Firebelly Marketing's Duncan Alney presented Crisis Communication for Your Community at the 2010 Brainstorming Sessions in Dallas, TX.

1. THE
RESIDENT
REF:
Crisis Communication
for your Community
Presented at
Brainstorming 2010

2. Duncan Alney
President
Firebelly Marketing
www.firebellymarketing.com
duncan@firebellymarketing.com
317-557-4460
@firebelly

3. #firebellyCrisis

4. Firebelly is a social marketing agency
in Broad Ripple focused on:
• content creation
• conversation development
• community management
• monitoring
• reputation management
Clients include:

5. WHAT IS A CRISIS?

6. A “crisis,” in public relations terms, is any event
that draws intense, negative media coverage and
interferes with normal business activity.
Crises can cost organizations millions of dollars
to repair or can potentially put them out of
business for good.

7. EXAMPLES OF CRISES

8. EXAMPLES OF CRISES
• Fire in a waste management facility
• Bacteria outbreak in restaurant
• Executive accused of insider trading
• Community shooting
• Charges of illegal financial practices
• CEO sexually harassing his assistant
• New iPhone has no reception

9. EXAMPLE OF APARTMENT INDUSTRY CRISES

10. EXAMPLES OF APARTMENT INDUSTRY CRISES
• Clubhouse burns down
• Suicide in apartment community
• Fallout from suing a resident
• Crazed resident throws herself on
leasing agent’s desk

11. CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS

12. Specifically, crisis communication refers to the flow
of information during a crisis among an organization,
its employees, the media, the government, law
enforcement and the general public.
Source: American Library Association

13. PREPARATION & RESPONSE

14. PREPARATION
• Create a detailed crisis communication plan
• Put a crisis communication team in place
With a plan in place, an organization is more likely
to respond to a crisis quickly, take immediate steps
to control the massage and successfully regain the
public’s trust.

15. ISSUE VS. CRISIS

16. Issue is a point of content, debate, or dispute

17. WHY IS A CRISIS DIFFERENT?

18. Unexpected

19. Deep
consequences

20. Unfolds in
real time

21. People expect
tranparency

22. WHAT WE EXPECT FROM COMPANIES

23. Stability
Success
Innovation
Vision
Trustworthy
Reputation

24. CAUSES OF CRISES

25. CAUSES OF CRISES
51% caused by executives and managers
30% caused by employees
19% caused by outside forces

26. TYPES OF CRISES

28. CRISIS PRONE BUSINESSES

30. CRISIS CATEGORIES

32. START NOW!

33. Crises have the potential to ignite a media frenzy -
or worse, widespread panic in the general public.
The middle of a crisis is no time to start assembling
a crisis management team or to begin reaching out
to the media.
Have an approach that is pre-defined and details
chain of command, response time expectations
and rally points.

34. PUT AN CRISIS COMMUNICATION PLAN IN PLACE
• A crisis communication team
• An internal communications plan
• A media strategy
• A list of potential weaknesses and plans
to address them
• Updated information on the organization
itself and its programs
• Monitoring program

35. CRISIS COMMUNICATION TEAM
Goal: to create and execute the plan
Assign specific roles (for example):
a. Gather contact info from all employees
b. Develop relationships with media and
community leaders.

36. CRISIS COMMUNICATION TEAM
The team could include:
• The CEO
• Experienced PR person
• Experienced social media person
• Other key executives
• Legal

37. SELECT AN OFFICIAL SPOKESPERSON
• Primary contact for media
• Runs press conferences
• Gives interviews
• Experienced with print, broadcast
and social
• Knowledgeable of organization
• Camera ready
• Appears calm
• Inspires confidence
• Able to make complex subjects
into key talking points
• Able to maneuver the press

38. CHOOSE INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
• Looks after safety of employees
and all stakeholders
• Works with police and emergency
personnel to communicate essential
info to all involved internally
• Collects all contact info from all
stakeholders
• Puts an emergency messaging
system in place

