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Discovery Gives Some Sound Business Advice for Handling a Real Time Crisis

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As you may recall this past September 1st, a man armed with guns and explosives entered Discovery’s HQ building in Maryland and took three individuals hostage for several hours. Thankfully no employees were hurt or killed; the gunman was shot by police during their operation to rescue the hostages.

Often I am asked by PR execs from for profit corporations what protocols I feel they should put in place in the event of a crisis, whether it is fire or law enforcement that might occur on their premises.

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Posted by on December 1, 2010 • Filed under: Best Practices, Crisis Communications, major-incidents, Media Outreach, news • Tagged: ,

TSA Should Screen their own PR and Marketing Efforts

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Over the holiday weekend I have had the opportunity to do some reading and investigation to attempt to put together the facts from a PR perspective of how things could go so terribly wrong in terms of the “they against us” attitude most folks now have towards the TSA. A number of PR gaffs has lead to this perception.

First off the lame TSA Administrator John Pistole used a worn out administration card saying the TSA knows what right for our citizens but unfortunately they haven’t done a good enough job educating people. Again, we’re so stupid that the wonderful changes they put in place and the stellar way in which they presented it to the public is above our scope of appreciation.

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Posted by on November 29, 2010 • Filed under: administration-leadership, Best Practices, Branding, Marketing, Media Outreach, Opinion, Public Outreach, Public Scrutiny, Social Media • Tagged: ,

Should we use social media as a crisis or emergency unfolds?

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Over the last year or so I have been closely watching how various corporations, emergency service arms and organizations utilize social media to report on a serious incident or crisis. I am not totally convienced that reporting details rapidly on Twitter or Facebook is the most advantageous way to let the public know about an emergency. With things moving so quickly and so much at stake in giving details, social media can trap you into churning out information before we can actually put the unfolding events into perspective. A case in point took place in Singapore last week.

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Posted by on November 9, 2010 • Filed under: Best Practices, Crisis Communications, major-incidents, Media Outreach, news, Opinion, Public Outreach, Social Media • Tagged: , , , , ,

The PIO Should Keep Homeowners Informed on the Fire Ground

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The Backstep Firefighter made a post yesterday titled PR DILEMA:BUFFALO. The post, with video, is about a house fire in Buffalo, the department’s perception of how it was fighting the fire and a neighbor’s perception of lack of effort to get water on the job.

Backstep Firefighter concluded the post with these questions -

Do our public relations go far enough in explaining what we do?
Are our usual messages too technical?

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Posted by on November 2, 2010 • Filed under: Best Practices, Opinion, Public Outreach • Tagged: , , ,

What’s in your PIO or PAO “Go To” bag?

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I want to thank Barry Nuss who is the Fire Marshal and Public Information Officer for the Lincoln County Fire Protection District 1 in Troy, Missouri, for requesting I reach out to fellow PIO’s and PAO’s to find out what they carry in their “go bags” for large scale incidents.

I’m interested to see what you guys travel to incidents with. I am in the position of being both a PIO and Class A firefighter. I have to be prepared on numerous fronts to have “go to” equipment in a number of places.

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Posted by on October 18, 2010 • Filed under: Best Practices, command-leadership, Opinion, Photography, SOP's and Policy • Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

They all acted Stupidly

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Isn’t it strange that if you are late paying your electric, gas, oil or phone bill you will usually receive a grace period due to the potential problems the lack of service might present. Obviously one can freeze to death and the amount of money owed would never compensate for that death. Local government and the utility provider would look pretty foolish if a citizen couldn’t afford to pay a bill and suffered the ultimate price.

So to put things in perspective, if you owe say $500 on an outstanding electric bill but you didn’t pay $75 to protect your house from burning down, the lights can stay on while the home burns to the ground.

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Posted by on October 6, 2010 • Filed under: administration-leadership, Best Practices, news, Opinion • Tagged: , ,

Get your Defense ready for Collective Guilt

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Nothing beats coming into work and immediately hearing “I just read the paper, it looks like you guys are in trouble again.” When I inquired into who and what was in trouble I was told that a story was in Newsday, our Long Island newspaper about the latest loser who riffled through fire department funds, betraying both his fellow brothers and sisters and the public at large.

