5 steps to online reputation management

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

Businesses in crisis management mode to avoid Sunday roasting

Sport, travel and oil – very different businesses, but linked today by the fact that an organisation in each is managing a crisis or issue. It just goes to show that even on a Sunday businesses need to be ready to act quickly to protect their reputation whether from newspaper investigations, pressure group protests or simply poor customer service.

FIFA: sport; corruption allegations

STA: travel/financial services; serious customer service issues

Petroplus: oil; blockade of oil refinery

Calibrate crisis communication response to avoid under – or over – reaction

This 28 day review of organisations in crisis management mode has laid bare the sheer number and diversity of incidents, issues and crises affecting businesses every day of the year. Learning number one from this exercise is that organisations must prepare plans and people beforehand so that they can respond quickly and professionally to protect reputation.

The sheer quantity of crises occurring every day highlights the fact that these are not unusual events. But when the crisis affect you, it all becomes very personal, intense and pressurised. Maintaining perspective, objectivity and calibrating your crisis communication response accordingly is essential to avoid over (as well as under) reacting. Over-react and you can escalate the situation bringing it to the attention of stakeholders previously unaware of it. Under-reaction though is even more dangerous, creating an impression of an oragnisation that doesn’t care , is hiding the facts or has simply failed to get its act together.

Organisations calibrating their crisis and issues management response this weekend include:

Tesco: supermarket; fined after mouse droppings found in store

Severn Trent: utility; burst water main leaves 17,000 homes and businesses without water

LibDems: political party; website hacked

Fraught Friday as three more enter the media spotlight

As we enter the final week of our 28 day review of organisations in crisis management mode, it’s a fraught Friday for the organisations in the spotlight today:

Reckitt Benckhiser: household products; £10.2 million fine from Office of Fair Trading for abuse of market position

John Radcliffe Hospital; health; report recommends that heart surgery should stop at the hospital (recommendation follows previous safety concerns)

London Fire Service; emergency services; firefighters vote for strike action

Effective communication and issues management will be essential for all three if they are to avoid reputational damage.

Chile and BP: altogether different crisis management challenges

As we start to look back on the rescue of the Chilean miners, comparisons are being drawn between the crisis management approach to this incident and that of BP. The inference is that if BP had applied the same crisis management principles as Chile then they would not have suffered such enormous reputational damage. I absolutely endorse the view that Chile managed the rescue well, and BP managed its crisis badly. But to think that it would have been possible to transpose the Chile approach to BP and arrive at a postive outcome is much too simplistic.

Here are 5 reasons why:

1) BP’s crisis involved the deaths of eleven men: no one died in Chile. Imagine that eleven miners had died in the original mining incident: all of a sudden, the story and the crisis management challenge would have been very different.

2) BP’s crisis caused significant and very visible damage to the environment and wildlife: Chile’s caused none. After harm to people, damage to the environment is the second most emotive topic in a crisis. The only damage to the physical environment in Chile was underground.

3) BP’s crisis affected jobs and the economy: Chile’s did not. Whilst 33 Chilean miners have lost their jobs, it seems that there will be many alternative ways for them to make money in future. In the US thousands of ordinary people had their livelihoods threatened by the oil spill.

4) BP’s crisis got worse over time: Chile’s got better. As more and more oil leaked out and the impact became clearer, so BP’s crisis grew. The worst day for Chile was the day of the accident itself: once the miners were known to be safe and well, the news naturally began to get better.

5) The people factor: as any PR or media person will tell you, news is all about people. In BP’s case, the story was of the enormous harm that BP had done to many thousands of people in many different ways. It was by its very nature a negative story about the big company doing bad things to “small people”. In Chile, the people factor was, of course, the 33 miners and the heroic efforts of the rescuers to bring them up alive: it was a good news story of hope and the human spirit. The dynamic of the story was completely different and so the perception of the effectiveness of Chile’s crisis management is very different.

The rescue of the Chilean miners has been one of human endeavour and resilience. The global feelgood factor has relegated issues such as the safety record of the mine, its financial problems and the role of the government in failing to enforce better working conditions to a footnote.

