Speaking "off the record" is unacceptable

Once I was speaking with a reporter I had worked with in my newspaper days. We were chummy. He interviewed me about one of my clients. The interview was "over," and some normal human chit-chat between longtime colleagues ensued. About 10 minutes into our banter, I made a lighthearted remark. This is what he quoted in his article.

There was "no harm, no foul," but I leaned a lesson: There is no such thing as a friendly chat with a reporter. Even your good friends. You are never off the record; if you are talking with a reporter, blogger, etc., every word you say is fair game, regardless of any meaningless promises made, i.e. "This is just for background," or "Can we talk off the record?"

Your answer: "No."

You can never, ever, ever say anything to a reporter under any conditions unless you are willing to see it in the story.

Ever.

(Ever)


Steve Cebalt, Problem Solver
Highview Public Relations
www.highviewhelp.com
"Reputation and Crisis Management"
(260) 471-5870 e-mail: info@highviewhelp.com

Where are you vulnerable to "bad news"?

It's hard to predict a true crisis -- by definition a crises happens on its own timetable.

Most PR problems are not true crises; they are issues or sensitive situations that could harm your reputation; they tend to evolve into a crisis of a magnitute over which you have SOME control. Often, these vulnerabilities can be identified. Each organization has different vulnerabilities.

Some are sensitive issues that COULD happen, and your job is to prepare for contingencies. Others are things that WILL happen and are likely to be criticized.

Effective reputation management requires, at a minimum, a meeting to identify your likely problems -- the ones you can reasonably anticipate. Not everything you can possibly imagine; rather the issues you have some knowledge about and which you can realistically anticipate occurring.

Just identifying potential bad news can help you begin managing it before it ever happens.




Steve Cebalt, Problem Solver,
Highview Public Relations
www.highviewhelp.com
"Reputation and Crisis Management"
(260) 471-5870 e-mail: info@highviewhelp.com

"Spin" is unacceptable; facts are your friends

PR practitioners were once called "spin doctors." You don't hear that term so much any more, because it's obsolete and unacceptable and ineffective.

In corporate or nonprofit communications, facts and integrity are your friends. You cannot wordsmith your way out of a situation. You never could, really -- "spin" never worked well. But PR firms sold themselves as word wizards who could spin a pile of dung into gold.

Dung is dung. Just call it that. Your reputation and integrity are "gold."

So don't try to bury the lead, use euphemisms, obfuscate, dodge, or spin the issues. It will harm your reputation permanently. Your brand is at stake, and it must be protected with integrity in all communications. In the digital age, there are a million "watchdogs" who will shred you if you do not convey factual information at all times.

There are a few tactical things you can do to convey the truth but mitigate the spread of the information. The White House often releases unfavorable news around 6:30 p.m. on a Friday, when many journalists have left for the weekend, the nightly news is already on the air, and the Sunday talk shows have already been booked.

On a local level this works, too. If your information is not time-sensitive, you can hold it until a major local or national story breaks and release it then, when reporters are focused on the big breaking story.

I see nothing disingenuous in time your announcements tactically. That is not spin. That simply puts the task on the media to be able to focus on more than one thing at a time; they should be equipped to handle that -- it's their job.

Spin is dead.


Steve Cebalt, Problem Solver,
Highview Public Relations
www.highviewhelp.com
"Reputation and Crisis Management"
(260) 471-5870 e-mail: info@highviewhelp.com

"No Comment"

" 'No comment' is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again."

-- Winston Churchill


If it's good enough for Churchill, it's good enough for me.

I was trained that "no comment" makes a company look somehow guilty, as if the statement affirms the truth of the question. "Has your factories industrial waste been diverted into the groundwater?"

If you don't want to debate the issue in the media, don't. It may be a very complex answer for which you are still gathering relevant facts.

Often "no comment" is the only honest answer. So use it!






