Goldman Sachs got a massive billion dollar bailout from the US Treasury at the height of the financial crisis. Now, the investment firm appears to be in need of a crisis communications bailout.

Goldman's new annual report devotes no less than a dozen pages to "risk factors" like see-sawing financial markets, natural disasters and, yes, bad press.

According to Goldman, "adverse publicity" poses a "negative impact" on its reputation and its employee morale and performance. The firm warns investors that a steady stream of unflattering news coverage "could adversely affect our business and results."

Read the whole Wall Street Journal story for details.

Labels: Crisis Communications, Financial Crisis, Goldman Sachs

Jerry Pollio with CMT Marketing offers some insights supported by research that should be of interest to many in business. Here's what he discovered:

A difficult economy has helped spur small businesses to adopt social media marketing in greater numbers, according to “The State of Small Business Report” from Network Solutions and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business. Social media usage increased to 24%, from 12% the year before.

The most common usage of social media among small business was a company page on a social networking site, followed by posting status updates.

Small businesses’ expectations of social media seem roughly to be in line with their experiences, although they are not quite as successful as they had hoped. Respondents’ top accomplishments were customer acquisition and placing their own businesses within the market, but did not meet expectations fully. Social media’s capabilities for staying engaged with consumers and collaborating with other businesses, however, were more in line with businesses’ expectations.

Most small businesses say they are just breaking even with their current usage of social media, but a solid one-fifth find it profitable already. Businesses are positive about the potential as well: Nearly one-half believe it will make them money in the next 12 months, and another 39% think they will break even on it. Just 9% think social marketing will continue to be a losing proposition.

Overall, 58% of respondents felt social media lived up to their expectations. One-half felt it took up more time than they realized, but only 6% claimed negative comments on social media had hurt their business.

“Social media levels the playing field for small businesses by helping them deliver customer service,” said Janet Wagner, director of the Center for Excellence in Service, in a statement. “Time spent on Twitter, Facebook and blogs is an investment in making it easier for small businesses to compete.”

Previous research on small businesses and social media use revealed a somewhat rocky relationship. A Citibank study indicated social media was not working well for small businesses’ lead gen efforts, but other data showed small companies would be upping spending in the channel.

What has been your experience? How much in resources are you dedicating towards these platforms?

What platforms do you dedicate most of your time and resources?

We should point out that Jerry created the de La Garza Public Relations website and made it fully integrated with current social media tools. de La Garza's experience with our new website and social media is in line with what Jerry reports in his commentary. We have been posting new blogs two or three times a week and updating our Facebook and LinkedIn pages on a weekly basis. We have been very pleased with the results from our social media efforts.

Labels: Social Media, Social Media Results

An unfortunate communications failure is proving costly for a promising Hispanic candidate in Texas.

Debra Medina, the Hispanic candidate in the Texas Republican primary for Governor, and her campaign now appear to be in crisis mode. The crisis stems from a poll showing that her response to a question about the 9/11 attacks in a nationally broadcast interview has seriously eroded her support with Texans.

According to Public Policy Poling, voter support for Ms. Medina is declining with less than a week to campaign and clarify her comments before the March 2nd Republican primary.

The poll shows that voter support for Ms. Medina has fallen to 20 percent.

The survey also reports that half of Texas voters believe Ms. Medina may support the theory that the federal government was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

A Hispanic candidate, whose campaign was appearing to get traction in the primary, is now more focused on crisis communications than on communicating her messages.

Some will blame the media for Ms. Medina's slipping support when the fault actually rests with her campaign. She was asked a question about a topic for which she had not been provided a well thought out prepared statement. So she strayed off message, improvised, and lost control of the interview. The unfortunate reality is that the media misstep could have been avoided or easily finessed.

In our media training sessions, we counsel clients to always stay on message and, when asked an unexpected question, to steer the conversation back to their message. We call that "bridging." It's one of many valuable lessons, which we teach clients in how to exercise greater control in media interviews.

The media can work for or against you. You determine the outcome of any interview with the media. While you can not control the media, you can control your message.

Loss of control comes from straying off message. The resulting damage can be catastrophic. In this case, we won't have to wait long to find out how damaging.

Labels: Crisis Communications, Texas GOP gubernatorial primary

A massive product recall like that of Toyota's is the worst case crisis scenario for any CEO.

And for good reason - any product recall on a massive scale focuses worldwide media and public attention squarely on the CEO and the corporate management team. In a statement reported worldwide today, Mr. Toyoda was forced to admit that Toyota's rapid expansion may have led to safety issues causing the recall of nearly 9 million vehicles. Toyota is facing potential criminal charges for its alleged actions and, in some cases, suspected inactions. And Toyota sales are in a free fall.

