After the shooting of Trayvon Martin in late February, the public was in an uproar as to how the case was being handled. Crisis communications executives with public relations firms from South Florida and across the nation shuddered at the seemingly bungled events that followed, whether by the Sanford (Florida) Police Department or the local district attorney. From TV news shows to social media outlets, the case continues to be watched closely.

For business owners and executives, it offers a valuable lesson in crisis communications management.

After seven weeks, George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who shot Martin, 17, was charged with second degree murder. Yet, from a public relations standpoint, the reputation of the Sanford Police Department suffered. Many believe the department could have done more to avoid the public scrutiny it faces today.

From the beginning, Chief Bill Lee appeared dismissive when asked about the investigation. He could have released statements that focus on what his department was doing to help with the investigation; instead he focused on how there was nothing to rebut Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense.

Then, on March 22, Lee “temporarily” stepped down from his post.

His lack of communication with the media and the public may have potentially lost him his job.

Less than a week later, the department released a statement warning members of the media to “refrain from approaching, phoning or emailing city employees when they are in their roles as private citizens…Law enforcement officials will not hesitate to make an arrest for stalking.” Crisis communication professionals balked. Threatening the media with arrest, except in situations where their presence could cause harm, generally is ill-advised. Sure enough, a day later, Sanford Police issued another statement rescinding the previous statement.

But the Sanford Police Department did manage to do one thing right. When a group of local students demonstrated outside the department, the police made no arrests. Instead of adding fuel to the fire, the police allowed the public to exercise its First Amendment rights. In the end, the students got their message across, and the police department earned some credibility for treating them respectfully.

Much remains to be done before the Trayvon Martin case comes to the close. From this point forward, though, it’s advisable for the Sanford Police Department to be responsive and transparent, to stick to the facts, and never to dismiss the chance to communicate openly and honestly with the media and the public. Such an approach certainly would have saved face for the department, and could well have saved one chief’s job.

Florida’s strong Cuban community is gung-ho for two things quintessentially American — the first, of course, capitalism, and the second, baseball. So when Time Magazine quoted Marlins Manager Ozzie Guillen saying, “I love Fidel Castro” this past weekend, things got a little fishy.

The Cuban community has made their voices loud and clear on this one, demanding that Guillen be fired from his post. The comment is not only insanely offensive, but it comes after the inauguration of the brand new Marlins stadium built in Little Havana this year. Who’s tax money do you think helped get that job done?

Today, Guillen inaugurated a crisis communications plan in attempt to make up for his hurtful words. “This is the biggest mistake of my life,” he said to a press conference. “When you make a mistake this big…I will learn from it.”

But honestly, Guillen is going to do have to do a tad bit better than that to win back the respect of the Latino and South Florida community at large. Suspended for five games, Guillen will have some time away from the ballpark to hopefully enact a smarter plan of action.

Guillen needs to stop talking the talk and start walking the walk. He should take pause to truly educate himself on why it was that his words were so painful and ignorant, and share his reflections with the public. In his return on April 17th — ironically, the anniversary of the Bay of Pigs Invasion — hopefully Guillen will address us with wise words on the day. He should look at this coincidental date as a public relations miracle, and correctly preparing for it may be the best way  to recover from the scandal.

O’Dwyers, a publication focusing on public relations news and marketing communications, recently wrote a guide to crisis communications where various public relations firms were featured, including Boardroom Communications.

Boardroom’s experienced staff of public relations professionals frequently handles high-profile crisis projects and public affairs campaigns each year. Some of them include but are not limited to litigation, product recalls, criminal charges, hostile takeovers and much more.

Boardroom Communications has experience in responding to urgent threats, developing crisis communications plans, evaluating  the situation, mitigating the risks and dealing with your most important audience i.e. the media, employees, stakeholders, etc.

Crisis communication is very important and a necessary part of public relations that Boardroom Communications prides itself on.

To read more about crisis communications in public relations firms visit O’Dwyers website or take a look at the publication printed in January.

For professional service firms, reputation and first impressions are very important.  Promoting and perfecting the personal reputations of those in professional service firms must be more closely and constantly honed and protected.  Any imperfection on the brand can have long-lasting adverse effects that can be difficult to remove. To continue reading this story, click here.

