We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Ashley Davidson, Senior Director, Media & Industry Relations for Fish Consulting, a national communications consulting firm specializing in public relations and marketing for the franchise industry.

Fish’s clients include FOCUS Brands, Best Western Hotels & Resorts, Regus, Neighborly, Chicken Salad Chick, FASTSIGNS International, Inc., and Sola Salon Studios, among others.

In this role, Ashley leads the agency’s crisis communications, new business development, and executive speakers bureau. Since joining Fish in 2012, she has led national media relations strategy for brands across the restaurant, retail, fitness, and health/wellness segments, securing coverage with CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, FOX Business, Cheddar, and more. Her crisis communications experience spans a variety of issues from the COVID-19 pandemic and foodborne illnesses to sexual assault allegations, data breaches, natural disasters, and fatalities.

Prior to joining Fish, Ashley held various agency and in-house PR and corporate communications positions with O’Connell & Goldberg, Femwell Group Health, and Burger King Corporation.

Ashley is also a freelance writer who has contributed to national and local media outlets like HuffPost, Wine Enthusiast, RunnersWorld.com, The Washington Post Magazine, Chewy.com, and USA TODAY NETWORK’s sponsored content studio, GET Creative.

Ashley received her undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Miami and currently lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations?

Reputation management is the practice of managing the public’s perception of a brand or individual. With the growth of social media, reputation management has come to be synonymous with how your brand is perceived online through these channels. It’s a significant part of public relations, as PR’s primary goal is to influence the public to have a favorable perception of a brand or individual and, ultimately, to do business with them. I think your PR strategy will not be nearly as effective if you don’t have effective reputation management. A favorable image can take years to build, but can be destroyed through one viral Facebook post that damages your reputation.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

I primarily work in crisis communications and constantly remind brands and small business owners not to get defensive when someone attacks them — whether the criticism is true or not. It’s easy to get emotional when you’ve spent so much time building a business and any attack on it feels extremely personal. So, when people respond from an emotional place, situations can easily spiral out of control and hurt your reputation. Composure and empathy are valuable learned skills that are incredibly useful in these instances and can help you avoid a single comment turning into a larger PR crisis.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

Social media gives anybody the power to publish almost anything. If we look at the recent Black Lives Matter protests, countless videos documenting police brutality, destruction of property, and more were disseminated on social media as it happened. We saw things on Twitter hours before media picked up the videos. Any person with a phone can make or break an organization’s reputation and, unlike in traditional media, you don’t have the luxury of a reporter giving you a courtesy call to get your statement before the world hears about it. Brands have to be prepared to implement their crisis response strategy at any given moment because of the speed of social media. There’s much less time to think about how to react.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

Assess the situation to the best of your ability. What was posted/shared? Who posted it? Where was it posted (e.g. a personal Facebook page, a private group page)? Is it gaining traction, meaning, are people responding and sharing the post? And don’t forget to take a screenshot of the post, just in case it’s later deleted and you need to refer back to it. The first thing I ask when I get on the phone with a client dealing with a crisis is, “Tell me everything you know at this point.” So, having that information is helpful. That way, I can understand the current situation, gauge the seriousness of the issue and urgency of our response, and advise on next steps.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

Resist the urge to respond to social media comments or speak to media unless specifically advised to do so. It’s important during a crisis to have consistent messaging and that’s often achieved through a single spokesperson. Having other voices chime in to defend the business, no matter how well-intentioned, can reignite a fire that was in the process of being put out. When in doubt, employees should ask their supervisor if and how they can help. If the answer is to do nothing and let the crisis communications team take the lead, trust that leadership has it handled.

Of course, there are always exceptions. If, for example, a company is under fire for serious allegations like sexual harassment, an employee may feel it is their duty to speak up. However, I recommend doing so through the appropriate channels, so they’re protected.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

First, conduct a vulnerabilities assessment. You don’t know what to prepare for if you don’t know where your business is most vulnerable. Secondly, create a crisis communications plan with protocols for responding to each of the potential crises the business could face. Finally, conduct a crisis simulation where your senior executives and other key team members work through a potential crisis in real-time. It may seem silly to practice your crisis response, but it’s beneficial to work through the kinks now, so when a real crisis happens, everyone knows exactly what to do and can do it quickly.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

A little bit of both. When brands first started to have a presence on social media, I don’t think anyone anticipated how important of a role it would play in the daily life of a business. Back then, there were no best practices, which made reputation management harder. However, there were fewer platforms to monitor and fewer people on those platforms. Today, there is so much more content spread across countless websites and apps, but now marketers know what they’re doing and we have technology to help us manage it all.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

The COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. hadn’t been impacted by anything of this nature in 100 years and the world was very different back then. There was no playbook and everything was changing so quickly. The only thing we could do at the beginning until we had our bearings was to listen and react. We were listening to what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was saying about how the virus is spread and how to prevent it, listening to what clients were hearing from their franchisees in dozens of local markets across the country about possible shutdowns and stay-at-home orders, and listening to how other brands were communicating their own safety protocols. We essentially transitioned to a crisis firm overnight. We work with over 30 brands, so it required an agencywide effort to share information and resources, so we were providing consistent guidance and no single team member was spinning their wheels. I’m extremely proud of how our team came together.

The other day, I listened to a video from Catherine Monson, CEO of FASTSIGNS International, Inc., and chair of the International Franchise Association, where she talked about how stress and resiliency are like muscles — the more you exercise them, the stronger those muscles, and you, become. COVID-19 strengthened those muscles for many, if not all, of us working in PR and crisis communications.

How to Connect:

Website:  https://fish-consulting.com/

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleymdavidson/

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Dave Farrow, CEO of Farrow Communications.

Dave Farrow is best known for his brainpower. Listed twice in the Guinness Book of Records for Greatest Memory, he is first and foremost an entrepreneur who mastered PR to promote his own business. Most PR professionals have a background working in television BUT have no sales or entrepreneurial experience. As for Dave, he took his skill in memory and developed several educational products and used PR as his primary sales tool. His results are impressive.

Dave has personally been on over 2000 media interviews, including multiple appearances on Dr. Oz, Steve Harvey, the Today Show, Fox and Friends, CBS Early Show, Live! With Regis and Kelly, BBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, The CW, QVC, Discovery Channel, Science Channel, and was the star of a CBC documentary. Most recently, Farrow won the $50,000 prize on the new hit show SuperHuman on Fox.

Sales Records: Dave Farrow sold an impressive $170,000 in online products sales as a result of ONE radio interview, and over a quarter million as a result of ONE TV interview. His appearances on Dr. Oz and other prime-time shows have also been highly successful resulting in over $55,000 in sales. This sales volume landed Farrow on the Amazon bestseller list in the category of memory for over a year, a sponsorship deal with Sony Corporation, and several venture-backed infomercials. These endeavors resulted in estimated sales over 10 MILLION WORLDWIDE.

Dave says the secret of his PR success is that he has experience knocking on the media’s door and getting in for over 20 years. His success comes from years of practice selling his own products. For years he supported himself solely from the web sales he received from traffic after media interviews. As a result, he developed the skill of selling in interviews without sounding like a salesperson. Today he runs Farrow Communications and applies this experience to his client’s sales and marketing strategies.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations? 

Your reputation is a real asset or liability. In accounting terms, “Good Will” is essentially reputation and it accounts for much of the new sales a mature company experiences, so it is essential to keep it strong.

In our business, we are often hired to expand a person’s reputation by getting them exposure in the media. However, the type and quality of exposure will determine the results of their campaign and often their career.

Reputation is the intangible force that makes or breaks a company.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

In no particular order, the mistakes I see are: 1. Not being bold enough, not trying hard enough to stand out and be different. 2. Not being aware of the audience to whom they are speaking. Sending mixed messages or missing the talking point. 3. Making it all about them when they should focus on tying into other peoples’ stories, which is the key to growth of reputation. Tie your content and story to what others are talking about. Don’t be an island.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

The key to our social media strategy is to place the client as the expert in the area. This could be a field they wrote the book on or just had experience in, but all the content and focus revolves around being an expert, being professional, and sharing that expertise without talking down to the audience.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

My first advice is to avoid the crisis. Many people try to step into a story because they are passionate about it, which can often get them in trouble, such as for reposting something. This criticism can defy logic as well. I also believe a post does not change the world as much as it is an expression of the individual.

