If you were ask athletic officials at Syracuse or Penn State a couple of months ago whether they would need to have a comprehensive crisis communications plan in effect, the answer would likely be what we hear from a number of other rival schools.
"No, it isn't going to happen to us and we have an in-house staff."
The two unfortunate incidents at both major schools highlights the need to be prepared for a media frenzy that often times occurs in the 24-hour news cycle, fueled by blogs and accented by the internet.
When we conduct communications/social media training sessions around the country, we always offer to include a concise plan in the event of a crisis. Some of the schools wisely include that in the program; others say it won't happen to them.
To use a golf metaphor, it's always good to have that extra club in your bag. Developing a well thought out, easy to understand plan for dealing with the media is a necessary element in any professional or college program's must do list.
As seen in both the Syracuse and PSU cases, common mistakes in dealing with issues arise quickly and deteriorate rapidly:
--Failure to have one spokesman for the program. Too many different people offering often conflicting opinions and theories.
--Addressing rumors and innuendo, giving more credence to unsubstantiated
charges.
--Making generalized statements at the beginning that often come back to haunt an individual, team or program.
--Offering the dreaded "no comment" to requests from both social, new and traditional media, giving the appearance there is more there than exists and providing a window for reporters to dig deeper.
--Misunderstanding the audience, failing to reach past the media toward fans, supporters, alumni and sponsors.
There is more to preparedness than learning how to "tweet" or adapting PR firm "buzzwords" and "catch phrases" out of a manual. Active engagement and getting your staff, coaches and student-athletes prepared ahead of time in the event of an issue is what smart programs do.
Conduct these sessions during times when coaches and staffs aren't the busiest. Don't make it optional; mandate they take one hour out of their schedules to attend. A game plan, phone call to a recruit or time in the weight room can take a back seat for 60 minutes.
Just ask the Orangemen or Nittany Lions if they wish they had prepared better.
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and off the field can be -- and often are -- monitored by old and new media alike to say nothing of people with picture phones and Facebook pages.