39. Steve Gilbert, Mission Residential

40. MEDIA STRATEGY
• Establish relationships with local and industry media
• Establish trust
• Pitch stories, ideas and expert commentary
• Especially in good times
• Keep good records

41. SOCIAL MEDIA
STRATEGY
• Establish relationships with key influencers
• Establish trust
• Discuss issues and common interests
• Support their work
• Keep good records

42. LIST YOUR POTENTIAL WEAKNESSES
• Complete an honest self assessment
• Predict where potential crisis may arise
• Hire an outside firm to look for lapses in ethical or
legal judgement
• Crisis team reviews and develop talking points

43. FACT SHEETS & SOCIAL SITES
Create fact sheets
for distribution to media/
social media in
crisis mode.

44. SOCIAL SITES READY
Build social assets that have
content and communities

45. Key Learnings

46. Rigorously maintain the plan
Update it
Rehearse it
Keep contact info updated
Keep fact sheets updated
Keep media contacts alive

47. WHEN A CRISIS OCCURS

48. WHEN A CRISIS OCCURS
• Put your plan into action
• Notify authorities
• ICM to communicate to ensure safety
• ICM to do good info management
- protect morale
- make them feel like insiders
• Develop trust to avoid leaks
• Issue internal statements to guide
employees if contacted by media
• Refer media/social to spokesperson
for interview

49. “GOING PUBLIC”

50. • Tell it all and tell it fast
• Issue a statement and issue a press release
• It’s better for negative information to come directly from
the organization than from critics in the form of an attack
• Make sure you’re prepared with sufficient info and satisfying
answers about what you’re going to do to resolve the crisis

51. • Be honest
• Be genuine
• Display concern for loss
• Try to supply the most the fastest
• Try to act in real time

52. VIRGINIA TECH LESSONS LEARNED
Because of the traffic surge to the organization’s homepage
during the campus shooting crisis, it’s important to immediately
remove all Flash components, images or other heavy files.
These files will eat up bandwidth and overload a site’s servers.

53. VIRGINIA TECH LESSONS LEARNED
Stick with text announcements.
Virginia Tech tried to post an audio podcast from the univeristy
president, but it overloaded the servers.

54. VIRGINIA TECH LESSONS LEARNED
Establish a relationship with another website where you can
post crisis information in the event of a server crash - or use
your social media outposts (Facebook, Twitter)
Virginia Tech posted messages on the Virginia State Police
website.

55. PRESS CONFERENCES

56. • Invite the media
• Provide latest info
• Provide fact sheets

57. • Spokesperson leads
• Rehearse beforehand
• Have talking points
for tough questions

58. • Show sincerity
• Focus on 2-3 simple
messages that can be
remembered

59. • Don’t comment on
what you don’t know
• Never lie

60. • Offer electronic info
on a social platform

61. BLOGGING DURING A CRISIS

62. BLOGGING DURING A CRISIS
• Use the company blog
- immediate
- respond quickly with your side of the story
- use video and photography for extensive coverage
- show a human side - photography of spokesperson
- encourage conversation and clarify the message
• Keep a stealth blog that you can launch during a crisis
• Use the weaknesses to build content for potential crises
• Build relationships with bloggers
• Counter the traditional media’s POV or lack of response
• Respond to all commentary

63. LISTENING & MONITORING

64. LISTENING & MONITORING
• Listen to what is being said
• Launch a monitoring program
• Use your company name and keywords

65. LISTENING & MONITORING TOOLS

66. SOCIAL MEDIA IN A CRISIS

67. Social media is public.Your fans and followers have a right
to make negative comments. It’s your company’s job
to turn those negative comments around and defend
yourself - changing it from a negative to a positive situation.
Monitor your business on social media and respond to
tweets, mentions and comments on your company’s profiles
in a timely manner.
Social media is real-time. The faster you respond, the
better your customer service will look.

68. Mark Juleen, J.C. Hart

69. SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS
If possible, suggest that customers contact you
privately to send their email address or phone number for
more in-depth discussion.

70. SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS
On Twitter, you must follow the customer so she can send
you a direct message.
On Facebook fan pages, you must share a personal
profile the customer can send a message to.
On YouTube, customers can visit your company’s channel
and send a message.

71. Aside from private messaging, anyone can read conversations
between you and your customer.
If you provide thorough, great customer service, it can go
a long way in impressing your customers - increasing
their likelihood of giving you positive referrals.
For the other followers watching the situation unfold, it
can be a great first impression that leads to a
potential new customer.

72. POST CRISIS

73. POST CRISIS
• Establish assessment group A to see what
worked and what did not
• Revise the plan if necessary
• Establish assessment group B to examine root
causes of crisis
• Assessment group B to recommend next steps
to prevent recurrence
• Go public with results of assessment
• Build trust with community

74. Bozuto Case Study

75. • The fire at Riverwalk Apartments destroyed two of
the four buildings at this property.
• Three hundred residents were permanently
displaced
• All residents were temporarily displaced

76. ■ Red cross and SPCA were extremely crucial
■ Ownership paid for five nights at a hotel (ownership required
renters insurance)
■ Determine a location to convene and or from which to stage
communications if situation prevents personnel from getting
to or using office
■ Agree upon a company spokesperson
■ Consider crafting a pre-approved emergency message
■ Ensure Web team is ready to activate online crisis hub
■ Make certain social networking sites are established and
ready to use
■ Collect emails and cell phones
■ Establish solid news/web/blog sites
■ Keep media offsite
■ Centralize communications. This way, onsite people can
focus on their job instead of fielding press requests

77. Best Practices

78. Rigorously maintain the plan
Update it/ Rehearse it
Keep contact info updated
Keep fact sheets updated
Keep media contacts alive
Move Fast/Transparently/Take
responsibility

79. Use meetings, phone, text, social, email,
blog,
and web
Take strong compassionate action
Take care of people
Prepare & rehearse various scenarios

80. 5 REALITIES OF A DIGITAL CRISIS

81. Events unfold at light speed
People demand hyper transparency
Dialogue is as important as message
Search reputation delivers video, photos, text
Your critics have the same tools as you

82. SPEED:
THE FIRST 24 HOURS
• Bad news spreads faster than ever before
via Facebook and Twitter
• Monitor all relevant consumer generated
media - not just traditional media
• When responding to emerging crisis, you
may need to react fast - in a matter of
hours, not days
• Have a streamlined approach and a
team in place
• Experience in social media helps you
respond quickly

83. HYPER TRANSPARENCY:
1 MILLION FORENSICS EXPERTS
• There are no secrets anymore - don’t
assume you can hide information
• Any individual has the power to expose
what were once “private” conversations,
making them public - expect what you say
to be blogged
• Be ready to reconcile contradictory
business practices
• Ensure any CSR efforts are sincere,
defensible and authentic

84. DIALOGUE:
GET READY FOR A 2-WAY CONVERSATION
• One way messaging doesn’t work
anymore in a world where people crave
dialogue
• Inviting customers into a conversation is
the most effective way to build goodwill and
brand advocates who will support you if
crisis hits
• Communicating solely through press
releases and scripted interactions doesn’t
satisfy
• A system for listening is critical to
remaining responsive

85. REPUTATIONS:
BUILT & BROKEN IN SEARCH
• 80% of internet users start their session
at search
• Organic search is sensitive to social media
content due to the cross-linking
• Google delivers “universal search” making
multimedia critical
• Difficult to dislodge content once it is in
search results

86. DETRACTORS:
YOUR DETRACTORS ARE RESOURCEFUL
• An individual voice can travel around the
world more easily today
• Small organizations can often be fast and
nimble with social media
• Listening to consumer generated media is
critical
• Everyone is an influencer in their own
circles, so traffic alone can no longer be the
only metric for judging influence

87. Duncan Alney
President
Firebelly Marketing
www.firebellymarketing.com
duncan@firebellymarketing.com
317-557-4460
@firebelly

88. Thanks to
for sponsorship