Battling misperceptions

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Battling misperceptions negative attitudes
under clouds of mistrust
Lessons from the front line Budapest Thursday,
November 12, 2009 Mike Seymour International
Director, Crisis Issues Management
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US Director Harlan Loeb
November 2009
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2009 Edelman Trust Barometer
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2008 A year unlike any other
Dow Jones Industrial Average Jan 1, 2008 Dec
15, 2008
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Edelman Trust Barometer at a glance
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The Never Changing First Management Challenge
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From Influence to Conversations
Pyramid of Influence
Sphere of Cross Information
Opinion Forming Elite
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Balancing Conventional against Online Media
Traditional top-down model
T A L K
Horizontal peer-to-peer model
ENGAGE
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Characteristics of Issues Crisis Management
Communications

• Issues and problems in the public domain
• When perceptions become more powerful than
  reality
• When communication vacuums are filled with
  rumour, speculation, allegations accusations

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Winning Back Trust Re-Building Reputation -
The Crisis Realities

• In crisis communications cease to be about
  wresting back maintaining control must now
  focus on
• Listening understanding internal external
  points of view
• Responding communicating
• Openly transparently
• Consistently, everywhere, all the time

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Winning Back Trust Re-Building Reputation -
The Crisis Realities

• In crisis communications cease to be about
  wresting back maintaining control must now
  focus on
• Listening understanding internal external
  points of view
• Responding communicating
• Openly transparently
• Consistently , everywhere, all the time
• In crisis the corporate suite has to realise that
• Silence is never golden it breeds suspicion
  erodes trust
• No comment in any form has now come to be
  interpreted as obfuscating, hiding the truth or
  lying

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Battling misperceptions negative attitudes
under clouds of mistrust
Lessons from the front line Budapest Thursday,
November 12, 2009 Mike Seymour International
Director, Crisis Issues Management