Posts Tagged: Crisis Communications
Public information in your Nation’s Capital: Encryption of police communications, fire department Twitter feed goes dark, cameras seized by police. What does it all mean? A guest column by Gerald Baron.
DC Fire & EMS Department director of communications says social media is for parties.
Read More »
Lesson from Weston: Stuff happens. Delaying addressing it with the press & public doesn’t make it any better or go away faster.
Consider the image of your department in the digital age as a neighborhood of lightweight constructed homes on a very windy day, with the houses built six feet apart, with no sprinkler systems and no real fire resistive barriers in the outside walls.
Read More »
It takes both the old and new to keep the public informed of news from the Gulf
What’s currently the toughest crisis communications job in the world of public relations and public information? It very well could rest in the hands of one Brian Sibley who is the hired gun from his very own Sibley PR who is currently in the uneviable position of serving as spokesman for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Incident Command post, the central information command for everyone involved in the Gulf coast oil spill clean up.
Read More »
While Nero Fiddled, Obama Practiced his Short Game
Suppose there was a on-going crisis in your community. Could your chief still go out of town to that fire service convention?
Read More »
Netcast Appearance and Banned for Life
I’m sitting in the airport setting sail for some business in south Texas. Two areas to cover while I wait for the flight.
First, I’m honored that my Brothers at Firefighter Netcast have asked me to be a guest on their program this Thursday, June 17th. John and Rhett will be interviewing me at 9:00pm EST.
To get the link to the broadcast visit http://www.firefighternetcast.com/ Call in and say hi!
Read More »
A Crisis Communications Crisis
There was a time when a good crisis communication plan addressed the situation at hand in a timely transparent manner. The plan owned up to admitting and confronting the bad, showing a solid plan for rectifying the situation and giving folks confidence that the best and brightest were working to develop the best resolution.
Read More »
They Fuel the Fires, we put them out
Early on, when the game was relatively close and spirits were higher, the LeBron James rumor mill was the talk of the moment. Facing July 1 free agency everyone at the table had an opinion on whether LeBron will stay or go. With each opinion came a rumor about what someone told someone about LeBron’s status. Also with each rumor and opinion came blame. Who to scapegoat and take to task if LeBron seeks mega millions elsewhere.
As a PR guy this got me thinking. It’s not about just LeBron, it’s about sports in general. Each day is filled with stories in the paper and online, as well as sports radio and television, that are based on heated rumors and bashings about one team, coach, manager or athlete.
If these were stories about our fire departments, chiefs or firefighters we as PIO’s would be apoplectic! We would be in total crisis communications mode!! This would constitute one of the worst days of our careers.
Read More »
Warren Buffett quick to put Water on the Fire
I’m neither a stock investor nor regular viewer to CNBC but by chance I was speed clicking through the channels a couple of mornings ago and stopped momentarily to hear Warren Buffet talk about Toyota and crisis communications.
In about five seconds Buffet gave one of the greatest overviews of tackling a PR nightmare that I ever heard.
Read More »
Tiger Woods way over par at the Crisis Communications Open
In the midst of an audience that looked like they were placed there as part of a juicer infomercial, and a script that sounded like a 19 year old killer reading remarks prepared by his lawyer before a death sentence, Tiger Woods failed as both a person and convincing communicator.
Read More »
Crisis Communications in Pittsburgh over lack of EMS response
Pittsburgh EMS has been thrown into a controversy after a Hazelwood man died February 7th who had called EMS 10 times over a two day period seeking help for a stomach ailment. It is a terrible tragedy to be sure. From a Public Information standpoint, the Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Michael Huss and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl have been blunt with their reactions to the episode. It remains to be seen what happens over the next several days but initial reaction has fulfilled some of the main tenets of The Fire PIO’s 7 primary responses to a crisis.
Read More »
Nothing to say says Volumes
In my humble opinion the quickest way for us to become instant villains as well as guilty until proven innocent is to utter the words “no comment.”
In a sticky situation that begs for solid crisis communication techniques the two most dangerous words you can ever tell a reporter is “no comment.”
Read More »