If you are in a crisis the best plan is to be honest. If you made a mistake say why you made the mistake and why it is in keeping with your company’s values. The biggest advice on crisis communications I can give is to have verisimilitude. That is the internal truth about a subject. What I mean by this, is that every statement may not be what people want to hear but as long as it matches your internal values then you do not appear to be a hypocrite.

I decided a long time ago that our company would have a focus on free speech. That every voice deserves to get exposure and that we would, as a result, represent clients from any background or political view (of course this excludes anyone who incites hate or misinformation). As a result, we have had a variety of clients with different backgrounds. If a person says they do not like what one client says, I simply respond by saying it is my job to help them say it and that the public has the right to decide. In this way, I have represented clients from all kinds of backgrounds, but I am keeping true to our original principles or free speech and assisting voices to get exposure.

I believe every company should look at their actions and not necessarily try to appeal to every individual or group in the world. But rather to have a mission and be true to that mission. This way, your communications should match that mission.

When you follow your values instead of the crowd the conversation changes to give a reason behind the crisis.

For example:  If you have a creative person who makes the mistake of hitting a hot button political issue the response might be something like:

“We believe in giving our creative people freedom to be creative, in this case, it went too far and the person has been let go as a result; however we still believe giving creators freedom helps us connect better to our customers in general.”

Most people would not argue with the first statement being laudable and thus the company has verisimilitude.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

I think they can focus on helping point out the goals of the company and that the goal was laudable. They can support the company by separating its core values from the action that was permitted. This is like when a group of people in America do something terrible. People respond by saying that is not what America means to them etc.  That is our natural desire to separate the action from the core values of the nation.

In the same way, a good communications plan can set in stone what a company believes in and stands for. Then, if/when there is a crisis, it is inoculated against that bad news. It can keep its core values and cut out the cancer.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

Executives are key to defining the values of a company. They need to look deeply into the company and decide what it stands for. Is it family-friendly? Is it progressive and rebellious? Is it stable and apolitical? Defining what the company wants to be then communicating it is key.

Also, I would add that communicating your core values without words is most important. Communicate the core values of a business with actions. If you are working on diversity, then work on it. Put the work into hiring and internal development. If you are saying you care about gender relations, then implement a plan to help female employees move forward in the company after having children (the most common reason why women do not reach executive levels). In general offer things like flex time, flex pay, or other modern adaptations as solutions. Take the right actions first, then tell people what you did.

The plan needs to fit the company and be in tune with its values. As Yoda says “do or do not, there is no try”

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

I think it’s getting harder to be fake and that can be good. But it’s also harder to be private. Social media culture has given everyone the right to be a virtual paparazzi. I am not happy about this change, but it is here to stay for now. There may be a future law or cultural shift, that values privacy more, but so far Andy Warhol was right about everyone getting their 15 minutes of fame. Whether they like it or not.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

I am not at liberty to talk about specific client situations. I keep that confidential. There are still some things in the world that are private.

How to Connect:

Website:  https://farrowcommunications.com/

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/davefarrowmemory/

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Lou Laste, CEO of Brandware Group.

Lou is a diverse executive with more than 25 years’ experience in corporate and agency public relations. He has been a senior leader for some of the world’s largest corporations, including Bell Atlantic, Verizon, and Cox Automotive. Laste has led PR organizations in sales, product, brand, philanthropy, and technology.  He has managed strategies ranging from startups, brand launches, corporate restructuring, crisis communication, and community relations.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations?

A reputation is a sum of your actions.  Everything you do affects it.  Protecting, defending, and polishing the reputation of a company or brand is the essence of true public relations. It is above and beyond marketing or the amplification of marketing and it separates paid from earned. A well-managed brand reputation allows a company’s marketing dollars to be spent more effectively.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

Marketing that does not reflect diversity is one of the biggest and most avoidable mistakes. Overall, paying attention to culture and society is critical online. Don’t post a “Time to Party” ad in the middle of a pandemic.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

More than ever, social media is one of the most important elements of reputation management. Establishing and communicating a company’s voice in social media, apart from social marketing, is a tool that works over time. And on the flip side, a reputation can be severely damaged in very short order through social media when a crisis goes viral.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

The first thing to do is to make sure whatever the offending material might be is taken down, immediately, if possible. Next, it is important to NOT respond before knowing the facts. Gather all the information, quickly. Then develop a response. If it truly is a mistake that requires an apology, do it fast and do not equivocate. And then do everything possible to prevent a follow-up mistake.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

It’s important for employees to know that a crisis is a time in which the communications professionals are the only people speaking for a company. One voice is key. Even an employee thinking they are helping by making a Facebook post to friends in support of the company can jeopardize the efforts of the PR team. When a crisis is over, showing general support and pride for the company can be useful as long as it does not re-debate the issue.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

All companies should ensure their communications team has a crisis plan and that it is up to date. Ensure the team knows who oversees all communications, internal and external. And the crisis communications lead(s) must have complete access to the facts, to the resources inside the company, a direct line to senior leadership, and empowerment. Speaking with one voice is very important, even if it is multiple people. One consistent message is critical.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

The need for companies to bring in communications professionals and empower them with a seat at the table is far greater than it ever has been. In a world of 24-hour news and unlimited social media, companies cannot leave their reputations unprotected.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

I prefer to not revisit or recount any client or company’s previous crisis. I’ve been involved with a number of issues that resulted in loss of life of customers and of company employees. In a major crisis like these, immediately establishing a crisis communications center and team is the first step. In lesser issues, such as calls for a boycott for advertising on a controversial platform, it is important to have a plan in place and a partnership with related company departments in order to work quickly to diffuse the situation. Get the right people in the room. Get the facts. Evaluate the company position and policies, and make a decision. Then agree on a statement and course of action. Communicate it, quickly. Keep it short and simple. Do not add material for media to embellish. And stay off camera if possible.

How to Connect:

Website:  https://www.brandwarepr.com/

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/loulaste/

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Diana Bianchini founder and President of Di Moda Public Relations.

Di Moda Public Relations is a lifestyle communications agency established in 2002, currently ranked one of the top PR firms in LA and the nation by Upcity.com. With over two decades of solid industry experience, and a 18-year company track record of business success, Bianchini is a significant asset to brands, startups, innovators and disruptors looking to grow and expand business in authentic and meaningful ways.

Bianchini began her career working in Fashion PR for top-name brands like Hugo Boss and Stuart Weitzman. Since starting Di Moda PR, Bianchini and her team have successfully introduced, launched and boosted dozens of lifestyle brands into the market including Gilt Groupe, Handsome Coffee Roasters, Asprey, HELM, Deus ex Machina, and many more. Working at the intersection of lifestyle-meets-culture, Bianchini holds an impressive roster of forward-thinking clients in an array of verticals including art, architecture, design, hospitality, and non-profit. In 2017, Bianchini’s agency handled the PR campaign for the documentary film based on the life of the late Kevyn Aucoin; Beauty & The Beast In Me, which scored a feature in the coveted September issue (2017) of Vogue Magazine and went on to win an Emmy in 2018.

Bianchini’s strategic approach goes beyond pitching a single product or client. She is a pro-active critical thinker and ideas creator, skilled in developing engaging stories and innovative communications to drive new interest in lifestyle-based subcultures. She has helped shape  a number of emerging lifestyles with the help of strong media and influencer relationships.

She currently sits on the Board of Project Angel Food and lends her expertise to a variety of charitable organizations. Bianchini is credited for leveraging millions of dollars in donations to mostly Los Angeles-based nonprofits. In addition to volunteering her time, Bianchini also mentors youth, and speaks to student and entrepreneurial audiences about public relations, social impact, female empowerment in business, and entrepreneurship.  In 2019, she was the keynote speaker for a Women’s Group event hosted by UCLA and spoke on a panel at the Female Empowerment Conference in early 2020. Bianchini regularly contributes to Forbes as a Business Council Member.

