Get it right, and you’re laughing.
Recently, Comsteria has been working with some clients on what could be termed ‘crisis management’ issues.
Often, this involves keeping an organisation, or a particular issue OUT of the media. This requires extremely careful handling in order to remain open and transparent with staff, while also making sure those same staff don’t take what they know and share it outwith the organisation.
Some old fashioned operators try to achieve this by leaning on particular journalists, using influence over them and basically trying to scare them into not running stories. In the modern age, this doesn’t work so well. Today’s journalists tend to think much more short term, they’ll flit between journalism and PR work themselves and are less likely to be intimidated by some tired hack with some good newsroom war stories that shouts a lot.
Instead, you can achieve great results by investing in a healthy corporate culture. Staff are more likely to do what you ask them to if they’ve already decided they like you. And they’ll respect your request to keep things confidential if you show them respect first by keeping them up to date with what’s going on.
Watch this video for more with Comsteria’s media training and crisis comms specialist Colin Kelly.
