By Gil Rudawsky
It wouldn’t be the holiday season without us recalling the “WKRP in Cincinnati” infamous turkey drop PR disaster.
For those unfamiliar with the late 70s and early 80s sitcom or the hilarious episode, check out the clip below. The best line? “As god as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”
I originally wrote a post for Ragan’s PR Daily, and here are some updated crisis communication tips:
- Be targeted. Focus your messages on your audience. Who are your trying to reach and what do they need to know?Be prompt. This demonstrates that the company or organization is addressing the issues, and it can diffuse a negative situation from spiraling by presenting the facts early on.
- Be concise but comprehensive. Crisis communication should be compact, delivering the right information in a timely manner and providing updates as more information is available.
- Be transparent. Perhaps more so than any other content you create, crisis communication must be honest and clear if your target audiences are going to trust you to get through the event.
- Be forthcoming. Articulate what the company is doing and, whenever possible, how long the process might take. The latter can be difficult to estimate, so don’t commit to a timeframe if you aren’t sure of it; but if you know a solution is not imminent, it’s best to be honest with customers about that fact.
- Be compassionate. Regardless of the source of the problem, in most crisis situations you may have let your customers down; acknowledge this, and then get to work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Follow up with Rockford Gray if you want to discuss this or need help with a crisis communication plan.
Gil Rudawsky specializes in issues and reputation management, and crisis communication. He began his career as a reporter in Aspen, and journalism took him across the country and then back to his native hometown of Denver, where he worked for the Rocky Mountain News. His journalistic skills – source development, research, credibility, storytelling, and curiosity – remain the foundation of his work with clients. He has experience working on a range of issues across sectors, including federal investigations, corporate and workplace issues, DEI and public advocacy campaigns. He provides expert-level strategic counsel, including on-the-ground support. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California, with a degree in philosophy.