Steve Cebalt, Problem Solver,
Highview Public Relations, Fort Wayne,  Indiana
www.highviewhelp.com
"Reputation and Crisis Management"
(260) 471-5870 e-mail: info@highviewhelp.com

The Crisis PR Balancing Act

It's better to be right than to be fast.

In a crisis, the media have an interest in speed and in exclusive information.

The job of the Crisis PR Manager is to reconcile those needs with the company's primary objectives: truth and accuracy.

It helps to separate facts into categories:

1. The public has a right to know. Recently Indiana's statewide school testing system crashed on the most important testing day of the year. Billions of dollars are at stake with the results of these tests; people get fired, schools get closed. The local school system responded promptly by holding a news conference announced this way: "ISTEP+ testing has been disrupted this week across the state due to computer complications. FWCS officials will give a report on what happened, how it affected schools and what is the current status of testing." Perfect. This issue affects every student, parent and taxpayer, so this issue is "bigger than you," and the public's right to know is paramount

2. Stakeholders have a need to know.  Sometimes your crisis affects only your customers, employees, or some other group with a vested interest. The media perhaps would LIKE to know, but your customers NEED to know. Understanding the difference is helpful in dealing with the trade or consumer media. Is the issue of public interest? Or of narrow interest to people directly affected.

3. The media would LIKE to know. Your CEO leaves abruptly. It could be a health issue, a family issue, a termination. Publicly traded companies may be bound to release material information; but the media may LIKE to know more than they NEED to know.

So ask yourself when under fire:

Is this a "right to know" issue, a "need to know," or "like to know."

This can help you triage your crisis communications, meeting the media need for speed and facts, while giving you the latitude to put truth and accuracy first, ahead of all other issues.

Facts are your friend. Make a list of all the things you DO know. Separate them into these three categories.

Make a list of the things you are DOING to resolve the issue and to prevent it from recurring. Separate these into their proper categories (public interest, need to know, like to know). These will be your most important messages in the early phase of a crisis.

Make a list of the things you DON'T know. If they are of public interest, you must find out the answers, and in the interim, state what you are doing to find the answers. Similarly for the "Need to Know" category.

Being prepared to state the things you don't know with confidence is crucial. Crises don't reveal themselves all at once. New facts emerge to complete the puzzle. "We don't know" is a great answer, if you can then say, "Our vice presidents are working 24/7 to research the answers and we expect to have more information as soon as possible."

Steve Cebalt, Problem Solver
Highview Public Relations
www.highviewhelp.com
"Reputation and Crisis Management" (260) 471-5870
e-mail: info@highviewhelp.com

Should you "correct" the media? It's usually unacceptable

A newspaper writes a story on your company and spells the CEO's name wrong. Do you call in and ask for a correction?

No. In fact you almost never should ask for a correction. Often I see a correction on a negative news article, and I'd never seen the original article. If the company had not asked for a correction, that negative publicity would not have been noticed by me at all. You are giving the story another day in the news cycle -- shooting yourself in the foot.

So if they said you have 800 employees and you have 1,000, leave it go. If they misquote you a little bit, leave it go.

Here is the rule: Only ask for a correction if there is a MATERIAL cost to the company resulting from the error. Example: Let's say a nonprofit is having a fundraiser May 15, but they get the date wrong. That will cost the organization both money and reputation equity if people miss the event and show up on the wrong date. So if there is a dollar cost that you can pinpoint, and it is significant, THEN ask for a correction.


Steve Cebalt, Problem Solver, Highview Public Relations www.highviewhelp.com
"Reputation and Crisis Management" (260) 471-5870 e-mail: info@highviewhelp.com

Working without a simple crisis PR plan is unacceptable

Your company's reputation has taken years to develop and can be destroyed in a day.

Bad things do happen to good people and good companies. A bloggers attacks you; an employee is arrested; you face a lawsuit; the media does a hatchet-job....

