2: Quash the threat

Get ahead of the crisis!

Years ago someone I knew began to spread malicious lies amongst my circle of friends and colleagues about a project my mother and had been involved in.

I ignored the slander for few years, confident in our innocence, however the vacuum of my silence was filled by the person in question who kept spreading the falsehoods.

The result of which was a slight yet unwelcome hit to my mother’s and my own reputation.It taught me a significant lesson.

Had I dealt with the falsehoods upfront, I would have quashed any latter attempts to ruin my mother’s and my own reputation.

Be as it may I did what I should have done years ago – my mother and I gathered the facts and information we needed to counter the lies.

We sent a notice to the person involved to cease the lies and clarified our position to our colleagues and trusted friends on a needs-to-know basis.

We then kept the crucial facts handy should we ever need to legally defend ourselves in future. In other words:

• Avoid the potential risks you’ve identified; and

• Develop a response plan incase the risks materialise. Gather all the facts and politely yet firmly confront any slanderers  efficiently and privately.  

• Get infront of the wave - When a crisis hits, don't wait for the full strategy to evolve because the story will quickly get out of your control. If your brand or your good name is being blamed as being at fault or slandered, acknowledge the crisis / crisis victim at once and send a statement that you're personally looking into it.

If the crisis is already playing out in the public arena, tweet, post and text as the brand leader - and let your statement of honesty and transparency be the story.

If it has yet to spread wider, contain it by dealing with the issue upfront and directly with the accuser / victim / slanderer.

Should you ever decide legal action is required, see Step 6 that discusses working with mediators to settle the matter before it costs you in court.

A crisis won't wait for your entire PR and crisis team to work out the full response strategy so lead from the front by communicating and responding transparently and with empathy. 

Think on it.