Insignia Talks

…about the power of communication to create, manage and protect reputations

As we enter the final five days of our 28 day look at organisations in crisis and issues management mode, it’s clear that online and social media has made a huge difference to the escalation, spread and management of incidents.  So what do you need if you want to be geared up for successful reputation managment in an online world?  Here are five key elements:

1) Established online relationships and reputation

Just like conventional crisis communication, it’s a massive headstart to have built up relationships and reputation beforehand.  It emans that you’re not coming from a standing start in the event of an incident and you will be attuned to the way that social media works.

2) Pre-prepared platforms and channels

Make sure you have defined and created your online crisis communication hub (maybe your existing corporate blog or a darksite) ahead of time.  And ensure that other channels such as Twitter are set up and ready to go.

3) Online monitoring

When Dominos was hit by a YouTube crisis last year, one of its main problems was that it failed to identify that a crisis was playing out online until almost too late.  Make sure your own early warning systems are working effectively in the online space.

4) Pre-agreed approval processes

The beauty of social media is that it enables you to get messages out quickly to your stakeholders.  But only if you have agreed a clear and swift approval process beforehand.

5) Pre-identifed, pre-trained resource

Social media demands frequent and inter-active communication.  So make sure you’ve identifed and trained the people who will be responsible for manning these channels before the crisis breaks.

Social media presents both opportunity and threat in crisis management: make sure you’re geared up to minimise the downside and maximise the upside.

Organisations managing on and off line crises and issues today include:

Eurostar: transport; industrial action in Belgium

Dolce & Gabbana: fashion; tax investigation

Pingyu Coal & Electric Company: mining; underground accident

Jonathan Hemus

www.insigniacomms.com

PR people looked on as two of the world’s most admired companies – BP and Toyota – suffered terrible crises this year, and wondered “could we be next?”.  Hopefully many have now moved on to considering what they could do in the light of these catastrophes to reduce their potential for reputational damage.  An earlier posting identified denial as the first common factor in the BP and Toyota crises.  The second – and inter-related factor – was an inability to mobilise a swift and comprehensive crisis response.

Now that it is fully developed, BP’s online crisis communication hub is an excellent resource: indeed it could be viewed as a template for others to follow.  But it took too long to construct and launch, and as a consequence BP’s social media response was too slow (for example, its first YouTube video appeared a full month after the rig exploded). 

In Toyota’s case, President Akio Toyoda was criticised for being invisible in the early stages of its crisis.   It’s therefore no surprise that in both situations the companies failed to seize early control of the communication agenda.  As a consequence they ended up reacting to events and were seen to be uncaring or ignorant of the growing crisis.

Actions for communicators to avoid this:

Be prepared – have thorough plans, processes and materials prepared beforehand. It’s obvious – but frequently ignored until it’s too late.

Train and test - a crisis is a communicator’s World Cup final: maximum pressure and intense attention means it’s the ultimate test.  Success is far more likely if each team member has trained hard so they are confident in the plan and their role in it.

Create online communication platforms – social and online communication channels get your messages to stakeholders quickly.  But only if you’ve prepared the channels, assigned the human resource and agreed the approval process beforehand

Speed of response has always been important in a crisis: today it is critical, and the benchmark for speedy has ratcheted up several notches.  Having the crisis management infrastructure in place, with a tested plan and a trained team breeds confidence and a greater ability to exert control.

A further posting will take a look at the third and final element common to BP and Toyota, and consider the central role that communicators can play in addressing it.

Jonathan Hemus

www.insigniacomms.com

Tony Hayward - a lack of empathy

In recent postings, we’ve taken a close look at the role of the CEO in crisis management.  In the final posting on this topic for now, we list some of the key qualities required by a chief executive in this context:

1)      Leadership

Leadership is a quality one would expect from a CEO at all times, but the stakes are even higher in a crisis: it is the ultimate test for a senior management team.  The outside world will re-evaluate the ability of the senior management team – and the worth of the business – dependent on how it manages the crisis.  Demonstrating leadership and the cool-headed ability to make critical decisions under the most intense pressure are pre-requisites for success.

2)      Empathy

A focus on and understanding of the effect of your crisis on impacted stakeholders is essential, and that requires a CEO who can listen as well as talk.  Conversely, a focus on what the crisis means for our business, or worse, what the crisis means for me as CEO is guaranteed to alienate stakeholders and make a bad situation even worse.  It’s one of the key reasons that Tony Hayward endured such a torrid time during his leadership of the BP crisis.

3)      Strategic planning

Reacting to a crisis is rarely an effective approach – it means that the crisis manages the business rather than the other way round.  So, an ability to be clear on the objectives for crisis management activity, to see into the future and therefore plan the best course of action are invaluable skills for a CEO in crisis management mode.

4)      Integrity

Nothing does more damage in a crisis than double-talk or downright dishonesty.  A CEO who is straight-forward, honest and acknowledges responsibility will retain credibility and therefore the ability to be heard during a crisis.  This is essential if the organisation is to exert influence on how the situation plays out, and emerge unscathed at the other end.

5)      Communication

If the CEO is to play the role of lead media spokesperson, they must be a supreme communicator.  The words of the CEO will be tested, analysed and used against them if they slip up.  And when we’re managing reputation in an online age, we’re no longer talking about today’s press comment being tomorrow’s fish and chip paper.  Twitter ensures that today’s gaffe has gone twice round the world by tomorrow and is preserved forever on YouTube and/or Google.

Being a CEO in a crisis tests business heads to the limit.  People who have been successful when running “business as usual” can quickly find their world unravelling when crisis strikes.  Others rise to the challenge, proving that they are not just great managers, but truly great leaders.

Jonathan Hemus

www.insigniacomms.com

Last week I was interviewed about the role of social media in crisis management and was asked whether it has changed the way that organisations deal with crises.  My view is that the fundamental principles that underpin good and effective communication remain exactly the same.  However, social media undoubtedly provides an expanded set of opportunites and threats when it comes to reputation management.

Let’s travel back in time just five years and imagine we witnessed a London Underground staff member being abusive to a passenger.  What would have happened?  We might have told the story to our partner over dinner that evening, saying how awful it was and that the member of staff should be disciplined.  Maybe one person in a hundred might even have taken the time to write to Transport for London, though they would not have been able to identify the member of staff, and in any case, it would have been their word against his.

Travel back to the present day and here’s  how a real incident at Holborn tube station plays out.  The incident is not just witnessed by a passenger, it is also captured using his mobile phone.  When he gets to work, he blogs about it and posts the footage to YouTube.  People come across the footage and begin to Tweet about how disgusting the staff member’s behaviour is.  Twitter users within the media spot the Tweets and begin to look into the story.  By the middle of the afternoon, London Mayor Boris Johnson is tweeting about it (“appalled by the video.  Have asked Tfl to investigate urgently.  Abuse by passengers or staff is never acceptable”).

By the evening, the story had moved firmly from an online issue to a “real world” one, with coverage on Sky and ITN.  The next morning the story was in the national newspapers including the Daily Mail and, of course, its website.  The latter provides yet another opportunity for the story to endure and spread, fed by reader comments posted about the story (over 500 in the Daily Mail alone).

This was not a major crisis that lasted for weeks and destroyed the reputation of an organisation.  It does however highlight how incidents which would once have resulted in a dinner table conversation between two people can now reach millions of people within hours.  Understanding this and having a crisis communication infrastucture to deal with it is essential for any business seeking to protect its reputation in an online world. 

Jonathan Hemus

www.insigniacomms.com