Know when to hold ‘em

Make no mistake. In being forthright and forthcoming, there are also times when one’s communicator – and communications strategist – cannot tell everything he or she knows. Often this stems from a safety or security issue. Sometimes, it is because legal protection is required to protect a corporation or an employee.

For example, when I worked as a communicator and media spokesman in the electric utility business, the media came calling because a high profile customer’s electricity was disconnected. The first media question: why? What I wanted to say was: Because Tim Hoggansmith did not pay his bill and had not paid his bill for six months, we shut off his electricity. But I couldn’t – because I couldn’t talk about a customer’s account.

I could say: accounts are only disconnected when there is a legitimate reason or reasons, which sometimes includes non-pay. But of course, I cannot discuss Mr. Hoggansmith’s specific account nor the specific reason his account was disconnected.

Further, over 20 years, many times if I could have just showed the security tape, the media would have laid off my client and proclaimed those making vehement accusations complete loons. But – to repeat – many times we communications strategists cannot tell everything we know even though we’d love to.

And it just causes reporters to dig even further faster and for us as strategists, it makes it even more difficult to remain credible.

Nobody said crisis communication was easy or even surgical.