Chile has indeed managed its crisis well. But let’s not pretend that it would have found it quite so easy to turn BP’s crisis into a good news story.

Crisis media training essential for reputation protection

Today’s post about organisations in crisis or issues management mode will be shorter than usual, but for good reason. Today I am media training an organisation’s senior management team in case they ever need to face the media in the event of a crisis. By the end of the day their reputation will be better protected as a result of their experience. Which is very prudent given that one of their competitors featured prominently in one of this month’s postings about organisations in crisis – and their response was less than perfect.

Today’s organisations in the spotlight are:

Quangos: abolition/re-organisation

Nestle: confectionary; criticism over involvement in anti-obesity campaign

Citigroup: financial services; lawsuit alleging sex discrimination

Filling the communication vacuum

It’s day twenty of our 28 day examination of organisations in crisis and issues management mode. Given the pace of the 24 hour news media and the power of social media, it’s not surprising that there is an ever-increasing hunger for information, especially in the early stages of an incident. Being able to satisfy this hunger helps assert control over how a situation plays out. Consider the following elements in your crisis and issues management planning to help achieve this:

* build online communication channels and relationships beforehand: you can use them to get information out quickly in the event of an incident
* have a corporate backgrounder and positioning papers on likely issues (safety, security, privacy etc) pre-drafted so that you can fill the communication vacuum with accurate information
* build and media train a team of spokespeople so that “no comment” is not your only option
* examine and manage your online reputation: what do people see if they search for your name?

Engaging with stakeholders in order to shape how a crisis or issue plays out is often the best strategy. Preparing resources and plans beforehand helps you to do this more swiftly and more effectively.

Grappling with their own issues, incidents and crises today are:

Barclays/HSBC/NatWest/Royal Bank of Scotland: financial services; report makes corruption allegations (note that HSBC whilst provides a comment, the other three refuse to do so)

HMRC: public body; further controversy over inaccurate PAYE payments

Krystal Ball; US politician; provocative images from social media sites leaked on the internet

Planning pays dividends – however big your crisis management challenge

When I embarked on this 28 day study of live crisis management, I wanted to explore the frequency and diversity of crises and issues facing organisations of all kinds every day of the year. I did so in the knowledge that despite a rash of high profile incidents and issues over the last year, too many businesses still say that a crisis of the scale experienced by BP or Toyota simply couldn’t happen to them.

The vast majority of the crises that have occurred over the first nineteen days of this study have indeed been much less dramatic than BP’s explosion. All of them have left the media spotlight more quickly. And none have inflicted such severe reputational damage. But whether incident, issue or full-blown crisis, they all require effective management and professional communication. That means processes, planning and a well-trained team. Put these in place and minor incidents can be dealt with quickly and effectively. And you can sleep easily at night in the knowledge that if tomorrow “the big one” should affect your organisation, you have the crisis communication infrastructure to effectively protect your reputation.

Today’s organisations under the media spotlight are:

Gap: clothes retailer; new logo withdrawn following consumer backlash (could this be a case of no publicity is bad publicity?)

Liverpool Football Club: sport; High Court hearing as financial issues and fight for ownership rumble on

Hewlett Packard: technology: accused of “butchery” as more job cuts are revealed

Mercedes Benz: automotive; product recall

Asda: supermarket; criticism over sale of padded bras for children

Communicate tough decisions effectively – or risk reputational damage

Some crises begin with a catastrophic event: a natural disaster, an accident, a fire. Many more begin when a known issue ignites and escalates. In these tough economic times, closures and redundancies are being announced on a daily basis. The way in which communication of these announcements is planned and executed will influence the extent to which reputations are damaged.

