No matter what size your organization is, news of your crisis can be around the globe within 20 minutes, making your first statement more important than ever before. In the early stages of most crises, reporters are happy to take information from a company representative regarding the situation. That includes information in your initial response: [...]
Anyone who has been interviewed about a crisis would like to tell the reporter everything is okay. It’s natural to want to minimize the situation. However, sooner or later the truth comes out and the situation develops another storyline: Your organization doesn’t tell the truth.
While many newsmakers bemoan 24-hour news cycles, savvy crisis communicators can use the microscopic coverage of events to evaluate an organization’s response. Pay attention to what the organization says and does and shortly you will know what they are defending. If they are defending the CEO’s decision their words and actions will be radically different [...]
