This is an abridged version of a blog post that originally appeared on Ragan’s PR Daily today. Subscribe to PR Daily here if you want more good stuff like this.
5 crisis comms tips from the FBI
Editor’s note: This story is taken from Ragan Communications’ distance-learning portal Ragan Training. The site contains hundreds of hours of case studies, video presentations and interactive courses.
1. Address the public’s three main concerns.
Jeff Lanza’s most important case as an FBI agent, he says, came in 1998 when a Missouri couple kidnapped a newborn from her room in the maternity ward while her mother dozed nearby. The ending was a happy one—FBI got the baby back—but Lanza, who now works as a communication consultant, recalls the shock of the hospital’s CEO and board members when he first met with them.
They asked what they should do.
The advice he offers holds for crises in general. He told them that people would want to know:
- What happened
- How you will fix it so it doesn’t happen again
- That you care about the harm your crisis had caused in their lives—empathy, in other words
“If you do that,” he says, “you’re going to be able to recover from almost any crisis.”
Other tips include the following items explored in more detail:
2. Be the first and most credible source of info.
3. Don’t ask your mother how you looked on TV. Do this instead.
4. Remember the adage, ‘An ounce of prevention…’
5. Build relationships with journalists.
Read the rest of the blog post at PR Daily here.
Posted by Joe Dougherty, PIO
Utah Division of Emergency Management
Twitter: @PIO_Joe
Utah PIO Association 