There was an article recently in New York Times about Tesla founder, Elon Musk being one ambient-induced sleep session away from a meltdown. The piece alluded to the fact that his latest Twitter rant, now turned into SEC investigation, was as much a cry for help than anything else.
I’m here to give a warning to other CEOs who feel that recent social media posts or news comments or blog articles about their company warrant some immediate response on Twitter. Even if they do, don’t take the bait.
Herein lies the dilemma for most organization. Companies involved in a crisis PR matter have to respond quickly and with definitive action showing empathy for the issue that brought them to this crisis in the first place. I get that. The problem is when you do it on pure emotion and truly without counsel.
Because of Elon Musk impromptu Twitter posts, Tesla is now undertaking what can only be described as an all-hands effort not only to stave off the Federal governments concern of SEC violations, but now they’ve got to convince stakeholders, investors, vendors, partners, customers, and oh, by the way, employees that their management team is of sound mind who can to take charge of this company and realize its potential vision.
Any effective crisis PR respond comes with training. You do it for a whole hose of measure, whether it’s financial, operational, customer service, and the like. For CEOs, training is paramount even if you hope that a crisis PR event never occurs. It may not, but if it does, you’ll need to be ready.
