Carri Bugbee's List: Crisis Communications

• "The thing I've tried to do with any client opening up its customer service channels -- you have to have a crisis communications plan mixed with a customer service plan," he said.  "You have to anticipate what will happen. ... Companies that dive in without a plan of attack for those situations are finding it difficult."
• "You have to have a lawyer on staff who can be on call and help your social media team craft communications in crisis situations," he said. "When you have a big publicity problem, you have your legal team working hand-in-hand with PR. Why wouldn't you do the same thing in the social media world?"
• "Any industry that's heavily regulated will always have a layer of legal and compliance teams that have to be trained, and have to buy in," he said. "It can be done with the right legal team. But if you have a team that constantly says ‘no,’ it'll never work."
• "It's not that hard to know these days who are the folks likely to be influential in this conversation," Matthews said. "You know what the top 10 issues that you might face are, and you know who is likely to be the most influential when those stories break, the people who might take your side or be opposed. ... Ask yourself how do you engage them. What is the content you can bring to bear that articulates your position rather than letting the public run wild. You can never control the conversation, but you can make sure your side is heard."
• "It really helps you find your skeletons in the closet," he said. "You have to have a mindset that you are grateful your customers are telling you what you are doing wrong, and you have the opportunity a chance to fix it.

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• Don’t Just Apologize, Act

   

  They say actions speak louder than words, and the “they” in this scenario, are consumers on social media. When tracking conversations about the Starbucks apology and their announcement to close 8,000 stores in May, we found that there was much more social interest in Starbucks’ action than their carefully worded apology.
• 71% of the conversation about the Starbucks apology was disgusted with it, as opposed to 38% of those discussing the actions were disgusted with that decision
• Both progressive and conservative affiliations use the hashtag #BoycottStarbucks the most. However, those with more progressive leanings are using the hashtag in response to the racial profiling incident itself, whereas conservatives are using the hashtag in response to Starbucks taking a stance against the employee for calling the police, stating that it was an overreaction to the incident. Conservatives are also rattled by the store closures in May.
• This may create ambiguity in how a brand should respond, given that there are two competing conversations happening here.

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• Preparing for a crisis takes place long before a crisis actually occurs.

    

  “Act like a post-crisis company pre-crisis,”
• “Build a solid brand narrative so that when people are googling your company it’s not just your crises news that comes up.”
• "Build relationships before pitching, especially in a crisis. Have the foundation laid so that when the time comes you can have resources to utilize in the media," she says.

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• "Whether it was true or not, this story broke and took off because of very legitimate concerns that exist in society about keeping kids safe online," points out Jeff Beringer, global head of digital at Golin. "When something generates this much conversation, media coverage, and responses from people in positions of authority like teachers, school administrators, and law-enforcement officials, brands have to sit up and take it seriously."

   

• Rather than simply responding to fans’ comments on social media (it did that as well), Panera on Wednesday released an online video showing Phyllis Smith, the actress who played Phyllis on the U.S. series, reading the mean tweets from a desk at Panera’s St. Louis headquarters. The chain took a social media listening exercise and turned it into more of a marketing effort. 
• Panera said it came up with the idea and script internally. The video was shot by Coolfire Studios in St. Louis, produced by Anomaly, and edited by Unreasonable Studios.