Sometimes PR isn't pretty. Some PR problems can be messy, complicated, conflicted, unclear, and most certainly stressful. When you have a problem, you just want to make it go away.

The best way to deal with a reputation problem is to prevent it with effective PR planning and procedures. Preparing for a crisis with a simple plan is essential, so that when it happens (and it will), you'll feel confident. And managing a crisis requires a cool hand at the helm. To stay cool and to make good decisions under pressure, you'll need that plan.

I am the author of a training workshop called "Change the Conversation: Reputation and Crisis PR". This training provides tips, tactics, and a planning template for reputation and crisis management. Most companies can use the crisis planning template just as it is. Others may need to customize it a bit.

If you do not know the first 5 steps you would take to manage a vulnerable PR situation, this workshop is the place to start.


Steve Cebalt, Problem Solver
Highview Public Relations
"Reputation and Crisis Management"
www.highviewhelp.com
(260) 471-5870  info@highviewhelp.com

Making conventional PR unacceptable

Disrupting the Conventional PR Model

Years ago when I worked on an in-house public relations team for a large corporation, the company was downsizing due to a merger. People were fearful about their jobs.

Except my boss. I asked him why he seemed so unconcerned.

"All we can do is make ourselves so different, that we can't be replaced."

I didn't understand at first. He explained. The company  always has a lot of options. They can fire us and hire someone else; they can farm out our work to an outside PR firm. They can do without our function completely. What we have to do, every single day, is make all those other choices unacceptable.

That's been my mentality ever since. I must prove my value and relevance on every client engagement,  on every phone call, in every meeting, on every invoice. I must remember that the client has options other than my firm. I have to offer something clients can't find anywhere else: The ability to work in areas where creativity and complexity intersect; an ability to assure relevance to the client's most pressing concerns; a focus on solving the most vexing problems; an approach to public relations and corporate communications that is unlike any other PR practitioner; and a deep desire to have enjoyable relationships with clients so that working together every day is a pleasure.

That same boss, years later, became a client. Once again he had excellent advice. "Make sure to focus on the hard jobs that other firms can't or won't do -- that will make you different." And he said these words: "Remember that people choose you because they like working with you as a person, as much as for the services you deliver."

Over many years, this mentality (thanks Boss!) has helped me identify limitations and weaknesses in the PR field and to create a portfolio of services to disrupt the conventional PR wisdom.

A good example a business model unique in the PR field: "Pay What It's Worth."

This model wraps up everything that makes my firm different in a value guarantee that you will not find anywhere else. I put my fees in your hands, and you pay only what you think the work is worth.

That's different. And I think any other business model is just  -- unacceptable.

Steve Cebalt, Problem Solver,

Highview Public Relations

 www.highviewhelp.com

"Reputation and Crisis Management"

(260) 471-5870 e-mail: info@highviewhelp.com

Workshop: "Reputation and Crisis Management"

This half-day workshop can be used as a planning and training tool to boost your readiness and capacity to manage negative publicity. Or it can be used in a crisis, to identify the immediate steps to take control of the conversation.

Part I. Preparedness. In this STRATEGIC discussion we conduct a "vulnerability assessment" specific you your operation, to identify the most likely weak spots that could lead to sensitive publicity. We also formulate plans for what to do in ANY crisis or sensitive PR problem in your organization.

Part II. Emergency Management. This is a TACTICAL module focused on managing a current reputation problem, as it is unfolding. It includes specific steps for Day One, Day Two, Week One, Week Two, and longer-term reputation management relative to a specific incident.

If you do not know the 5 most likely PR problems that you can anticipate within your organization, or the first 5 things you would do on Day One in managing a real-time PR threat, this workshop will increase your capacity to safeguard your brand.




Steve Cebalt, Problem Solver
Highview Public Relations
www.highviewhelp.com
"Reputation and Crisis Management"
(260) 471-5870 e-mail: info@highviewhelp.com