The Big Picture Blog » Crisis PR: The Truth Shall Set You Free

Crisis PR: The Truth Shall Set You Free

Posted on Nov 28, 2011 by Valerie Touchstone

I guess the fact that many businesses and organizations don’t really have a crisis communications plan in place will never cease to amaze me. Perhaps it falls into the category of life insurance – people avoid buying life insurance because they don’t want to think about what would have to happen for the policy to be needed. Perhaps it is “it won’t happen to us” or “we’ll deal with it when it happens.”

It does happen. It can come out of nowhere, without warning. It has many shapes, dimensions & consequences. Mishandled, it can destroy even non-related parts of a business, school or campaign.

What to do? The core principle, pounded into my head as an undergrad at UGA’s Henry W. Grady School of Journalism and again at the Newhouse School at Syracuse, remains true: tell it all and tell it fast. And by tell it all, I mean tell the truth. Tell what your organization has done and is doing to rectify the situation.

While the tools to “tell it all” are constantly evolving, the principle remains the same. The part about “tell it fast” has never been more true. With social media and online news, the world may know about your issue before you have time to react – if you don’t have a plan in place and people empowered to implement it.

Herman Cain, like him or not, shot himself in the proverbial foot with a total failure to handle the initial sexual harassment allegations in a professional, competent, accurate and/or timely fashion. (Admittedly, given the latest revelations, I don’t think it would have mattered in the long run, but that is another story.) Penn State. Wow. They finally hired Ketchum to handle the situation…a week or more after the horrifying story of sexual abuse and cover-ups surfaced. And the list complete communications fumbles goes on, and on, and on. Half-truths, delayed responses and blaming are too often the starting point…while the admin team is trying to figure out what to do.

The bottom line? Crisis communications boils down to telling the truth and doing the right thing. Sadly, it seems this mandate is just too much to ask.

Tagged: crisis communications, pr, marketing, business, social media