Superfluous Nonsense: Crisis PR: 101

The first step to minimizing the damage your organization may take in a crisis starts now. Developing a crisis measure ensures minimal or no damage will be done to your organization or brand's name.

You are not immune to a crisis. No matter the size, industry or training of your company, a crisis can hit. A crisis can come in the following forms:

Natural Disasters
Economic Disasters
Managerial Mistakes
Deception
Technological Issues
Slander / Rumors
Legal Issues
Errors in Judgement
Disgruntled Employee
Sensitive Information Leak
Plant/Warehouse Accident
& more

No matter the issue, be prepared.

Start planning for a crises before it starts. Develop a team of employees and outside professionals when possible. A well-rounded crisis team needs to have a top level executive, a member of the legal team, the communications director/PR professional and other individuals like plant managers and the like.

Once the team has been establish, determine who will handle media inquiries and will be the spokesperson through the crisis. Identify brief, key message points and be sure the spokesperson sticks to them. Consistency is wildly important during a crisis.

Avoid stonewalling. By refusing to elaborate or comment, you are passing on the opportunity to convey your messaging and potentially allowing others outside the organization to comment instead.

Practice, practice, practice! Regularly conduct crisis drills. Make sure that all levels of your company can handle a crisis from top level executives to hourly employees. Drills hone in the workforce's ability to operate during a crisis and effectively help a brand dodge reputation damage.

Take for example the following company blunders and in part two of this post, I will cover organizations that were able to come from a crisis with minimal damage.

Can you identify all the brands/organizations that were harmed by the situations depicted in the images or the crisis itself?

See and download the full gallery on posterous