Bianchini is a UCLA graduate and endowed scholar. She lives with her family in Santa Monica, California.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations?

Reputation management (much like public relations) can include a lot of different services (and definitions). Within the digital space, it can directly relate to search results but perhaps the foundation of reputation in my industry started with a company or individual offline. Both the offline and online spaces are extremely important and can include communicating social responsibility, company values, earned media placement, and brand alignments. One of the first things a person or company does to research the “best of” or find more information on a specific brand/company, is search the internet. How you show up in both spaces are key factors to success.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

A company that does not have a strong line item for strategic marketing, communications and public relations in its business plan/model, is making a big mistake in 2020. Companies that enter the market (online) still believing if you build it, they will come (or find you on the internet) are setting themselves up for failure. Mistakes like these can be avoided by hiring experts that have successful track records.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

Social media and how it is can be used by a company and leadership within a company is extremely important and should always be included in the reputation management strategy.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

This is a hard one to answer specifically because a “crisis online” can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. I would recommend, generally speaking, to quickly contact your team in charge of communications, PR and reputation to guide and consult on the situation. It is also important to remember that this team cannot give legal advice.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

It is the responsibility of the company’s leadership to swiftly communicate with the employees on what has happened, how it is being resolved, and advise the team (can involve sample communication and bringing in other types of professionals) on how they can best assist during the time period. It is important to get face time with your employees when discussing a company crisis.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

Hard to advise because there are many different kinds of PR crises. Overall, it’s important to have a team of experts consulting on best actions to resolve.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

I do believe it’s getting a bit more complex as we add more and more platforms to do business on and watch the digital space grow exponentially in all ways imaginable. Also, news travels at the speed of light. Things seemed to happen a bit slower just five years ago.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it? Instead of naming one specific situation, I would rather speak more generally. Protecting my clients’ reputations while helping them grow their businesses and profiles is a job that takes skill, intelligence, solid relationships, trust, and experience. It’s what I have been doing daily, and with a successful track record, for almost 20 years. Each crisis will have its own special challenges. As a company, it is important to hire an agency / professional that understands what your business needs before, after, and during a crisis.

How to Connect:

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with  James Lukaszewski, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA.  Jim is widely known in PR circles (and beyond) as America’s Crisis Guru® and is a globally recognized master practitioner of the modern discipline of crisis communications, a field he helped pioneer and continues to shape.

Lukaszewwski was recently named among the Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior for 2013 by Trust Across America. He is profiled in Living Legends of American Public Relations; listed in Corporate Legal Times as one of “28 Experts to Call When All Hell Breaks Loose”; and cited in PR Week as one of 22 “crunch-time counselors who should be on the speed dial in a crisis.”

Penn State University invited Lukaszewski to speak as one of three panelists on the topic of “Integrity in Times of Crisis” during its Bronstein Lecture in Ethics and Public Relations in February 2013. In April 2014, he was recognized by the Minnesota Chapter of Public Relations Society of America with the Donald G. Padilla Distinguished Practitioner Award for his role as a PR educator, ethicist, and ambassador.

Lukaszewski has spent four decades advising, coaching, and counseling the men and women who run very large corporations and organizations to get through and resolve extraordinary problems and critical high-profile circumstances. His broad-based experience ranges from media-initiated investigations to product recalls and plant closings, from criminal litigation to takeovers. He is frequently retained by senior management to directly intervene and manage the resolution of corporate problems and bad news. Almost half of his practice involves civil and criminal litigation. Lukaszewski is a teacher, thinker, coach, and trusted advisor with the ability to help executives look at problems from a variety of sensible, constructive, principled perspectives. He teaches clients how to take highly focused, ethically appropriate action. He has personally counseled, coached, and guided thousands of executives in organizations large and small from many cultures representing government; the military and defense industry; the agriculture, banking, computer, financial, food processing, health care, insurance, paper, real estate development, and telecommunications industries; trade and professional associations; and non-profit agencies.

You’ve been in the crisis response business for more than 40 years. Some call you America’s Crisis Guru. What do you believe, think, or advise that is different from what we hear from most crisis advisors?

Over the years I’ve developed three fundamental beliefs which guide my thinking and the advice I give. First, I believe that all questionable, inappropriate, unethical, unconscionable, immoral, predatory and victim-producing behaviors are intentional. An adult chooses to cross a line, and if it works once, the behavior continues, and expands.

I also believe that all ethical, moral, compassionate, decent, civil and lawful behaviors are also intentional. There is always a clear choice and it is always up to the individual, often the leader to choose the course, or through silence, to signal other less ethical behaviors.

Third, I also believe that behaviors that vilify, damage, demean, dismiss, diminish, humiliate, insult, disrespect and disparage that exceed the boundaries of decency, civility and integrity are, per se unethical.

The two most powerful forces in resolving crisis situations, preserving, protecting and defending reputation are apology, which I define as the atomic energy of empathy. Apology tends to stop bad things from starting and starting bad things to stop. And empathy which I define as positive, constructive actions and deeds that demonstrate decency, civility and integrity while speaking louder than words possibly can. Deeds rather than words.

How do you define a crisis?

The crisis definition I settled on years ago and remains powerfully useful and focused: a people stopping, product stopping, show-stopping, reputation redefining trust-busting event that creates victims and/or explosive visibility.

The most powerful word in this definition is the word victims. In my experience, you can blow things up, burn things down and destroy a lot of property, but if you fail to create victims, it’s just a bad day for someone’s budget, rather than a crisis. The point of this definition is to stay focused on the real impact of the crisis: victims. It is about whether or not the boss gets to keep his/her job and responding to victims’ needs is paramount.

Always start from a management perspective. My fundamental philosophy about advising in every circumstance, but especially in crisis is that all problems, questions, comments, adversity, and crises are management problems before they are any other kind of problem. One of the biggest mistakes we make in communications is that we tend to make so many problems into crises. It may well turn out that way, but the main lesson is you need to start from a management perspective recognizing that communications is a crucial facet of responding, but there are so many of us that constantly relearn, that management rarely starts with communication, they start someplace else and often wind up never getting ready in time for an effective early response. This is the most crucial and irretrievable error management makes.

The error so many communicators make is to call problems crises. Few problems ever are or will become crises. But every crisis, by definition, is a serious problem.

Every genuine crisis threatens the job security of the person in charge, almost never PR advisors and other staff functions. But usually, the boss’ discussions at the supper table at home are quite different from what’s talked about in the office. With all this stress and pressure, bosses have trouble hearing us because we so often talk about what they could care less about.

Recognize this part of leadership and be prepared to ask some questions about it. Yes, you can be fired for this, but generally not. If you can’t help manage this part of leadership in crisis, what good are you, really?

Keep it simple, keep it direct, make it about victims, and management leadership.

Frankly, if all you have is advice on communications, you will not be called very often. Crises and victim creation are huge embarrassments for those in charge. They’re dealing with all of that personal stuff while you’re talking about op eds, tweets and other stuff. Leaders are frightened.

Let’s face it, all leaders and managers think they’re great communicators. In many ways, it’s actually quite true. Whenever I’m speaking to groups of colleagues, I always ask the question of the group, “Please raise your hand if you work for a boss who thinks they’re a bad communicator.” Gets a big laugh, if there are more than a hundred people at least one hand goes up, more laughter.

But the lesson to remember is if communication is all you’ve got, your boss is already calling on others long before they talk to you: their mothers, members of their cohort, PR people they’ve known in their past, lots of others.

And when you do get there, they are not learning from what you talk about, they’re actually mentally debating with you as to whether they could have thought of something more important and better than you can. Every boss at whatever level thinks they’re great communicators. That’s tough competition no matter how good you are. Even tougher than attorneys.

You talk frequently about the realities of crisis situations, what are those you talk about the most?

I refer to these as crisis truisms, meaning just that. These things are working from the moment a crisis begins.

