1. Managing a Flash Crisis: How to Handle
Online Criticism of Your Organization
#12NTCCrisis
Adele Cehrs
President, Epic PR Group

2. Evaluate This Session!
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3. When negative posts go viral…
•A flash crisis can erupt
•According to PRWeek, Only 9% of staff monitoring social media
have previous experience in communications
•74% of employees say it’s easy to damage a reputation on social
media
•49% of decision makers believe social media has made
them more vulnerable to crisis
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4. Nonprofits aren’t immune to
crisis
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5. What we’re going to do
Eight ways to prepare & respond
to online crises
Scenario training
Nonprofit crisis flowchart
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6. 1. Prepare for Potential Crisis Issues
Evaluate the situation & understand potential risks
Know the 5 Ws – Who to call, When to call, Where
to call and Why to call.
Update communication contingency plans
Tools you can use
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7. 2. Assemble a Crisis Response
Team
Be open, yet limit people involved
Know the “right” people– legal, PR, digital,
executive
Follow the plan
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8. 3. Monitor Online Platforms
• Can’t address what you don’t know
• Assign staff to monitor Twitter/Facebook in
real time
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9. 4. To Respond or to not Respond?
• Keys to understanding when to respond – W.H.O.
• Who affects
• How affects
• Outcome potential
• Positive language
• Responding to customer service issues/concerns
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10. 5. Provide Positive Digital Content
• Conversations will happen: Push the “RIGHT” content
before & after event
• Develop “Event Editorial Calendar”
• Offer posts, Tweets, Blogs and LinkedIn updates
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11. 6. Recruit Members & Fans
• Events have fans: Find yours
• Influence the Influencers
• Structured participation
• Provide examples
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12. 7. Be Transparent
• Nobody is perfect – problems will arise
• Be honest
• Tell how you are generally addressing the
issue
• Everyone wants to be heard – let
attendees know you are listening
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13. 8. Remain Calm
• It’s not personal (usually)
• Don’t cloud your judgment – respond rationally; not
emotionally
• You cannot do EVERYTHING
•Lean on your team
•Bring in the experts
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14. How would you handle a
flash crisis?
We have several scenarios for group
discussion
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15. Scenario #1
A long-standing member of your nonprofit is sharply negative about
all aspects of the organization: leaders, staff, strategy, execution, etc.
He actively and publicly shares his viewpoints through e-mail,
association-sponsored discussion forums, Twitter, Facebook and his
own blog, which has a small but dedicated readership. He often uses
erroneous or skewed information to support his criticisms and is generally
intransigent when confronted with accurate information.
To date, the organization’s leaders have been reluctant to respond to him; a
few early attempts went badly, and the Board of Directors comforts itself
with the argument that “Everyone knows he’s crazy, so we don’t have to
worry about him.”
However, emboldened by the Board’s silence, he has increased the
frequency and the vitriol of his attacks, and is now questioning the
Board’s integrity as well as its decisions. The President has asked you
to suggest a course of action to deal with him.
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16. Scenario #2
Your nonprofit advocates to bring healthy nutrition to children
across the USA. You frequently share industry news, trends, and
tips on your Facebook page.
Your new staff member accidently publishes a link to a
controversial op/ed piece about your industry, and fans
and followers interpret it as your company’s stance on the issue,
sparking an online debate on your Facebook page.
Some posts are getting heated and even inappropriate, as the
op/ed topic is a very sensitive issue within your industry.
Do you encourage the debate? Where do you draw the line
between healthy discourse and unproductive chatter?
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17. Scenario #3
You are the communications manager for a trade association that
represents the statics industry. You’ve got thousands of Twitter
followers .You have an intern on staff operating the Facebook
and Twitter pages. In a devastating slip-up, your intern mixes up
her personal Twitter with the company’s Twitter and posts this:
“The membership at my internship is comprised of the most
boring, socially awkward people I’ve ever met. Can’t believe I’m
working, unpaid to do data entry and talk to these nerds all day.”
The post is being re-tweeted like wildfire. Do you address the
mix-up? If so, what is your approach?
Later, a reporter from Mashable is on the phone and
wants a quote from you about the intern-Twitter disaster.
You’ve deleted the post but screenshots are all over the
internet.
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18. Scenario #4
You are the social media manager for an organization
involved with food safety, sustainability, and promotes
organic farming.
One of your corporate partners is a high-profile natural
grocery chain that claims to sell all-natural, organic products.
A group of angry mothers, dissatisfied with the quality of the
chain’s produce, have banded together to publicly boycott the
company. They’ve established a negative hashtag, launched a
blog, and are staging protests on both the grocery store’s
Facebook, and your own, for your connecting to the company.
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19. What’s your risk?
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20. Thank you for your time today!
Adele Cehrs
President, Epic PR Group
@EpicPRGroupDC
www.epicprgroup.com
adele@epicprgroup.com
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