BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

David Letterman did a bad thing. On his Thursday night program, he admitted to having sex with female staff members who worked with him on his show and that a man had tried to extort $2 million from him to keep that fact a secret. Letterman told his live studio audience that he had admitted to the relationships during testimony earlier that very day before a New York grand jury. He also said that the extortionist ... READ MORE

In times of adversity, there is nothing more important than surrounding yourself with the right people. Effective crisis management always starts with an abundance mentality - a desire to first understand as many different perspectives as time will allow before seeking to be understood by the myriad stakeholders that are awaiting your next move. That's how strong leaders find the win-win in any situation, how they turn adversaries into partners, and how they identify opportunity ... READ MORE

When emergency situations arise in highly-populated areas such as college campuses or large office buildings, those responsible for getting vital information to those that need it are put to the test. Anyone in harm's way must know what to do to remain safe and secure. Students, employees, their families, the surrounding community, and the media all need to be kept informed of developments as they occur and misinformation must be corrected in near real-time. To ... READ MORE

It's been 57 years since Richard Nixon saved his political career with the Checkers speech, artfully amalgamating regret, apology, and defiance. At day's end he had proven two seemingly contradictory messages - that he was politically astute and that he was as human as any one of the millions of voters watching. In recent years, political life has gotten both more transparent and more complicated as career-decisive apologies proliferate. We've discovered that apologies in and of ... READ MORE

Last week, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that crystallizes the preeminent challenge of crisis communications in the Information Age. The piece is entitled "The Ten Year Century" - and in it, Tom Hayes and Michael Malone chronicle modern society's dizzying pace of change and what it means to each and every one of us. Hayes and Malone point to a decade that has seen massive technological growth (and an even larger expansion ... READ MORE

Conversations about products and brands used to be held around the dinner table, over the backyard fence, or in the aisles of the local supermarket. Now, they're taking place on the blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and countless other social media platforms - and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking notice. With an increasing number of consumers turning to the Web for what they believe to be disinterested and unbiased product reviews, concerns about the potential for ... READ MORE

In today's e-commerce environment, data loss and theft represents many organizations' worst nightmare. Each time consumers use a credit card or submit other forms of personal information to a company - either online or off - they have a reasonable expectation that the information will be kept safe. It's about trust. When that trust is compromised, companies are instantly thrust into a reputational crisis of epic proportions. I recently spoke with Chris Hayes - who authors ... READ MORE

It took a week, but Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos finally did the right thing - and in the end, what Amazon did to create a controversy about its popular Kindle device, and how it handled the fallout, offer valuable lessons for companies on the cutting edge of the digital media economy. It all started with an old book, ironically George Orwell's 1984, which tells the story of a totalitarian dictatorship overseen by a mysterious tyrant called ... READ MORE

Add United Airlines to the list of companies that have now experienced social media's power to ensure consumers' voices are heard. The airline found itself out of tune earlier this month after a satirical music video describing poor customer service exploded virally. This video is yet another reminder that the Web has fundamentally changed crisis communications for good. The YouTube video by musician Dave Carroll, "United Breaks Guitars," details how United baggage handlers allegedly broke his ... READ MORE

On Friday, President Obama said he "could have calibrated" his words more carefully when he criticized the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Applying a classic crisis communications term to justify his statements, the President said he hoped the case would provide "a teachable moment" to spur improved relations between minorities and the police. Better he should have obeyed another PR shibboleth: Know the facts before you enter a fight. By jumping into the ... READ MORE