• Bad news always ripens badly, these situations will get worse, sometimes a lot worse before resolution becomes apparent.
• Every moment of indecision creates unseen but avoidable collateral damage that will hurt you sooner rather than later.
• There’s no such thing as 20/20 hindsight because there’s no such thing as 20/20 foresight.
• Silence is the most toxic, reputation-damaging strategy. It’s unexplainable, unbelievable, and unrecoverable because silence creates permanent suspicion, and management is generally considered untruthful.
• Critics and victims accumulate.
• There will always be bellyachers, bloviators, gripers, second-guessers and backbench complainers, many coming from our own profession.
• Once a critic, enemy, or victim, always a critic, enemy, or victim.
• Speed beats smart every time. Doing something now is always more beneficial than doing something better later. The longer you wait, the more likely you will be facing these old questions rather than explaining what you’re actually doing. “What did you know and when did you know it?” “So much for holding off and waiting for the smart solutions.” Nobody will care.

What qualifies as a victim in your strategy?

There are three kinds of victims: people, animals, and living systems (a lake, a forest, the atmosphere, someone’s backyard). The victim dimension rarely seems to concern crisis managers or communicators early enough when it should be the primary concern that drives response.

What is your response strategy, from the start?

I call it the grand strategy.  Here it is in summary and then with explanations.

• Stop the production of victims
• Manage the victim dimension
• Communicate internally intensively
• Notify those indirectly affected
• Manage the new media, legacy media, bloggers, guessers, bellyachers, people smarter than you

Step 1: Stop the production of victims. Until you do the situation simply gets worse and worse.

Step 2: Prepare to manage the victim dimension. Leaving victim management to the victims themselves, which often happens, or to outsiders leaves you open for immediate and extraordinary criticism, often viewed as an irritating distraction by those to blame. Keep in mind that the greatest threat to a company’s reputation is how victims are treated and cared for. Victims are the permanent keepers of a company’s reputation and credibility. The longer you wait, the harsher you will be dealt with.

Step 3: Communicate internally immediately. Yes, there may be a great deal of external media attention that needs to be dealt with, but what we know about crisis reporting is that most of it is completely predictable. If your planning for crisis response is scenario-based, a part of that preparation is anticipating what various public responses are going to be. One of the major holes in the response strategy is failing to keep the people most important to you and to your reputation up to speed: those who work for you, those who collaborate with you, those who share your vision, those who perhaps provide components for the things you produce.

The reality of the environment of crisis communication is that failure to communicate with key internal audiences authorizes them to communicate on their own. In a crisis we know so little for so long yet we are expected to speak immediately. Communicating promptly, briefly and frequently, internally keeps your base audiences more relaxed and, frankly, less likely to make things up. Remember once somebody makes something up and it gets currency, you own it whether you want to or not.

Step 4: Notify the indirectly affected people. These are partners, collaborators, vendors, anyone who has a problem potentially because you have a problem. The rationale is the same These brief communications that are also available publicly tend to settle people down and solve the biggest problem of all in reputation management during a crisis, communication that is more contemporary with events and responses is more credible.

Remember, your response can be perfect technically, operationally, in many respects, but if you bungle the communications part from the beginning, this is how your response will be remembered and rereported, sometimes for many years into the future.

Step 5: Deal with and manage the self-appointed, self-anointed. This is the new media, the old media, the bloviators, the bellyachers, the bloggers, those who appoint themselves, which includes the news media, to cover your story and talk about it, interpret it and find ways to criticize.

In a crisis, you must manage your own destiny. You need to relentlessly correct, comment on, and clarify errors in reporting, even in blogging and bellyaching. Reporters usually never look back at their own errors, and when they do look back they will reexplore the errors they reported earlier, and find new ones to criticize.

It’s your destiny, if you fail to manage it, more than likely, someone you would prefer not to, will.

What if you don’t know that much about what’s going on in the early going?

We never know what’s going on in a serious way at the very beginning, unless we trigger the negative event ourselves. That’s why it’s a crisis. The reason for my strategic approach is so that we have something to talk about from the beginning: Our strategy and the things we are doing that are concrete and specific to move the process forward. Every one of these steps actually begins to reduce the interest and the inflammability of a crisis situation because we are dealing with the most important aspects of a problem, knowing very little. We are ready for the worst.

The metaphor I like comes from military medicine, the concept of the golden hour. After World War II, U.S. military medicine focused on additional preparations to reduce the loss of life in combat. They determined that the greatest loss of life actually came from the wounded bleeding to death on the way to treatment in the back of a bouncing jeep or ambulance. About that same time a company in Connecticut invented a machine called a helicopter and they actually gave a number of the machines to the military service and said, “Figure out how to use this so we can sell you more.” The army military medicine structure looked at the helicopter as an extraordinary blessing. If you remove the gun turrets from the skids and put litters on those skids, you can transport patients extremely quickly and safely from the battlefield.

When the Korean war broke out, the army medical corps made one additional change and that was they created the concept of the mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) everyone knows what those are. But the helicopter transport concept and putting a MASH at the battle line made them really powerful life-saving approaches. By the end of the Korean war, no matter how badly you were wounded, if you arrived alive at a MASH, the odds were you would leave the MASH alive.

Your reputation is in the same circumstance moving to the crisis response process with about the same timeline.

What are the management behavior patterns that perpetuate trouble during crisis response?

I call it profiles in failure. Sometimes the only way to help leaders avoid embarrassment, humiliating visibility, enormous litigation, and just plain stupidity is to illustrate dramatically the pattern of behaviors and attitudes that lead to catastrophic reputational trouble, during readiness training. These behaviors can be easily recognized and their impact predicted. If you are looking for trouble, here’s the way to quickly multitask your way into long-term difficulty.

1.     Silence:

The most toxic strategy possible. Makes you look like a perpetrator, whether true or not. There is no credible way to explain silence in the face of crisis. Silence is the most frequent top executive career-killer in crisis situations. Crisis causes so many counterproductive, aggressively negative and dumb unanswerable reactions. Ultimately, the collateral damage from silence accumulates to where it becomes the root cause of your problems rather than what’s actually going on, even if your response is otherwise technically done perfect.

2.     Stalling:

Speed beats smart every time. Failure to act immediately, even incorrectly, is impossible to explain or apologize for. Doing nothing, even for what appear to be good reasons, is never believably explainable. Stalling begins the moment all the big shots huddle in a room, close the door, and try to figure things out by themselves, while we wait outside.

3.     Denial:

Refuse to accept the fact that something bad has happened and that there may be victims or other direct effects that require prompt public acknowledgment.

4.     Victim Confusion:

Irritable reaction to reporters, angry neighbors, and victims’ families when they call asking for help, information, explanation, or apology. “Hey! We’re victims too.” “What about all those baseball jerseys we bought for the kids?” How many baseball jerseys equal the death of a child?

5.     Testosterosis:

Look for ways to hit back, rather than to deal with the problem.  Refuse to give in, refuse to respect those who may have a difference of opinion or a legitimate issue. Slap back first.

6.     Arrogance:

Reluctance to apologize, express concern or empathy, or to take appropriate responsibility because, “If we do that, we’ll be liable,” or, “We’ll look like sissies,” or, “We’ll set a precedent,” or, “There will be copycats.”

7.     Search for the Guilty:

Shift blame anywhere you can while digging into the organization, looking for traitors, turncoats, troublemakers, those who push back, and the unconvinceables.

8.     Fear of the Media:

As it becomes more clear that the problem is at least partly real, the media begin asking, “What did you know, and when did you know it?”, “What have you done, and when did you do it?”, and other humiliating, embarrassing, and damaging questions for which there are no really good, truthful answers anymore because you have stalled so long.

9.     Whining:

Head down, finger in your navel, shuffling around, whining, and complaining about how bad your luck is, about being a victim of the media, zealous do-gooders, wacko-activists, or people don’t know anything; about how people you don’t respect have power; and, that you “don’t get credit” for whatever good you’ve already contributed. The louder and longer the whining, the more guilty the leadership looks, especially to victims. And they usually are.

