of the U.S. economy. Its service offerings include used oil collection and processing, collection and recycling of used oil filters and antifreeze, along with parts cleaner supply and service, plus field service activity and emergency response capabilities to support the requirements of its customers.
Headquartered in Houston, FCC Environmental has maintained a regional office and operation in Baltimore since 1950. It has 38 branches and terminals throughout an 18 state operation, serving over 30,000 customer locations. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), one of the world’s largest environmental service providers with headquarters in Madrid, Spain. With more than 90,000 employees operating in over 50 countries, FCC was able to provide the financial capability and leadership to allow FCC Environmental, LLC to expand its service offerings. For more information, visit www.FCCenvironmental.com.
About Sawmill Marketing Public Relations
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations is a Baltimore PR firm and social media marketing communications agency established in 1995 specializing in the development and execution of marketing public relations programs as business development strategies for business-to-business, business-to-consumer and professional services clients. The Maryland public relations company specializes in social media, traditional media relations, media training, and crisis communications. For additional information, visit www.sawmillmarketing.com.
Use Earthquake Lessons to Shake Up Your Crisis PR Plan
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Here’s a crisis communications lesson from yesterday’s East Coast earthquake – if your crisis PR plan relies on using a telephone or cell phone, you had better insert an alternative method for reaching out to people.
As Gus Sentementes reported in today’s edition of The Baltimore Sun, “As Marylanders reached for their cell phones to communicate with their friends and family, they found it easier to get peace of mind through text messages, emails and Facebook updates than through calls.”
That’s because just about everyone has a cell phone in their pocket – and the first thing they do in an emergency is call family and friends, so the phone system cannot handle such a high volume of calls. To actually work, your crisis communications plan needs to rely on other means to get the word out – tweets, texts and Facebook updates.
As we counsel clients, now is the time to set up those social networking accounts and the related policy and protocol – not during an emergency! [Gus's photo sent via Twitter, left, shows an evacuated Sun staff yesterday after the earthquake shook up the building.]
Sawmill Partner Invited to Share Public Affairs Success Tips
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I will be a featured speaker at a full-day learning event, “Resources & Tools for Public Affairs Success,” co-hosted by Erickson Living and the Maryland Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel on Thursday, September 29, 2011 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The day includes panels looking at the role of social media in crisis communication and today’s newsroom, as well as hands-on workshops on Twitter and LinkedIn. Attendees will also hear the State of News Media from Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.
Here are “my” sessions:
The Role of Social Media in Crisis Communications – 9 a.m.
Featuring a behind-the-scenes account of a shooting at Johns Hopkins Hospital and how social media was used, I will guide a discussion that will demonstrate the importance of monitoring and being aware of today’s online tools to protect your company’s reputation. 9:00 a.m.
• Justin Fenton, Crime Reporter, Baltimore Sun
• Anthony Guglielmi, Spokesman, Baltimore City Police Department
• Jeffrey A. Davis, APR, Sawmill Marketing Public Relations
Twitter Tactics for PR Professionals – 10:15 a.m.
From basic tools and etiquette to the many ways media and PR professionals are using Twitter, this session will offer a hands-on look at the latest tactics.
• Jeffrey A. Davis, APR, Sawmill Marketing Public Relations
The event is held in collaboration with Erickson Living as part of their national Corporate Communications Summit. Because of this, PRSA is limited to 20 seats at $50 for PRSA members, $65 for non-members. For additional details and to register, visit the PRSA Maryland Chapter website.
Assignment Desks Look to Twitter for Updates During Crisis
Posted by: | CommentsAn interview with an assignment editor at KSDK in St. Louis highlights one reason Twitter is an important – maybe the most important – tool in the crisis communications toolkit. During a four-hour lockdown at Missouri University of Science and Technology on May 12 when a gunman appeared on campus, telephone updates were not easy to obtain, but the university’s stream of Twitter updates allowed the TV station to get the latest info and share the news with viewers.
For more details and to view the interview, check out the blog post by Andrew Careaga, director of communications for Missouri S&T.
Crisis Communications Tip #9: Develop an Audience Strategy
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While many focus their crisis communications effort primarily on crafting what to say, we believe it’s also critical to develop an audience strategy for the crisis messaging.
Begin by prioritizing the audience that is impacted the most and then identify the influencer audiences. This exercise should quickly reveal the crisis communications audience strategy as well as options for how best to begin communicating with them.
Additionally, the audience strategy will help to fine tune and customize the crisis messaging so that it is relevant and credible to the target audiences.
Crisis Communications Tip #3: Make Media Training a Priority
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lude “Next Steps” in our crisis communications plans and “media training for designated spokespeople” is nearly always at the top of this list.
Why? Because we’re firm believers in the crisis communications mantra of “tell it all, tell it fast and tell the truth.” This appears to be simple, sound and matter-of-fact when talked about in the calm of a conference room, but yet another matter requiring resolve, courage and leadership should a crisis situation occur.
In our experience, the designated spokespeople who already have a fundamental knowledge of how to communicate their messages to the media are better equipped to immediately focus themselves and their organization on telling it all, telling it fast and telling the truth, rather than to first take a crash course in media training.
Crisis Communications Tip #2: 10 Golden Rules of Crisis Communications
Posted by: | CommentsThis is one of the best presentations of the top 10 items on what should be on your crisis communications ‘to do list’ that we’ve seen in a long time: clear, concise, smart and correct.