The problem with the in your face guy who confronted me  with the story before I set a foot in the door, is that he assumes all firefighters are the same and all departments are created equal. It didn’t matter to him that the ex firefighter and department in question are about 40 miles from here. For whatever reason, ours is a trade that suffers from collective guilt.

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Posted by on September 29, 2010 • Filed under: Best Practices, Crisis Communications, Journalists and Reporters, news, Opinion, Public Outreach, Public Scrutiny, Uncategorized • Tagged: , , ,

Cowboy Code of Ethics

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I spent part of the weekend in Orchard, Texas, cowboy country if there ever was. I went to see a few yearling bucking bulls I own buck. A few will be ready to compete in futurities this spring.

I always enjoy going to Texas, not only for a sport I love, but to meet “cowboy” folks from across the country who are involved in the sport.

Orchard, Texas can be considered “fly over” country by many elitists who think of those who sweat and toil as backward or not sophisticated. But I’ll match up any of these people against those who have no great moral fiber or don’t know what it means to get dirt under your fingers or to get knocked down, dust yourself off, shake off the pain and continue to hold your head up high.

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Posted by on September 28, 2010 • Filed under: Best Practices, Opinion, Uncategorized • Tagged: , ,

Our Fire Departments live in a Virtual TV Reality Show

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In one of my other lives I am the lead broadcaster for Verizon Fios cable coverage of the NASCAR races at Long Island’s Riverhead Raceway. The weekly production is a “production.” A crew of around 10 toils for a good part of the afternoon to get the cables, cameras, monitors, microphones, headsets and electronic equipment in place to make things hum during the evening boradcast.

This past Saturday a racing fan with a small Flip HD video camera came up to me with a request. This woman asked me if it was permissible to video some of the racing action. She told me her son was a frequent visitor to the track and is now in the Army stationed at Fort Jackson. She felt this would be a taste of home for him. I told her it was fine and she proceeded to take her seat in the grandstand with a bunch of family members.

While we worked our way through the Verizon broadcast I noticed this woman shooting the races, interviewing family members for her son, interviewing drivers who went to sit in the grandstand after they raced.

This woman was virtually able to do with a $150 camera what it took two announcers, a 10 man crew and tend of thousands of dollars in equipment to accomplish.

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Posted by on September 7, 2010 • Filed under: Best Practices, command-leadership, firefighting-operations, major-incidents, Public Outreach, Public Scrutiny, Social Media • Tagged: , , , , ,

PIOs can learn from others Mistakes

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I’m not a big reader of the New York Times; our politics are on the opposite ends of the spectrum. A colleague recently emailed me a link to a Times story about what not to do in case of a crisis communications emergency. I’ll admit it, it’s a great story by Peter Goodman and I encourage you to read it.

The story gives many industry leaders critiques into many of the world’s recent PR disasters including Toyota’s acceleration problems, BP’s oil spill, Goldman Sachs securities fraud and Tiger Woods marital bust-up. Interesting read.

Since we deal with crisis as PIO’s on a regular basis, there is always something to learn from others missteps!

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Posted by on September 3, 2010 • Filed under: Best Practices, Crisis Communications, Media Outreach, news, Public Outreach, Public Scrutiny

Fudging the Crowd Numbers

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One strange phenomenon in public relations where even the most ethical and transparent practitioner is caught fudging the truth on occasion come when it’s time to give a crowd or attendance count. For some reason, when it comes to estimating the size of the crowd, at say our annual fire prevention days, we tend to become world renowned optimists.

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Posted by on September 2, 2010 • Filed under: Best Practices, Journalists and Reporters, Marketing, Opinion • Tagged: , , ,

Back Office PIOing

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If a government entity or private company has poor customer service it raises the ire of folks seeking a product or service.

Many times customer service complaint calls head to a public relations office for resolution. Why not hit the department that most worries about corporate image?

I think we, as PIO’s have a responsibilities to make sure our own offices are exemplary when it comes to customer service. Those “customers” in our business may be journalists, members of the community, government officials, our own firefighters and EMS personnel civic groups, schools etc.

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Posted by on August 13, 2010 • Filed under: Best Practices • Tagged: , ,