Execute one, some or all of these behaviors in any order and I guarantee trouble, serious reputation problems, and brand damage. By the time you recover – if you do – look for some career-defining moments including involuntary departure, and a new team may replace you and yours.

How do you know what to do if your company has never experienced this kind of problem with the dimensions of a crisis before?

All crises are really event patterns we can recognize if we are ready to. This should be part of your readiness process, identifying likely scenarios and literally working them through as exercises with management. This is actually a pretty enjoyable process for them because this is important and they all have a role to play, which they need to rehearse. By the same token, there is a pattern of behavior and decisions and action that if undertaken promptly, or at least as soon as possible, can begin to mitigate the kinds of problems that develop as a result of inaction, indecision, and imprecision in management and lack of readiness.

Remember, all crises ripen badly.

What do you believe are the most important ingredients of a successful response?

The two most powerful ingredients of crisis response are empathy and apology. To repeat myself, you can actually do a technically perfect response to a crisis, and many prepared companies do. But if you bungle the empathy factor, this is reputation damage that will live long, no matter how perfectly your response was executed. The key thinking here is to recognize that apology, which is shunned from the beginning, is really a leadership concept rather than just a legal concept. Yes, all apologies have legal consequences, but ultimately from a communication point of view, those consequences are predominantly positive. Bosses and lawyers are trying to avoid them.

I define apology as the atomic energy of empathy. Apologies stop bad things from starting and starting bad things to stop. I define empathy as positive, constructive actions and deeds that demonstrate civility, decency and integrity while speaking louder than words possibly can. The key concept here again is that empathy and apology are leadership concepts beyond just legal consequences. The fact is you’re going to be sued if there are victims. Hire more attorneys. But if you really want to get these things under control and put them away, learn how to be empathetic and caring as leaders and advisors of organizations.

How do you fix broken trust?

Real reputation repair depends fundamentally on rebuilding trust. This too is an essential process that can be learned and adopted as part of the response strategy. I refer to it in two ways, one is a process called seeking forgiveness, but the same process applies to rebuilding trust. It involves initiating very early in the process of responding nine crucial steps, which ultimately, in my experience all have to be undertaken eventually if the issues surrounding a crisis event to be fully rectified.

Step #1     Candor: Outward recognition, through promptly verbalized public acknowledgment, that a problem exists; that people or groups of people, the environment, or the public trust are affected; and that something will be promptly done to remediate the situation.

Step #2     Extreme Empathy/Apology: Verbalized or written statement of personal regret, remorse, and sorrow, acknowledging personal responsibility for having injured, insulted, failed or wronged another, humbly asking for forgiveness in exchange for more appropriate future behavior and to make amends in return.

Step #3     Explanation (no matter how silly, stupid, or embarrassing the problem-causing error was): Promptly and briefly explain why the problem occurred and the known underlying reasons or behaviors that led to the situation (even if we have only partial early information).

Step #4     Affirmation: Talk about what you’ve learned from the situation and specifically how it will influence your future behavior. Unconditionally commit to regularly report additional information until it is all out or until no public interest remains.

Step #5     Declaration: A public commitment and discussion of specific, positive steps to be taken to conclusively address the issues and resolve the situation.

Step #6     Contrition: The continuing verbalization of regret, empathy, sympathy, even embarrassment.  Take appropriate responsibility for having allowed the situation to occur in the first place, whether by omission, commission, negligence or stupidity.

Step #7     Consultation: Promptly ask for help and counsel from “victims,” government, the community of origin, independent observers, and even from your opponents.

Directly involve and request the participation of those most directly affected to help develop more permanent solutions, more acceptable behaviors, and to design principles and approaches that will preclude similar problems from re-occurring.

Step #8    Commitment: Publicly set your goals at zero. Zero errors, zero defects, zero dumb decisions, and zero problems. Publicly promise that, to the best of your ability, situations like this will be permanently prevented.

Step #9     Restitution: Find a way to quickly pay the price.  Make or require restitution. Go beyond community and victim expectations, and what would be required under normal circumstances to remediate the problem. Pay more now or much more later. 

But the big question is, how do you get enough attention early enough in crisis to get all these things understood, much less underway?

The Answer is relatively simple and in two parts. Part one: stop talking about crisis management, it’s a PR term that keeps making all public relations people look like chicken littles, screaming that the sky is falling. Instead, and we learned this in our experience in recovering from 9/11, the management term for what we’re talking about is readiness. When you frame handling adverse situations as readiness, it’s an entirely different conversation. The moment you mention crisis management, executives respond immediately, defensively, something like, “Well, we can’t prepare for everything. Why do we need to do something like this for something that will clearly never happen to us?” Talking about crisis management is always a negative, defensive, sometimes irritating discussion for leadership. The larger the organization, the larger and more powerful the leadership, the more omnipotent they tend to feel when it comes to negative events of any kind. When talking about readiness we can explore a menu of options to be ready for various circumstances, rather than constantly debating whether some likely adverse situation will ever happen or not.

Part two: avoid the deadly mistake of beginning preparation for crises without bringing the boss in from the very start. Believe me, when I tell you that if you skip this step you can be replaced. This is a crucial step in building the trust of those you hope to persuade and advise.  Very few situations that we currently call crises will redefine a leader’s career, much less create victims. More crises plans (perhaps most) never truly get off the ground because they were started without senior-level input, progressed without senior level guidance, including stopping that process. The typical management response to crisis: huddling in a room, sometimes for hours, is going to happen. Only the boss can shorten this process, especially if he’s in on the preparations.

When you study crisis response, and all of us have to, the real response has little to do with the news media, it has to do with executive behavior, response to career-defining moments, and creating the elements of failure described earlier. Focusing on readiness will be one of the key ways you become a trusted strategic advisor, well before emergencies occur.

How to Connect:

Website:  https://www.e911.com/

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameslukaszewski

Books:  https://www.e911.com/books/ 

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Debra Caruso Marrone owner and President of DJC Communications.

Debra Caruso Marrone, president and owner of DJC Communications (founded in 1991), has more than 30 years of experience in the media field and has directed campaigns for corporate entities, large non-profit organizations, unions, trade organizations and leading universities.

Debra is a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Press Club and represents the organization as its public relations consultant. A graduate of Fordham University with a degree in journalism, she was previously vice president at Sheehan Communications, Inc.

A known expert on the media, she has been quoted in The New York Times, Marketwatch, ABC News Radio, metro US, WNYC, E-Commerce Times, Arizona Republic, Forbes.com, Christian Science Monitor and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel among others. Featured in The Hill and Huffington Post, Debra has also written articles on public relations in such publications as BullDog Reporter, Ragan.com, O’Dwyer’s PR Magazine and CommPro.biz on such topics as advice for the presidential candidates.

President of the Fordham College Alumni Association, Debra is author of the book, Fordham University & the United States: A History. She and her husband, Mike Marrone, live in Glen Cove, Long Island.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations?

All entities, from Mom and Pop retail operations to Fortune 100 companies, rely on reputation management for success. Reputation is how an entity is perceived by its customers, employees, vendors, and all constituents. Without a positive, forward-facing status in one’s realm, businesses will suffer. Public relations efforts support reputation management with proactive, image-enhancing measures like branding, promotional campaigns, media relations and crisis communications.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

Too many entities, even the largest, most public companies, make the mistake of not perfecting their websites. Some of the largest retailers have websites that fail, that don’t offer ease of use, or cause shoppers to run into obstacles. They don’t have customer service reps at the ready to solve issues.

All companies should invest in web development to allow customers to do business with them and to learn about what they do, all of which should be consistent with their branding and operation.

