7 response modes for a crisis

For any organization, a crisis can quickly become a social media firestorm.

Here are seven responses (the first five are inspired by Roger Ailes’ book “You Are The Message“) that you might consider when a crisis befalls your organization:

1. Attack: “I want to make clear that we have always complied with the law and that these charges are a result of having an overzealous prosecutor who desperately wants to become mayor.”

2. Defend: “We knew this decision would be controversial with some people, but we made it because we felt-and still feel-that it was the right thing to do. In order to serve our customers better for the long term, we had to make a difficult decision in the short term.”

3. Counterattack: “Of course our competitor is saying negative things about our new product. They haven’t had a successful product launch in five years, so they’re trying to make people forget about their own dismal track record.”