Good reputation management helps you follow the first rule of crisis communications. Don’t have a crisis.

SPEAKER: MARC BARNES —

Manage your reputation well and the chances that you will have a business-ending crisis are greatly lessened. I will talk about good ways to manage a reputation – and what to do if a crisis happens. 

Our tagline is Consider tomorrow. Today.

What that means is that you build a foundation, a backdrop, against which future events can be judged. When you do that – and do that well – both the media and your audience are not as likely to believe bad news about you and are likely to rally to your defense.  An example that I cite are two community banks in the Triad. The two had an identical percentage loss in one quarter. For the bank that had pursued public relations, the loss was seen as a bump in the road. For the other, which had not, it was seen as the end. Several years later, the bank with the good reputation sold at a profit. The other sold at a loss, because of public perception.

SPEAKER: MARC BARNES