This has been especially apparent during the COVID-19 crisis. Retailers and restaurants that could not adapt and pursue online ordering with curbside pick-up did not succeed.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

Social media supports reputation management. Every success a company has and every service it offers should be posted to social media because in most instances today, social sites are the face of the company and the first point of connection to customers. Social sites should be updated constantly and monitored consistently to ensure that all messaging is positive. If there is negative messaging from an unhappy customer, for instance, that should be addressed as quickly as possible.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

Assess before acting. It is crucial that management, with the support of a PR team, refrain from taking action until they have investigated the crisis, how it occurred and what should be done to solve it. Once the solution is determined, the problem should be confronted head-on and the company should let the public know what action it is taking and why. All of this must be done as quickly as possible.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

Employees must always be on board. It is up to management to communicate with employees to let them know what crisis has occurred and how the company plans to deal with it. Once determined, employees should be briefed and instructed on what to say to customers and what not to say. Most importantly, all employees should be advised not make statements – to the public or to the media – without the authorization of management.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

An action plan should always be in place in case of a crisis. Once management is informed of a problem, it should commence immediate communication with a PR team and with attorneys, if necessary. Those teams will advise management on how to proceed. The system through which all of this occurs should be known to all entities and each person involved should know to be ready at any time of day or night.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

Definitely more difficult because media deadlines are constant and there is no time of day or night that is immune to criticism or error. Negative feedback, for instance, can be posted to social media at any time. Plus, there are many more outlets available to those will spread negative information. Instead of one hole in the dike, there are hundreds, which makes plugging the holes that much more difficult.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

My most far-reaching and perhaps biggest crisis communications challenge would have been many years ago when I was a young PR person working for the union that represented New York City police officers. As with today, there were instances when officers were accused of acting in such a way that would cause harm to members of the public. It was very difficult to reconcile those who acted inappropriately with the fact that so many police officers do their best to protect the public in a very difficult environment, which is the tactic that we took. Having that job would be much more difficult today because of video which leaves little question as to whether an officer’s life is threatened in a particular situation, offering potential (though certainly not definitive) justification.

How to Connect:

Website: www.djccommunications.com

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/debracaruso/   

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Justin Meise, founder and President of Buttonwood Communications Group.

A seasoned and versatile public relations consultant, Justin has provided strategic communications counsel to a diverse range of financial organizations from niche players to household names such as Citibank, Merrill Lynch, Prudential Securities, iShares, BNY Mellon’s Pershing division, and FTSE Russell.

Over his 20-year career, Justin has established an impressive track record for designing and managing successful programs to promote products, services, and transform brands for many B2C and B2B companies.

Justin holds a Bachelor of Arts, English Literature from Marist College and taught English while earning his Master of Arts, Liberal Studies at Fordham University. He regularly lectures at Marist College, working with the advanced communications classes on the evaluation of best practices in public relations. An avid, instrument-rated pilot, Justin is a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and Angel Flight Northeast.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations?

Since we specialize in the financial industry, generally we focus on organizations rather than individuals, but the concept applies equally. We view reputation management as a continuous process of monitoring and managing the perception of a brand in line with an established set of attributes.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

Without a doubt: Being the passenger, not the pilot. So frequently and for a variety of reasons, companies simply neglect their online presence. As a result, consumers and media are left to conceive their own narrative for a company – or worse, embrace one that a company’s antagonist (competitor, plaintiff, etc.) has cast.

It is absolutely vital that a company clearly defines its mission, vision and values and then communicates consistently and effectively across all forms of communications. Quick, simple example: a small banking client was being called predatory and disreputable. It was an easy narrative to foist on them since their website had no mission statement, no mention of their values and little information about the company’s founding and operations. They didn’t even identify their management team. They were not in command of telling their story to their detriment.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

It’s a little different in financial services from some other industries because this is a highly regulated space. Many financial firms prefer to reduce the compliance risk and have strict guidelines limiting the use of social media. As a result, a lot of social media usage in financial services would be appalling to a consumer brand because most content has to be written in advance and then approved before it can be posted/Tweeted. There’s little authenticity, and in many ways it’s just another form of distribution, not genuine engagement. That’s a white paper in itself. All that said, social media is a really important channel and certainly some executives understand that and use it effectively.

One of the key points we make to socially averse financial firms is that while their immediate audience (e.g., pension funds or ultra-high net worth investors) are likely not using Twitter to find or engage with an investment manager or other service provider, many journalists are avid users. So, we view building relationships with reporters via social as integral with a PR strategy.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

After taking a breath, start monitoring and try to assess all of the issues. Gather as much information as possible on the drivers of the crisis, its magnitude, the antagonists, the media reaction, and so on.

Ideally, the company has a crisis plan that includes protocols for convening decision-makers and at least a basic playbook for an initial response. Reporters’ deadlines are short, especially on breaking stories, so you can’t expect to take 24-48 hours to develop a comprehensive plan. You need to have foundational messaging and basic holding statements ready to go.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis? 

First, don’t share any information outside the organization – even if it’s well-intentioned. Second, communicate to the team that’s managing the process – they need information so they can see the full scope of the crisis and all the players.

Employees can also help by assisting with monitoring such as customer, vendor/counterparty, or employee reactions.  Eventually – hopefully quickly – there will be a Letter from the CEO or a script with a tough Q&A for use with clients and prospects – stick to it and be consistent.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

If any have never dealt with a real PR crisis before, it’s a good idea to have a communications pro do a session on crisis management with the team to help them understand their vulnerabilities and blind spots. If the company doesn’t have a crisis communications plan in place, it’s also a good idea to get the fundamentals in place.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

Definitely harder because there are so many more forms of communication. As a result, there is more to monitor and manage and far more platforms from which a disgruntled customer or employee or other antagonist can strike.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

I’ve been involved in many from being outside communications counsel to one of the five banks in the National Mortgage Settlement after the financial crisis to handling a 5-6 year run of lawsuits against a hedge fund client. The most entertaining story to tell (now, not at the time) involved a small hedge fund client who came under attack from an employee that was fired from a company in their portfolio. The fired employee blamed the hedge fund for the loss of his job and set out to ruin their reputation by employing some inspired tactics. He created a parallel website to hijack the official company website which he populated with false and derogatory information as well as redirected links to porn sites. He created fake Wikipedia pages on the company and most of the management team describing them as criminals.

Every crisis is unique, but you apply the same tools, techniques, and playbook – you just have to adapt the situation. Critically, for every crisis, you must gather information, pinpoint the core issues and antagonists, develop response messaging, and then determine the best tactics for communicating with your target audiences. Sometimes, a crisis lasts a week, other times you battle it for years. However, the fundamentals and discipline of crisis communications remains.

How to Connect:

Website:  www.buttonwoodpr.com

LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/in/justinmeise

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Patricia Bernstein, president and principal of Bernstein & Associates, Inc.

A native Texan, Patricia Bernstein was born in El Paso and raised in Dallas. She attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and graduated with a Degree of Distinction in American Studies. She was named to Phi Beta Kappa in her junior year. Following her graduation, she taught English at Smith for four years.

Ms. Bernstein founded Bernstein & Associates, Inc., in 1983. She is also a writer and historian who has published numerous articles in newspapers and magazines as varied as Texas Monthly, The Smithsonian, and Cosmopolitan. She has published three books. The first, with Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, was Having a Baby: Mothers Tell Their Stories, a collection of first-person accounts of childbirth from the 1890s to the 1990s.

Her second book was The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP, with Texas A & M University Press. The most recent book is Ten Dollars to Hate: The Texas Man Who Fought the Klan, also published with Texas A & M. This is the story of the 1920s Ku Klux Klan, and the young Texas district attorney who became the first prosecutor in the country to convict Klansmen for a brutal assault and get them serious prison time.

Ten Dollars to Hate: The Texas Man Who Fought the Klan was named a 2017 finalist for the Scholarly Book Category award of the Texas Institute of Letters. Ten Dollars to Hate was also recently included in the Austin American Statesman’s list of the best books about Texas. Texas Independence Week: 53 of the best books about Texas. “This Houston writer’s main subject is Gov. Dan Moody, who won the first punitive cases as a prosecutor against the KKK in the 1920s, but it reminds us also of the recurring cycles of hate in this country.”

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations?

