Does you company have a crisis communication plan? I have heard many talk about the current hurricane season starting again, but that disaster crisis is not the crisis I discuss here. I’m talking about a company crisis unique to the company. A product failure, bankruptcy or any number of other types of crises a company can endure.
We have seen examples of a company in crisis like the Kryptonite bike lock company and their problems with their bike locks. Truly a company in crisis, that is talked about in Robert Scoble and Shel Israel’s book Naked Conversations. This is a prime example, and one we can all use as a learning tool. In fact we invited Donna Tocci to contact us to set up a Kryptonite blog, but at the time they were still thinking about its possibilities.
So with that said, does your company have a crisis communication plan, and does that plan involve blogging?
I entered into a discussion forum about this very subject today at Soflow where I moderate a forum called Blog Buzz. (Let me know if you would like an invite, and I’ll send one for you to join the forum.) In this forum today we discuss the issue of a company in crisis and whether a blog should have open comments, if the comments should be moderated or if there should be any comments allowed at all. There are many things to consider and facts that need to be addressed before a position can be made on blog comments in a situation of crisis. These types of facts must be listed out and specific responses need to be addressed to meet the needs of the blog and the communication with the company’s customers.
The best policy is to be open and honest in your approach. If you do not have all of the answers or if you are working on getting answers to certain things, explain that to the people in the conversation through blog posts. If comments are allowed, be prepared to answer every question or concern with a comment in kind or a complete post on each of the topics discussed. Being prepared for what is likely to be discussed is a key factor.Â
If your company is not prepared to meet the comments of customers or others, perhaps now is not the best time to turn on the comments section of your blog, but to explain the company’s position that it will be opening comments when it is prepared to meet the crisis head on with better answers and ideas. This protects your company, protects you from making further mistakes and growing the crisis, and also ends the conversation before it can begin. This can be a decision with some terrible results as well.
The issue of comment moderation was brought up, and this seems to be the best approach for some in the group. This would allow the company to only allow those comments through that were on point, not distasteful and not making the problem more difficult. Comment moderation can be a tricky proposition. What comments do you allow and which comments are you going to delete? Are only distasteful comments, going to be disallowed? What if the comment touches upon a subject that is very proprietary to your business? Perhaps you are investigating a certain aspect and don’t have the results of that investigation and discussing it on the blog would hinder your ability to make a meaningful review. This type of comment moderation is a very hands on approach. You could create more of a crisis by moderating than you would opening up the comments, or disallowing them completely.
Each company and each crisis is different. Blogging can be a very effective tool in communicating your company’s message while in crisis. Now is the time to create a company crisis communication plan, because being prepared is not just for the Boy Scouts.
Tags: Robert Scoble, Shel Israel, Naked Conversations, Blog PR, Business Communication, Kryptonite, Donna Tocci, Soflow, Blog Buzz
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Great post. I think one real key here is to have an open and honest relationship with your customers before a crisis hits. If you have a communications channel in place, like a blog, they’ll know to go there for the latest information from your company.
9/11 and Katrina were both real wake-up calls for how important web based communications can be in the middle of a crisis. Hopefully, business learned something from those disasters.
I prefer to moderate comments, lightly. No spam, nothing personal to anyone. When politeness fails, you get hurt feelings instead of communication. I cannot be courteous to my visitors if I show them people hurting each other.