Today, we feature three organisations making significant changes to their structures and workforce as they plan for the future. In two cases at least, the way in which they communicated turned a difficult announcement into a bigger issues management challenge:

Everything Everywhere (Orange/T-Mobile): mobile telecoms; criticism over redundancy communication based on “traffic light” system

Kraft: food manufacturer; continued uncertainty over the future of UK sites formerly owned by Cadbury

Sanofi: pharmaceuticals; announcement of 1,700 US job losses

Many organisations have been forced to make tough decisions over the last couple of years, and many more will do so over the next twelve months. Getting the communication right when announcing these decisions is essential to avoid turning a difficult day into a medium term issues management problem.

Two diverse businesses facing different challenges: both fight to protect reputation

It’s day 17 of our 28 day examination of organisations engaged in crisis and issues management and the two businesses featured today demonstrate the breadth of sectors that can be hit by unwanted press attention. One is a traditional industrial operation dealing with a physical incident; the other is a very modern internet business dealing with a very current issue. Vastly different businesses; starkly contrasting issues; but both need to address them effectively or else their licence to operate could come into question.

MAL Hungarian Aluminium: aluminium processing; at the centre of the Hungarian toxic sludge issue

Internet Eyes: CCTV website; criticism over privacy issue

Big or small, old or new, service sector or manufacturer, it matters not. All businesses need to be geared up to protect their reputation in the event of an issue or a crisis.

Rescue of Chilean miners reminds us that crisis is a 24/7 operation

As rescuers reach the Chilean miners who have been trapped underground for two months, it’s timely to reflect that crisis communication is a 24/7/365 activity. Dealing with a life and death crisis requires this total commitment. But it’s relevant to communication too: assuming and retaining control of the communication agenda is one of the golden rules in a crisis, so taking a weekend break in the middle of an incident is simply impossible.

But in a prolonged crisis, it is essential that team members get time to re-charge their batteries. People run on adrenaline for long periods of time during a crisis, but will eventually hit a wall. It’s important to insist they take time out to eat, sleep and refresh themselves before this happens (you may need to implement a shift system to achieve this during the life of an extended crisis).

So, I send my best wishes to the communication teams in crisis management mode this weekend, especially those in Chile.

As this crisis nears its end, UK communication teams are dealing with their latest issues:

Morrisons: supermarket; wrong fuel leaves drivers stranded

Mobile phone manufacturers: renewed attention on health issues

Crisis communication: ignore conventional media at your peril

The role of social media in crisis and issues management is a very hot topic, and rightly so. Unless you monitor what’s being said about you online, an on-going issue can develop into a crisis almost before you’re aware of it. And without online channels to communicate in the immediate aftermath of a crisis your response can be far too slow.

The temptation therefore can be to view offline media as less important these days. Big mistake. There are two reasons for this: firstly, a credible and well known conventional media channel still has more weight than most online sources. Secondly, social media magnifies the power of conventional media by archiving press articles on Google, spreading bad news faster and further via the power of Twitter, and broadcasting TV interview nightmares on demand via Youtube. Tomorrow’s fish and chip paper is an obsolete concept.

So for the following organizations featured in today’s media, it’s important to have social media embedded within their crisis communication and issues management planning. But it’s essential not to do so at the cost of a robust conventional media relations strategy.

Noble Foods: egg producer; allegations of animal cruelty

Commonwealth Games: sports event; allegations that contaminated water in swimming pool is causing competitors to become ill

Swan Hellenic: cruise line; offensive comments made by company owner

Toyota and BP highlight the importance of effective crisis spokespeople


BP and Toyota suffered 2010’s most damaging crises, and it’s tempting to think that these were very modern crises played out online in the Twitterverse. But there was a common problem that afflicted both organisations which shows that 21st century crisis management is not just about online communication: ineffective media spokespeople make bad situations worse

“I’d like my life back” will live on as a crisis media blunder for many years and was the defining gaffe of Tony Hayward’s period in the media spotlight. But he was not alone. Scott Brownlee, Toyota’s UK PR chief, talking about his UK MD Miguel Fonseca, revealed to PR Week that “we received letters from people saying they had lost confidence after seeing him on TV”. President Akio Toyoda fared little better.

Actions for communicators to avoid this:

Review, select and train – you need a trusted team of spokespeople to safeguard your reputation in a crisis. Regular and intensive media training will identify and enhance the skills of these people. Have tough conversations with those that don’t fit the bill.