As a South Florida public relations firm, we’ve seen the damage that the absence of a crisis communications plan can cause to any organization. The most recent example on the national stage came earlier this month when Susan G. Komen for the Cure cut funding from Planned Parenthood. Now, Komen — the largest national breast cancer non-profit — has a new mandate: To reel in the pink ribbions it’s been threading all over the media and take corrective action.

Reversing its plans to deny funding to Planned Parenthood on Friday, Komen has some serious damage control ahead to combat the 72-hour media storm it created.

Komen found itself inundated with criticism when it publically announced it would no longer provide funding for Planned Parenthood’s breast exam and educational activities geared toward low-income women. The premise for the cut: Komen would not support organizations under “investigation.” Planned Parenthood was facing a questionable inquiry by Republican lawmakers. It didn’t help Komen that a vice president was an ardent and vocal right-to-life supporter.

It’s no surprise that the move resulted in a national backlash against an otherwise highly respected organization. People withdrew support. Some women’s advocates cried foul. Even its California offices issued a statement decrying the decision.

Huffington Post described the move as “one of the most boneheaded political miscalculations that will have serious ramifications for Komen: supporters won’t forget this for years to come.”

First, Komen president Nancy Goodman Brinker hit the web with a video supporting its decision. Then days later and facing the backlash from supporters and women’s groups, Komen amended its statements to only cut funding to groups under investigations that are “criminal and conclusive in nature and not political.”

This is no way to fight a national P.R. fiasco.

Komen needs to enact a simple but effective crisis communications plan to clarify that it’s an organization that helps women. Like any organization, it must consider the potential publicity and negative ramifications of its actions before making moves or statements.

If it seeks to cut funding to various organizations it has supported in the past – a move that’s completely within its right – it must make sure the cuts don’t reek of politics or frivolous, agenda-motivated policy.

We give Komen kudos for recognizing its egregious error and taking action to right its course. But it now needs to stress that its mission as an organization is in tandem with that of Planned Parenthood – two organizations striving to better women’s health.

Then, it should get a crisis communications plan in place.

“Micky Arison should take ownership and get in front of the story,” said Boardroom’s president, Julie Talenfeld, in response to how Costa and Carnival should have responded to the Jan. 13th deadly accident. The current PR approach has both Costa and Carnival’s Doral headquarters under fire – especially after reports of the company offering shipwreck survivors a 30% discount on their next cruise. Media around the world has picked up the story – giving Carnival yet another crisis. CBS Morning show expressed amazement at the offer and the New York Post branded it as “tactless.”

The Miami Hearld reached out to our very own, Julie Talenfeld, for her expert advice and was quoted in today’s article, “Carnival Cruise Lines faces a hostile PR tide.” Click here to read full article.

In the age of the Internet where virtually all previous online contents lives forever, reputation management can pose its challenges.  That’s why it is important to closely monitor the Internet, social media and review sites to listen in to what is being said about you – or someone with the same or a similar name.  “Lawyers Struggling at Managing Reputations” as published in the Daily Business Review shows all of us what can happen to an unsuspecting attorney or businessperson, if they do not have a handle on what is being said online.  Simple tools like Google Alerts work well for some while others choose to subscribe to a reputation management monitoring service.  Boardroom uses MyRepMan for selected clients.  You should consider a monitoring program for yourself.

To read the full DBR article, please click here.

Our recent LMA media panel led by Boardroom COO Don Silver was a resounding success.  Panelists Julie Kay, Daily Business Review and Paul Brinkmann, South Florida Business Journal did a great job describing the best of the best and worst of the worst law firm crisis management war stories to an audience of mostly senior legal marketing pros at Greenberg Traurig’s Miami office.

The program was moderated by Don Silver, who led off with a brief primer on the top 10 ways that law firms can prepare themselves for and manage through a crisis.  The plan was to have Julie and Paul share a couple of examples of law firm crises they had covered in the past, but the discussion quickly turned into a roundtable with full audience participation.

Lessons learned for speakers and moderators:  Always be aware of what your audience wants.  That’s why the program was almost immediately opened up for member participation and the planned case study exorcise was set aside.

