Archive for crisis PR
Check Your Crisis Communications Plan’s Expiration Date
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Does your company’s crisis communications plan look like this?
If you went through an expensive planning process that ended up with a bulky three-ring binder that’s now stuck on a shelf, it might have been a huge waste of money if it hasn’t been updated. If the words “Twitter” and “Facebook” aren’t even mentioned, it’s time for a re-fresh.
Today’s crisis communications plans focus less on setting up a media headquarters, holding press briefings and assigning phone tree responsibilities. Instead, your plan needs to incorporate social media so you can monitor and respond quickly – and while mobile – even before you get the first text, Tweet, email or even phone call from the media.
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.]
Baltimore PR Firm Partner Named to SMEI Baltimore/Washington Chapter Board of Directors
Posted by: | CommentsThe Baltimore/Washington chapter of SMEI (Sales and Marketing Executives International) issued the following press release announcing the 2011-12 Board of Directors, which includes Sawmill Marketing Public Relations partner Jeffrey A. Davis:
HUNT VALLEY, Md. (July 8, 2011) – The Baltimore/Washington chapter of Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI) today announced that David G. Poulos, CEO of Granite Partners, LLC has been named president of the regional chapter of the international sales and marketing organization, to serve along with seven members of the board of directors for the 2011-2012 term.
Poulos founded the Sparks, Md.-based Granite Partners in 2006, after serving as Director of Marketing Communications for Graphic Arts Show Company, Inc., Reston, Va., producer of trade shows exclusively for the graphic communications and converting industries. He holds a bachelor of science degree in marketing communications from Northeastern University in Boston.
Joining Poulos on the SMEI Baltimore/Washington board for the 2011-12 term are the following directors:
- Lynn K. Argenbright, employee benefits advisor, PSA Insurance & Financial Services, Hunt Valley, Md.
- Mary Lou Coyle, president, Coyle Studios, Towson, Md.
- Jeffrey A. Davis, partner, Sawmill Marketing Public Relations, Baltimore
- Seth McElroy, VP, marketing & sales administration, Dunbar Armored, Hunt Valley, Md.
- Steve Navarro, director, business development, R2integrated, Baltimore
- Jonathan Oleisky, CEO/founder, Media 924, LLC, Baltimore
- Concetta Sipes, sales representative, Trade Division, K.C. Company, Inc., Hunt Valley, Md.
About SMEI
Founded in 1935, Sales & Marketing Executives International (SMEI) is the worldwide organization dedicated to ethical standards, continuing professional development, knowledge sharing, mentoring students and advancing free enterprise. For more information about the Baltimore/Washington chapter, visit www.smeibaltimore.org
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 #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.
Crisis Communications Tip #6: It’s Complicated
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An organization’s crisis communications situation is never a single event dealt with by a single activity. Instead, it’s a multifaceted and often complicated set of circumstances requiring a steadfast, consistent and determined execution of activities. But what about the marketing impact of a crisis?
We’ve been reminded of this the past few months while dealing with a client’s crisis communications problems and are just now finalizing a strategy for handling the marketing implications while keeping one eye still focused on the crisis.
The most valuable crisis communications plans are those that help an organization effectively manage the crisis at hand while simultaneously staying connected to its marketplace with relevant brand messaging.
Crisis Communications Tip #16: Doing the Right Thing is Not a Guarantee
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Despite keeping everyone up to date and informed about an unpleasant situation, a client alerted us that someone had contacted the media and a story immediately appeared.
This underscores the point that, like so many things in life, there are no guarantees. Organizations who routinely do the right things to keep everyone in the loop about the good as well as the bad news, need to also factor in the fact that someone will likely take it upon themselves to share the information with others, whether it’s a reporter, Facebook friends or Twitter followers.
Please keep “no guarantees” in mind as you conduct the annual review of your crisis communications plan.
Crisis Communications Tip #3: Define & Defend Your Boundaries
Posted by: | CommentsA local hospital 
is at the beginning of what promises to be a lengthy and costly resolution of a situation involving a prominent physician, many, many of his patients and now, legions of attorneys.
In fairness to the hospital, it is a complicated situation not easily explained and therefore not easily understood by most of us. Additionally, there are many points of view that will be played out in the media for the foreseeable future.
However, based on media coverage thus far, the hospital does not appear to be assertively defining the situation to one physician in one department utilizing one procedure.
If we were asked our opinion on what their crisis communications strategy should be, we would implore them to quickly and decisively place the situation in context of the hospital’s overall reputation. It should then implement an ongoing, focused communications program that defines and defends the institution’s expertise and reputation beyond the boundaries of the current situation, albeit a serious and far-reaching one.
Crisis Communications Tip #15: It’s Rarely Straightforward
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The incredible coverage in the traditional media, posts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other online venues of the recent Jet Blue flight attendant’s bizarre reaction to a less than civil passenger brings home the point that a crisis is rarely, if ever, straightforward in the facts surrounding what happened.
IMO, what’s getting lost in the accolades for the flight attendant’s way that he quit his job are the bigger, more serious issues of the safety risk he put the passengers in when he deployed the evacuation chute and the complicated state of today’s customer service.
It will be interesting to watch how Jet Blue moves forward and how it incorporates the incident into its customer service training. It should make for an important case study.