Reputation management has to do with managing the way you are perceived—in large part, the way you are perceived online.  It differs from public relations, which is the proactive effort to convey a positive view of a company or individual to the public, current, and potential customers and other important groups.  Reputation management involves trying to manage and shape the image of a company or individual that develops apart from deliberate pr efforts.  But effective pr builds “immunity” against potential damage to reputation.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

The biggest mistakes usually are:

• Failing to monitor the view of you or your company that is evolving online.
• Failing to analyze and engage with negative criticism quickly and appropriately.
• Overreacting to criticism and negative attacks by unimportant actors who aren’t influencing anyone. In our world today there are too many people who are motivated by free-floating anger that randomly attaches itself to various objects.  Often they undo themselves by the irrational, over-the-top nature of their attacks.  You see this phenomenon frequently, for instance, in restaurant and hotel reviews.  Everyone recognizes and discounts the congenital gripers.
• Failing to take all factors into consideration in planning a response.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

Social media is the primary platform these days for reputation management.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

The first thing to do is analyze the situation quickly to determine if an immediate response needs to be made and, if so, to make it as soon as possible, even if it’s only to say, “We are aware of the problem and are putting everyone’s safety/well-being/economic security/customer satisfaction first, as we always do.  As soon as we have more information, we will provide updates…”  And then do so!

The worst thing a company can do is to minimize, fail to show empathy and/or try to cover up the problem and hide it from the relevant public.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

Messaging about the crisis should be united, consistent, reasonable, and rational.  The “one voice” message should be shared with employees so they can adopt it or at least refer inquiries to designated spokespeople.  Employees must realize that they now represent the company more than ever before, and the company will be judged by their behavior.  Spreading rumors internally or externally can be fatal.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

Anyone who may ever serve as spokesperson for the company should have media training and should be put in the spotlight from time to time to gain experience speaking for the company.  Part of holding a position of responsibility in a company of any size is engaging in advance planning for unpleasant eventualities.  What do we do if a hurricane looms?  How do we ensure that no employee who has been dismissed has continued access to the facility or to the material on the company computers?  How do we deal with faulty products—or products mistakenly perceived to be faulty?  What do we do if one of our products or the actions of one of our employees harms someone?  How do we assess a threat made against the company or one of its employees?  The buck still stops at the top, and it’s hard and usually counter-productive to attempt to evade responsibility or to hide in a bunker.  Honesty, transparency, empathy and responsibility are the watchwords for any response.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

In some ways it is getting easier because there are good tools available, such as Google alerts, to help monitor social media and news reports.  In other ways, it is getting harder because, as mentioned before, social media has become such a convenient repository for all kinds of gripes, complaints, rants, tirades, and general incivility.  It is instant, long-lasting, and available 24/7.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

A longtime client produced a series of products that were a danger to the public and exposed longstanding problems in manufacturing that had never been acknowledged or addressed.  Our strong advice to the client was to tell the truth to the public and apologize, but by the time we found out about the crisis, the company had already opted to go in another direction.  Recovery from that point was very difficult—requiring a change in management, enormous expenditures, and a dramatic retreat from the public view.  The company did not go bankrupt or disappear, but it is much diminished and will never again be the powerhouse it once was.  We ourselves were sadly disillusioned by the actions of a company we had promoted with much affection for many years.

Recently we advised the owners of a company that had suffered damage because an angry former employee had hacked into their computers and sent outrageously bigoted and sexist answers to prospective employees impersonating the company’s owners.  One job applicant, whom the owners had been unable to reach, was scheduled to be interviewed on a local television show to “unmask” the “racism” of the owners.  We advised the owners to explain the situation to the producers and offer to be interviewed live to counter the fake nasty emails.  The company had an excellent track record, which they could demonstrate, of having hired employees from all races and backgrounds.  Once the TV producers fully understood the situation, they canceled the interview with the applicant and the crisis subsided.

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Ben Brugler, president and CEO of akhia.

He previously held the titles of president and vice president before being transitioned into his current position in 2018. Under Ben’s leadership, the agency has grown from 15 to more than 60 employees, earning a spot as a Top 100 Workplace in Northeast Ohio, as well as placement on the Weatherhead 100 list of fastest-growing companies in the region.

With more than 15 years of experience in the industry, Ben is well-known among clients and the regional business community as a master facilitator and speaker on topics ranging from content marketing to thought-leadership positioning.
In 2011, he was named to Crain’s Forty under 40 list for his contributions to akhia’s growth.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations?

I’ll start with how it relates to public relations because, at least for me, it was a core element of what I discovered PR to be—managing your (personal) brand in a way that positively aligns with your values and resonates with your key publics’ values.

This is so important because so much of how companies operate, interact (employees included), and grow is based on relationships and the reputation of your brand and your character. My concern with where reputation management is heading today is with how manipulated or controlled it can become as it shifts to digital management and programming. Using SEO, for example, to support or drive reputation management is key—however, there’s a lot of trust in that in the sense that what’s being returned is actually true.

This might sound like a soapbox but it’s proven every day as peoples’ and companies’ actions are shown to conflict with what the public actually thinks of them, creating a business crisis as well as a branding crisis.

At the end of the day, reputation management comes down to one thing: How do you feel about the person or company you’re doing business with/working for?

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

Timing is everything. That statement literally applies to 80% of the PR issues I see companies struggle with online. Examples include:

• Posting something once and thinking everyone will see it.
• Thinking everyone is online all the time and ignoring other channels.
• Not replying to comments or questions your publics have.
• Not adjusting to real-time events…or…
• Trying to capitalize on real-time events.
• Failing to address very public company news, good or bad, generated from a third-party source.

These could all be avoided by asking these questions and developing a plan and approach for how you will manage these types of issues, proactively. Companies often have a playbook for how they will deal with business crises, such as operational, manufacturing or leadership, but ignore their digital readiness plans.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

When you consider the first thing people do after meeting you, hearing about you, etc., is go to Google or LinkedIn, you realize just how important your online reputation management strategy is. It’s critical to treat social media as your own personal storefront to your brand and eventually your reputation.

Why the “eventually” part? Well, if you’re starting with a social strategy and people don’t already have exposure to you, there is an opportunity to build that reputation and earn the trust that you are asking they place in you or your company. Your social channels are an important first step in that process.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

Well hopefully they’ve already gone through this exercise and have a dark site (should the crisis be so severe) or, at the very least, have accounted for their digital channels in their crisis playbook.

Often companies “react” poorly if they don’t have these types of preventive measures in place, sometimes shutting channels down, or worse, trying to defend their actions. This just gives more fuel to a potentially volatile situation.

What I wish more companies would do is acknowledge the crisis head-on and issue a statement to the effect that “they are aware, are evaluating and will be acting quickly to resolve the issue.” The payoff, of course, is through follow-up. Once that statement is issued the company will have to work quickly to do what they said they would and resolve the issue as well as communicate to all key audiences.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

Honestly, it isn’t up to employees to “help” their companies in a crisis situation. As part of crisis communications planning and scenario planning, companies should have a course of action for employees to be a part of. Then the employees can become a part of the solution as opposed to fighting the company battles in public forums.

Good intentions can quickly become mixed messages to your key publics.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

I know I sound like a broken record, but plan, plan, and then plan some more. The saying is old but the meaning is true—if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Ignoring a (possible) PR crisis your company could face is sheer negligence by leadership. No company would say they’ve failed to plan fiscally…or failed to plan for safety measures…but some continue to ignore public relations crisis situations that can do just as much damage to a company’s reputation and financial forecast as those other areas.

Today that planning has become more involved and should be stretched to cover more areas, largely driven by a growing digital environment. Your crisis planning should include scenarios such as cybersecurity, social equity, and personal brand histories.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

Without a doubt it’s getting harder. For many of the reasons I just listed in the previous questions—there is more runway for individuals to compromise your company’s brand and reputation; there are more channels for individuals to interact, positively and negatively, with your brand and employees; there is more distrust for company leaders in today’s social landscape, because simply having a channel or a presence doesn’t make you ‘unique’; and there is more time needed to proactively manage all of the channels your company is active on.

And on top of all of this…if you aren’t looking at this through an SEO lens, specifically, how you can be found and tracked if your efforts are working the way they should be, you are essentially flying blind.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

We manage crisis situations for our clients on a regular basis…and in order to keep doing so I won’t share any of them here. However, for me/our company, I would say it was less of a crisis and more of a reputation and branding challenge when our founder and CEO retired and transitioned leadership and ownership to me.