Recognise the demands of the role – choose your spokesperson knowing that this will be their main role in the crisis: it’s a big enough job on its own. Assign them a PR minder to brief and coach them as they undertake their media encounters.

The irony is that a very traditional requirement of crisis communication – an effective media spokesperson – has become even more important in an online age. No longer is an ill-judged press comment tomorrow’s fish and chip paper: a permanent record via Google has put paid to that convenient get out clause. And an inept TV performance is seen not just by the thousands of viewers who see it at the time, but also by the millions of others who view it on YouTube or BBC iPlayer, made aware of its existence by a torrent of Tweets.

Communication is not a silver bullet in a crisis, but it can have an enormous influence over how the organisation is seen both during the event and afterwards. Understanding the key learnings from BP and Toyota, and acting on them will help to ensure that other reputations can be better protected.

Speedy crisis management essential to preserve reputation

Today marks the half way point in our 28 day analysis of organisations in reputation management mode. Already, over 100 organisations have endured the media spotlight and battled to protect their hard-won reputations. Some have fared better than others. The success stories have usually been characterised by a swift and appropriate communication response whereas “no comment” has made a bad situation worse for others.

Today’s organisations in crisis include examples of both:

Disneyland Paris: tourism; cleaner died after falling into water at the park

Hipp Organic: food manufacturer; ASA rules that advert for baby milk must be withdrawn over misleading claims

Paramount Pictures: entertainment; sued over injuries suffered by film extra

Speed of response is increasingly important to get ahead of the story and preserve reputation (witness the number of crises which escalate and spread driven by social and other online media). Taking a day to set up communication channels and work out how to produce content during a crisis is not a viable option. A prudent approach to reputation protection demands that you gear up ahead of time so that you can communicate almost instantaneously in the event of a crisis.

Corporate culture and communication: the keys to crisis prevention

It’s easy to blame crises on the actions of one person, the front-line employee who did or said the wrong thing that led to a crisis event. Easy, but wrong.

Today’s organisations in crisis include an airline whose employee turned away a blind passenger, and the death of a landlord when simple checks were not carried out on a gas fire in his pub. Previous incidents have occurred when safety procedures were ignored in order to get the job done on time, when quality control was short-circuited to meet a deadline and when a call-centre employee was abusive towards a customer.

The catalyst for a crisis may indeed be the action of the front-line employee. But the root cause is usually the culture of the organisation (which is really most important, safety or profit?) and internal communication. People need to know exactly what is expected of them, and the principles and priorities which guide their behaviour. Getting these factors right is hugely significant in crisis prevention.

Hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons are today’s organisations in crisis:

Enterprise Inns: pub chain; fined following death of pub landlord when checks on gas fires were not carried out

FlyDubai: airline; customer service – blind passenger prevented from boarding his flight

Seaworld: tourist attraction; guest drowns at the water park

Crown Currency Exchange: currency exchange; company went into liquidation leaving customers without their money (note the knock on mini-crisis for websites such as Moneysavingexpert which included the company in their “best buy” lists)

Vodafone: telecoms; closure of call centre with loss of 400 jobs

Veolia: waste and recyling; fined after death of employee when health and safety measures were overlooked

Do keep a close eye on your own organisational culture and internal communication if you adhere to the principle that crisis prevention is always better than crisis cure.

Poor customer service invites a crisis

As we near the half way mark of our 28 day review of corporate crises, the diversity of incidents and issues is striking. From corruption to IT failure, from product safety to management bust ups, from regulatory enquiries to NGO protests, organisations have been managing a whole range of crises. But there’s one category of crisis that is almost entirely preventable, but causes more problems than any other: customer service. In our study, we’ve witnessed a range of customer service issues that have come to the attention of national media, often fuelled by social media. Get your customer service right and you reduce your potential for crisis.

See below for three organisations in crisis management mode today:

American Express: financial services; anti-competitive practices

Opel/General Motors: automotive; factory closure with loss of 1,200 jobs

Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre/Home Office: policing; resignation of CEO over its future direction

Could you manage an international crisis?

