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Win an $100 Amazon Gift Card!
By now you should have received an invitation to participate in my first reader's survey. This is your opportunity to help ensure that Emergency Management Solutions remains interesting and relevant.
As a thank you for participating, you will be given the opportunity to win an $100 Amazon gift card. Just click on the link below. But don't delay - the survey closes on October 19.
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Reputation Damage
A neglected risk | |
In assessing the impact of potential hazards on an organization, it's not uncommon to focus almost exclusively on tangible impacts, such as potential damage, possible injury, estimated downtime. However many crises generate intangible impacts as well. The Northridge earthquake, for example, resulted in a demographic shift that changed both the the composition of the labor pool and the types of businesses within the community.
The most neglected of these intangible impacts is the potential effect on the organization's reputation. This is surprising as we see daily examples of how events can have an immediate impact on reputation. What is also interesting to note is that in many cases the damage is caused not by the event itself but by the real or perceived mishandling of the crisis.
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CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE |
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United Breaks Guitars
 | | United Breaks Guitars |
This is the video that started it all. Made with $150 and a lot of volunteer help, the video has had over 12 million unique views since its release on YouTube and caused a 10% drop in United stock shares - about $140 million. The Harvard Business School uses the story as a case study on the power of social media and businesses can react to it.
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Greetings!
Welcome to the September issue of Emergency Management Solutions. Many thanks to those of you who have already responded to my reader survey. It will really helps me to make sure I'm delivering the content you want as I develop my editorial calendar for 2013. If you haven't done so, please take a few minutes to complete the survey. You may even be the lucky winner of a $100 Amazon gift certificate! This month's book and video look at Dave Carroll's experience with United and how his hit song affected United's reputation. I pick up on this theme in my featured article with some thoughts on reputation damage and how you can prevent it. If you are having trouble viewing my featured article, try clicking on the link at the top of the page. Alternatively, you can always find my articles in the white paper section of my blog site, Canton on Emergency Management. |
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Regards,
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Professional Development One of the issues we've been grappling with for some time now is how we use social media. We have a lot of anecdotal information that it can be effective but we still lack concepts for how best to employ it. FEMA recently released a new independent study course, IS-42 Social Media in Emergency Management that is good start at filling this need. The course steps through the basics about the various social media platforms and provides some good principles for establishing an effective social media program. It makes good use of case studies of applications that have worked in jurisdictions across the country and ends with a practical exercise that helps you apply the principles to a specific scenario. Social media changes so rapidly that it's hard to keep up with it but FEMA has done a good job of laying out the basics for you. |
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How often do you "take one for the team"? If you're they type of person that puts in extra hours because you're the only one who can get the job done, I'm talking to you. If you really are the only one who can get it done, shame on you - you're actually letting your team down by not letting them develop their own skills.
What happens if you become ill or get hurt? What happens if you're traveling when a crisis happens? What if you leave for another job? The team fails because you didn't teach them how to do the job. Will they make mistakes? Of course, that's part of the learning process. Could you do it better? Possibly but just because they do it differently doesn't make it wrong.
So stop playing the martyr and moaning about how you're overworked. Take some leave, attend some training, and give the team a chance to function without your presence. They just might surprise you! |
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From the Bookshelf
United Breaks Guitars: The Power of One Voice in the Age of Social Media
by Dave Carroll by Hay House
Hardcover
List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $9.30
When Dave Carroll's guitar was damaged by United baggage handlers, he spent 15 months trying to get the airlines to pay for repairs. Then he took his story global by writing and posting a song to YouTube. The song went viral, with over 3 million hits in the first week, causing considerable embarrassment and economic loss to United.
Carroll's book tells his story but it offers valuable insights into social media and the increasing connectivity it brings to the world. It's also about how Carroll and his family dealt with their sudden notoriety and kept their life balance intact.
There are a lot of lessons in this small book and it's well worth the read.
Looking for more books? Check out An Emergency Manager's Reading List
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Looking for a Speaker?
Need a speaker for your next conference? I offer keynotes, seminars and workshops. You can find more details on my website or on my SpeakerMix page.
 | | Lucien Canton Seminar Excerpts |
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If you've heard me speak...
...I'd greatly appreciate it if you would take a minute to give me feedback on SpeakerMix. Just go to the site and click on the "Write A Review" button. Many thanks! |
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