Those wishing to become involved in LMA’s South Florida CityGroup can contact Co-Chairs Jennifer Clarin of Boardroom Communications (954) 370-8999 or Susan Greene of  Becker & Poliakoff (954)985-4124.

What’s worse than being a liar? Falsely – and knowingly – accusing someone else of being one.

Completely unconnected yet intrinsically linked, both Penn State and Syracuse universities are under fire for child molestation charges surrounding athletic coaches.  While the charges against former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky have been hovering publicly over the university for weeks, the allegations against Big Orange’s associate head basketball coach, Bernie Fine, surfaced just Sunday night.

Both universities have done a poor job handling media relations – and both have used possibly the worst public relations move in the books: Accusing the accusers, without a shred of supporting evidence.

When the charges against Fine initially were brought to light, Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim was anything but sympathetic to the three alleged victims who came forward. He called them “liars” in the media and accused them of just being out for the money. Similarly, now-former Penn State University President Graham Spanier implied in his media release that the victims in Sandusky’s case were lying: “I am confident the record will show that these charges are groundless,” he wrote.

Besides being boldly insensitive, it was a big mistake.

In both situations, the price is high for covering-up information and completely disregarding victims’ legitimate allegations. Yet one school is learning from the other’s blunders. While Penn State foot-dragged and cancelled press conferences, Syracuse has been proactive in its crisis communications plan. For that, it should be commended.  In an effort not to repeat the serious lapses of Penn State — and after seeing Spainer lose his job — Syracuse Chancellor Nancy Cantor has taken the right steps to uncover the cover-up.

In a release Sunday night, the school announced upfront and outright, “At the direction of Chancellor Cantor, Bernie Fine’s employment with Syracuse University has been terminated, effective immediately.” No games. No deflections of blame. No cover-ups. And Cantor wants you to know this is under her order.

As a Sports Illustrated column so eloquently explains, “Syracuse is learning a lesson from Penn State, a lesson that every university and major institution needs to learn: When an accusation like this hits you, don’t hit back.  And the best way to protect yourself is not to look like you’re protecting yourself at all.”

And that’s no lie.

With 46 seasons as the head coach of a prestigious football program, more victories than any other major college coach and two national championships, it’s a shame that Penn State’s Joe Paterno might be ending his legacy with such a disgraceful final chapter.

Jerry Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator for the Nittany Lions, was arrested on 40 charges, including sexually abusing eight boys across a 15-year period. Following his arrest, Paterno and university President Graham Spanier have come under fire for failing to report what they knew of the allegations.

This is a serious issue and the university needs to implement a proper crisis communications plan in order to salvage the reputation of the school and its officials. So, what has Penn State done?

Release a statement from Paterno and elect the PR approach of evading all questions. Paterno stated that he was not neglectful and at the time he referred the matter to university administrators. He hoped to continue with the weekly press conference scheduled for yesterday afternoon requesting that media questions only pertained to this weekend’s game against Nebraska and stating, “In the meantime I would ask all Penn Staters to continue to trust in what that name represents… and not let these events shake their beliefs nor who they are.”

Nice try. In the wake of a major scandal involving a beloved football program, do we really think limiting the media’s question is the best way to go? No, Penn State canceled the press conference less than an hour before its scheduled time. Over 100 media members from local and national media were handed a brief statement and turned away. Paterno also canceled his appearance on the weekly Big Ten coaches conference call.

Penn State needs a better crisis plan and face the music, or in this case, the media. Avoiding the media is only raising more questions. Dodging questions and canceling events gives off the feeling that there is something to hide.

Had the press conference gone on as scheduled, Paterno and Penn State would’ve been able to tell the story from their side. Instead the media got their information elsewhere. Anyone familiar with media relations can tell you: the media will not take kindly to being kept in the dark.

On Tuesday night, Paterno took it upon himself and addressed the media and students outside his home hoping to save his reputation in the eyes of the students. However, this morning Paterno confirmed that he will retire at the end of the season, ending 62 years on the Penn State coaching staff – and is potentially facing criminal charges for perjury, obstruction of justice and violating the state’s Child Protective Services Law (According to SportsIllustrated.com).

“With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.”  – Paterno’s closing statement.