The latest posting in our 28 day look at the crises affecting businesses this month is a little late. The reason? I’ve been travelling to Bratislava to present on crisis management at a conference. So, with apologies for my tardiness, here are three organisations in crisis management mode today:

Alliance Boots: retail; job cuts

Talacre Caravan and Leisure Park: tourism; death of child at holiday park

Transport for London: transport; industrial relations

My overseas jaunt made me think about some of the challenges of managing interntional crises and some of the elements that need to be considered:

- do you have contact details for everyone you might need to contact – including international codes?

- do you have access to a translation agency 24 hours a day, or an alternative solution to produce a statement in multiple languages?

- do you have teleconference and videoconference facilities set aside for use in a crisis – and does someone on the team know how they work?

- are the head office approval procedures clear – especially if there’s a timezone difference?

- are you operating across geogrpahic boundaries with the same crisis communication principles?

- have you tested your plans across borders?

The organisations listed today are dealing with UK-specific crises. But if you operate across more than one country, you need to know the answers to the questions listed above if you want to be confident of protecting your international repuation.

Sunday papers bring bad news for some

With Sunday supposedly being a day of rest, it’s ironic that it’s the time when many major crises break. That’s because many of the Sunday papers specialise in investigative journalism, and carry extensive business sections. As a consequence, PR professionals cannot afford to be without their crisis communication plan over the weekend.

As we reach day ten of our 28 day review of the crisis landscape, the following organisations prove the point:

Sainsburys/Waitrose/B&Q et al: retailers; technical problem prevents credit card payments

BA: airline; emergency landing

Goldman Sachs: financial services; criticism over bonuses
A swift and effective crisis communication response today is essential if organisations are to avoid featuring prominently in the media agenda throughout next week

Why do crises always happen at the weekend?

Everyone seems to be struggling with work-life balance these days and many of us are bringing home work at the weekend. For those businesses managing crises, there’s no option: the task of reputation protection must continue. Indeed, the old adage that crises always happen on Fridays or the day before your holiday, seems unaccountably true. Certainly these organisations are unlikely to be having a quiet weekend:

BMW: automotive; product recall

Fisher Price: toys; product recall

Motorola: telecoms/technology; legal action over copyright issues

NPower: energy/utility; customer refund following regulatory investigation

Preparing thoroughly to manage a crisis cannot guarantee peaceful weekends. But it does mean that you’ll be better placed to manage the incident swiftly, professionally and effectively whenever the balloon goes up, wherever you are.

Humans cause crises more often than “acts of God”: plan accordingly

As we enter the second week of our 28 day snapshot of organisations managing reputational issues, it’s clear that most situations are not created by physical events or accidents (although some are). Many more are the result of people issues or management decisions: fraud, security, closures, redundancies and customer service are just five examples of this (see today’s list for a handful of examples). Crisis and issues management plans need to reflect this: if your plans only deal with physical events then you are exposed to the many “softer” – but equally damaging – issues that may arise.

Air France/KLM: airlines; legal action following allegations of a cartel

Apple: technology; Italy demands it removes “offensive app”

HBOS: financial services; arrests related to alleged fraud by three staff members

Thomas Cook: travel; job cuts predicted in light of poor financial results

Walkers Crisps/Omnichem: food/chemicals; HSE fine following death of worker in toxic cloud

Lloyds Banking Group: financial services; tops the FSA’s league table of complaints

Vox Sciences/Spinvox/Nuance: telecoms/technology; allegations of text spam

Tetley: food/drink; allegations of human rights violations after the death of three workers in India

Kiddicare.com/Tesco/Mothercare: retail; products recall of “baby positioner” over fears it may be linked with infant deaths

Nintendo; entertainment; profit warning based on delay to new 3D console causes share price slump

Crises can be caused by explosions, accidents or natural disasters – but not exclusively. Make sure that a regular reputational risk assessment identifies the other potential issues and crises that could hit your business and plan your contingencies accordingly.