Our founder has such a strong reputation and is known in so many circles and industries that we started planning for her transition almost two full years prior to announcing it. Beyond the in-person aspect of this we put a lot of time into message consistency on our company digital channels and then our own personal channels. Knowing people would be looking at our online profiles more, professionally and personally, we began to look at how our own brands ran parallel to each other, as well as identifying and elevating those key tenants on our social channels. Of course, each channel is different, and the message felt unique to those channels, but you still felt it was on-brand and could link to the larger akhia story.

How to Connect: 

Website:  https://www.akhia.com/ 

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/benbrugler/

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Gregory Field Price, Senior Counsel and Head of the Strategic Communications Practice at Cameron LLP.

Gregory Field Price develops and executes business and communications strategies for clients across industries and geographies on issues including crisis response, stakeholder identification and engagement, public affairs, reputation management, environmental sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and operational structure.

Greg has devoted his career to problem-solving—as a lawyer, consultant, and educator. Well-versed in concept development and testing, he works from inside partner organizations to identify issues, connect with internal and external stakeholders, and create data-driven solutions at the intersection of public policy, law, and communications. Adept at building international networks, he has been responsible for several large-scale multinational marketing and philanthropic campaigns, served as confidante and counsel for c-suite executives, and led teams across client practice groups.

Greg has worked for governments, at universities and nonprofit organizations, and for one of the world’s largest communications consultancies. He currently serves on the Board of Advisors to QualityMD, College Food Network, and the Center for International Career Advancement (CICA), and the Board of Governors of the Jefferson Islands Club. Greg earned a master’s degree from New York University in International Business Law and his juris doctorate from the University of Notre Dame, where he concentrated on International Dispute Resolution.  He was admitted to practice law in the State of New York and holds a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University, where he studied statistics in social psychology and child development.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations?

Reputation management refers to the underlying drumbeat of positive information a brand (corporate, individual, or otherwise) provides its stakeholders. This includes not only the lifecycle of responding to reputation crises (i.e., preparation, identification, response, and recovery), but also the on-going choices, communications, and culture that inform each of those stages.

Reputation management begins with building a strong brand identity—through corporate governance and responsibility, marketable products and services, strong leadership, positive performance, and definable ethos. Companies that have easily identified and articulated visions, act as strong corporate citizens, and hone emotional appeal across audiences are better equipped to ride the waves of public scrutiny.

That is where smart public relations (PR) can play a role. In its narrowest sense, PR encompasses interactions with traditional and online media and serves as the primary means by which aspects of a brand are communicated to consumers. In its more extensive modern application, PR includes several other communication tools that can help spread the word about an entity’s brand to a variety of stakeholders, and in turn, build its reputation.

In either sense of the phrase, PR remains one arrow in a quiver of weapons to fortify and protect reputation. There is an adage in advertising, “a great ad can only get you to try a product once.” The same could be said of savvy PR. Without a cultivated brand (built on corporate leadership, innovation, performance, etc.), the public won’t look twice. Broader reputation management, however, embodies fulfilling the second half of that adage, “a great product keeps you coming back again and again.”

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

The two biggest mistakes I see companies make online are neglecting to monitor and maintain social media platforms and failing to reflect the corporate brand and mission in online communications. These mistakes are related.

Untended social media platforms can lead to overlooked criticism and missed opportunities. This neglect includes using social media only reactively.  While it can be a platform that facilitates rapid, individual response, like traditional earned media, social media operates best in balance.

A company’s brand is only as strong as it is universal. Corporate communicators wishing to avoid these mistakes should establish clear brand guidelines and allocate appropriate resources to developing and maintaining an online presence aligned with the corporate identity and used to push out new content as well as respond to and connect with stakeholder groups.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

Social media is an essential element of reputation building and protection for most entities. It is fast, measurable, and direct. The use of selective social media channels and targeted messaging can help a company: (1) build and affirm its brand identity; (2) develop and directly communicate with stakeholder groups; (3) recruit employees; and (4) advertise, market, and sell products and services.

It is also, however, often the greatest source of threats to corporate reputation. As such, no reputation management program is complete without cultivating and maintaining a robust social and digital presence that underscores corporate values. And, proper monitoring and careful targeting are even more essential when addressing reputational scrutiny. At minimum in crisis, companies should use social media to communicate directly with customers, suppliers, and partners; to measure the success of messaging across channels; and to reiterate and reinforce the brand identity.

More broadly, social media can serve not only as a testing ground for communication and thus a tool for real-time adaptation and program planning, but also the best tool to cultivate a continuous drumbeat of information to define and defend reputation.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

Communications crises rarely remain where they begin. In terms of first steps, an online crisis is no different than any other. The company’s immediate duty is to assess the damage and create a crisis response team comprising those individuals best suited to set a realistic timeline, gather necessary data, and represent the company’s interests.

This dedicated team should start a clock and decide whether, when, and how to respond to the negative attention. The faster a company responds, the less likely the problem spreads. In the age of viral social media content and near-universal internet access, crises that begin online require tighter timelines and more engaged responses from corporate leadership.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis? 

Communicate. Stay positive. Live the brand.

Companies weather rough times by leaning into core values and building strong relationships. Employees are a company’s first line of defense. Team members should ask questions, express concerns, and alert corporate leadership to ongoing issues.

Employees should also be patient. Like steering a boat, it can sometimes take a while to feel the full effect of corporate changes. That doesn’t mean that change has started.

Most importantly, employees should understand what the company represents and their role in helping it reach those goals. There is no better brand ambassador than an employee who does his job well.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

I often ask client CEO’s “In an ideal scenario, what would you like to be able to say in response to a criticism about X?” Whatever the response, make it true for your company.

Long before a crisis strikes, it is the duty of corporate leaders to build strong brands, buttressed by ethical decisions, and communicated in ways that resonate across audiences.  The stronger the corporate identity and the more articulate a company’s values, the easier it will be to weather reputational scrutiny. If the best defense is a good offense, the best crisis preparation is making smart business decisions from the get-go.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

They say it can take years to build a positive reputation yet only a second to destroy it.

As a result of a 24-hour news cycle, the ubiquity of social media, and the fact that every phone is now armed with a camera, issues response is no longer backroom deals to stifle stories and well-placed advertisements. Today, reputation management requires increased vigilance, more knowledge, and greater adaptability than even a decade ago.

Fortunately, those same communication tools that make reputation crises more frequent and more nuanced also allow companies increased access to their stakeholders, a wider range of opportunities to connect, and better data to drive decision-making. Perhaps for the first time ever, reputation is reliably measurable. The use of social media, in particular, has given corporations the ability to adapt communication strategies in real-time, reach tastemakers, and connect with unlikely partners to build defined and differentiated brand identities.

When handled adeptly, building a corporate or individual reputation is getting easier all the time. While protecting it just requires a different set of skills than it once did, with vigilance and vision corporations are better equipped than ever to weather reputation crises.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

Every corporate communicator has dealt with a taciturn General Counsel or camera-shy CEO unwilling or unable to get ahead of a rising tide of negative attention. Similarly, as a licensed attorney and communications consultant, my greatest challenge is often an internal one—the struggle when crisis strikes between wanting to say nothing (e.g., leave the job to the lawyers) and wanting to correct the record (e.g., respond to every ill-word and negative review).

It may be that when one’s most well-worn tool is a hammer, most problems look like nails, but I find time and again that every stage of a crisis is made easier through constructive communication. Finding the right balance between managing personalities (and fulfilling legal obligations) and making stakeholders feel heard begins with understanding interests. When dealing with tough corporate leadership, I ask questions. Dialogue can help shift ill-advised policy decisions (e.g., “We do not respond to media requests.”) to concerns about the corporate brand (e.g., “I’m worried if we say too much, it will open us up to litigation.”).  Reframing is the first step to building a rapid response program that reinforces the company’s vision, culture, and guiding principles while still addressing concerns of senior staffers and outside counsel.

How to Connect:

Website:  https://cameronllp.com/

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-field-price/