Chris Holman welcomes back Kim Bode, Dog rescuer (hoarder), community advocate (vigilante), and proud (obsessed) business owner, 8THIRTY FOUR Marketing, Grand Rapids, MI.
Watch Kim and Chris discuss PR crisis management, importance of a crisis plan, and tips for Michigan businesses to stay prepared on the YouTube video shared below:
In their conversation, Chris looked to find out several things from Kim;
Welcome back, Kim, remind the Michigan business community about 8ThirtyFour Integrated Communications?
Tell us about common mistakes companies make when facing a PR crisis?
What's the Importance of having a crisis communications plan prepared BEFORE the crisis happens/essential parts of a crisis communications plan?
Michigan is home to many small businesses and large corporations alike.
What factors should these different types of Michigan companies consider when creating their crisis communications plan?
Please share with us, ... Balancing the need for transparency with protecting sensitive information during a crisis?
8THIRTYFOUR also shared this further information on the topic:
Press releases used to be faxed. Editors were at local papers for 30+ years. Journalists knew what agencies and PR pros represented the various companies in town. If a company executive was caught in an affair with a subordinate, it wouldn’t be news.
Shi*t changes. Call it good or bad, it doesn’t matter. If an executive of a large company is caught with his pants down, it’s all over the news and not a single reporter called with a courtesy “heads up.”
Crisis communication has evolved, what was once considered embarrassing is now a headline. PR Pros used to have days, weeks, heck even months to craft a statement in response to a crisis, oftentimes before the crisis was even in the news. Now, we have hours, sometimes less than that.
Lessons in Accountability
Everyone and their mother is watching you. It’s hard to be a closet racist nowadays, someone is always listening. Offhanded comments made in a meeting are shared through the company’s chat channels before the meeting is even over. Employees are your best brand ambassadors and they’re also your best accountability partner. If leadership isn’t living out the values they are preaching, then your employees are going to take notice and share with everyone.
The Dust Won’t Settle
As the famous Kelly Rossman would say – own, apologize, fix. There is no “wait and see.” Many companies don’t want to pay for crisis management whether it’s in preparation for a potential crisis or in response to one. They think if they ignore it, it’ll go away.
SpinSucks says when brands don’t react immediately to actions or remarks that their audiences consider offensive, they are viewed as being insensitive or even complicit in the offense.
There is No One Size Fits All
Issuing a generic, emotionless statement ,which has more than likely been written and edited no less than 15 times, is not your best move. Everyone knows you’re full of sh*t and just trying to cover your ass.
Own it, apologize for it and take action to fix the damn thing you screwed up. This can be done in a variety of ways, but we’re not going to spill our secrets. You’ll just need to hire us to find out how to cover your ass.
The Media is Unforgiving
To be blunt, the mainstream media does not give a flying f*ck about your statement and they have no qualms calling it like they see it. If you made a racist comment, they are going to refer to you as a racist. If your comment was misogynistic, you’re a sexist.
Tweets, TikToks, Reels and More
Instagram, Meta (gross), TikTok, Twitter and all their users are out there breaking news on the regular. More people get news from their Twitter feed than they do CNN.
Traditional media are not the only ones reporting on bad behavior, does anyone remember the Twitter account from a staffer inside the Trump White House? Staffers were reporting on Trump’s behavior and it drove him batty (well more so than he was).
Every single company nowadays should have a crisis plan and it needs to take everything we’ve shared in this blog into account.
More about Kim:
Bode loves small businesses, almost as much as she does dogs, so she spends her time happy houring, advocating and writing about them. She shares her thoughts on leadership, culture and communications on her blog, Small Biz Musings and 8THIRTYFOUR’s podcast, Happy Hour Hustle. She has also written sensational articles on the reboot of The Gilmore Girls and a host of other subjects in Huffington Post, Thrive, Entrepreneur, Authority Magazine and more.
Surrounding herself with small business owners led her to serve on the Small Business Association of Michigan’s Legislative Action Council and Leadership Council Advisory Committee. Don’t worry, she also passes her knowledge of things onto college students by supporting all Dr. Adrienne Wallace’s efforts to mold young minds through GrandPR and Grand Valley State University’s PRSSA.
Supporting women is another passion of Bode’s and she lives it out by serving on the Inforum Regional Council and their event committee. She has brought in people like Tarana Burke, founder of the Me Too Movement and Sarah Thomas, the first female NFL official to chat with the West Michigan community.
She also sits on the board for the Cascade Community Foundation, the North Quarter Corridor Improvement Authority and is a board advisor for the Michigan Women in Defense chapter.
When Bode isn’t networking and serving, she is hanging at her cabin in the woods with her incredibly supportive husband and seven dogs.
Kim’s community engagement includes:
- Legislative Action Council Member, Small Business Association of Michigan
- Leadership Council Advisory Committee Member, Small Business Association of Michigan
- Agency Partner, GrandPR
- Agency Partner, Grand Valley State University PRSSA
- Regional Council Member, Inforum Michigan
- Board Advisor, Women in Defense Michigan Chapter
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