This is the kind of crisis that shadows every CEO 24/7.

Toyota's crisis ranks up there with the worst of the worst. The history of high profile product recalls is a disturbing list.

It's an infamous list that Mr. Toyoda never imagined would be associated with his company. And the worst of the crisis for Mr. Toyoda and Toyota is that the worst may be yet to come.

Tiger Woods will return to the PGA Tour long before his brand makes any kind of recovery. That is the opinion of a branding expert interviewed by the New York Times of February 22. It is interesting reading and has applications to other well known and troubled brand names such as Toyota.

You can read it in its entirety at: Is the Tiger Woods Brand Beyond Repair.

Please share your thoughts with us. We'd like to hear what you think.

Labels: Crisis Communications, Tiger Woods. Branding

Tiger Woods finally spoke for himself this morning in an appearance before a worldwide audience. Let's see where he went right and went wrong. In golf parlance, we'd say that Tiger shot an uneven round today and finished over par. He made some money shots but others cost him precious strokes.

On the positive side, TW said all of the right things to all the right people - his wife, children, mother, sponsors, fellow PGA players, kids and parents reached by his foundation, and the public. He apologized several times, accepted full blame, showed remorse, asked for forgiveness, demonstrated emotion, acknowledged that he cheated, confirmed that he's undergoing therapy and has more to come, and promised to return to his ideals and to the PGA Tour. These were all the right things to say and do, and he addressed them to all the right people.

TW's appearance was too structured, too choreographed, too scripted and, unfortunately, too contrived. Surely his professional handlers advised him otherwise only to be over ruled by Tiger. The audience was limited to his mother and a dozen close friends and associates. And they were there just to listen and to provide a "live" audience for his mea culpa.

TW should not have limited access to the press and allowed no media questions. This strategy only communicates a message of entitlement as in "I am Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer ever and I am entitled to certain benefits and special treatment." Some invited media apparently passed because of the strict limitations, refusing to be used as mere window dressing. And understandably so.

TW aggravated matters by exhibiting and expressing anger at the press for false reports and violating the privacy of his family, especially his children. He did not stray off message, his anger was scripted. Showing anger was a crude and needless departure from his message of apology and responsibility. The display of anger clearly did not fit and it was misdirected. TW has only himself to blame when it comes to the press.

The press offered Tiger every opportunity all along the way to tell his side of the story. TW received some great offers from friendly media sources. He instead avoided the media much as he stiffed the law. In the process, he raised reasonable suspicions - "What's he hiding?" So, Tiger lashed out at the press for pursuing the story. He actually should be blaming himself for not coming forward sooner and for allowing rumors, misinformation and innuendo to flourish and feed a media ravenous for any information. He left an informational void that others were only too happy to fill.

But there is something more serious that is needling the media right about now. The Tiger Woods that he showed in public and cultivated with the press was a lie. The press fell for it and now it feels as wronged as Tiger's wife. Just as Tiger's wife demanded answers, so too does the press.

There is much more to come. We've not heard the end of it.

Labels: Crisis Communications, Media Relations, Tiger Woods

The sports agent for Tiger Woods has announced that on Friday his client will face a select group of friends and associates with whom to talk and confide his behavior - past, present and future. A small pool of reporters will be permitted at the gathering but only to listen, observe and report. TW will not respond to any questions from the news media and, presumably, from his attentive audience. Reporters generally despise being used as window dressing and otherwise would take a pass. And this carefully staged managed affair is purposely being held on a Friday to limit coverage to the weekend news cycle.

Oh good grief.

Tiger should ditch his agent and do precisely the opposite tomorrow.

TW is better off taking advantage of the media in attendance to finally get out his story and in a way that provides optimum credibility for him. If we were advising the Sultan of Swat, our suggestion would be that he get his story straight, focus on specific messages supporting his story, and that he stay on message. He should field questions and use them to drive home his story. And if the media persists and doubts, he should just say, "That's my story and I am sticking to it!"

TW has an opportunity to respond to all the rumors, innuendo, Blogs, and salacious news reports. The Tiger Woods of old was not above ignoring his caddy's advice and going for broke on the 72nd hole to win a major tournament. So why is he playing it safe on this opportunity?! And doing so in such a fabricated fashion that is absolutely void of any credibility.

Tiger has surprised and amazed us with what he is capable of pulling off on any given PGA Tour event.

Tiger Woods tomorrow needs to perform like he has on the golf course. Go ahead, Tiger, be a Tiger.

Tune in tomorrow.

Labels: Crisis Communications, Media Relations, Tiger Woods