A positive reputation is a powerful crisis management tool
The best reputation repair plan starts before a crisis occurs (but keep reading even if that ship has already sailed!). Be where your customers are, with an established presence that give people a reason to trust you. This might mean regular updates to a blog, Facebook, Twitter and more. If you spend the time to acquire advocates there, when a crisis occurs you will likely already have those people in your corner. Likewise, any negative press will be easier to monitor and respond to when it takes place on those channels than on those on which you have no presence. Jumping on to these platforms in response to a crisis is better than ignoring it, but if you have a history there, your words will carry a lot more weight.
This quote, from a Scalable Social Media blog post by Alisa Meredith, is a beautifully precise explanation of exactly why you’ve got to be active on social media in order to protect your organization’s reputation.
While establishing a web presence and keeping it maintained can seem like a daunting task, it’s not as difficult as you may think. One of the biggest hurdles facing many organizations is the question of how to keep their accounts active. Here’s the deal – even for the most talented of writers, the juice just isn’t flowing every day. The key here, especially for execs and others with packed schedules, is to create a list of posts when you’re feeling creative, and schedule them in advance to keep things running through times you don’t.
With time, care and effort, you can position your own organization as a prime news source within your industry, a powerful position that will greatly enhance your crisis management and allow for more effective reputation repair in the chance that it is sullied.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]
Jonathan L. Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. has more than 25 years of experience in all aspects of crisis management – crisis response, vulnerability assessment, planning, training and simulations.
Erik Bernstein is vice president of Bernstein Crisis Management. Erik started with BCM in 2009 as a writer and subsequently became social media manager for the consultancy itself as well as for a number of BCM clients before moving to the VP position.