Crisis Media Training Top Quotes & Top Tips
It’s an unwelcome thought – wondering how your company would cope in an emergency with the media demanding interviews and statements. The skills learnt in a crisis media training should give you peace of mind.
Understanding the journalist’s agenda is a great way to ensure you provide the necessary information and do not allow others to fill the vacuum. At the same time you need to avoid being hurried or bullied into releasing sensitive information prematurely or agreeing to a line of questioning you will later regret. Cool heads must prevail.
Organisations will be forgiven for making mistakes (we all make mistakes), what cannot be forgiven or forgotten would be a dismissive attitude to customers, stakeholders and the public. The challenge in any interview is to talk with your heart as well as your head.
I’ve included some of my favourite quotes on this page.
Crisis Media Training Top Tips
1. If you don’t talk to journalists – others will fill the vacuum
2. Speed is of the essence
3. Be aware of journalists’ deadlines
4. Only trained spokespeople should talk to the media
5. Don’t assume the journalist’s “facts” are correct
6. Give confirmed information only
7. Say when and where further information will be available
8. Ensure social media is consistent and helpful
9. Show you care and think of the victims
10. Remember most companies will suffer crises at some point, responding responsibly and effectively will avert reputational damage.
“If you’re in a hole stop digging”
“In time of crisis people want to know that you care, more than they care what you know,”
“When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters – one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity,”
‘if you don’t tell your story someone else will,”
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently,”
“Always acknowledge a fault frankly. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you the opportunity to make more,”
“It is generally much more shameful to lose a good reputation than never to have acquired it,”
“What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself,”