Here are my Top 10 tweets from this past week, great for retweeting! If you missed these, follow me on Twitter.

Prevent the “lago effect” from dooming your CEO who tries to “help” during a crisis. http://paper.li/clayedwardspr/pr-pros-paper

How Restaurants Are Using Social Media to Their Advantage. http://tinyurl.com/8xbuyuo

How to Use Great Testimonials, Once You Get Them. http://ow.ly/8b2LS

Get Blog Results for Business | Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad | Writing On The Web. http://tinyurl.com/7dzodzr

Top 50 Women Entrepreneur Experts to Follow on Twitter. http://ow.ly/8dj2U

Nice year-end gift for your clients. Free ebook with 2 dozen publicity/social media tips. http://ow.ly/8dj8Z

5 clever uses of LinkedIn’s brand new “group polls” feature. http://ow.ly/8dkJL

5-part strategy for cashing in on content and social media marketing in 2012. http://ow.ly/8dTU6

Freelancers: Pick up some extra cash in 2012. Pitch articles to these paying markets. http://ow.ly/8dUTu

Authors: Compare major print-on-demand companies. http://ow.ly/8dV2u

If you’re in the path of massive Hurricane Irene, and the home or office that houses your PR business is severely damaged or wiped out by the 115-mph winds and torrential rains, could you continue to conduct business?

How to prepare for natural disasters is the stuff they teach in Crisis Communications 101. But many of us took that course ages ago.

As PR pros, some of us even teach it. And we’re apt to forget it when bad news happens to us.

What better time than now for a refresher—just after an earthquake hit this week near Washington, D.C., and the Eastern Seaboard of the United States is bracing this weekend for Hurricane Irene and its life-threatening waves and winds?

Howard Lewinter, a business management specialist who works with CEOs, business owners and company presidents, says the time to prepare  is long before disaster strikes. Having an emergency plan and knowing exactly what to do when you’re in a crisis, will put you in a far better position than thinking on the fly, while the disaster—or hurricane—is swirling around you.

“That’s because most people panic when something bad happens,” he said. “If you think clearly, you can probably solve the problem.”
     
    
Safety First
    
Most important is making  sure you’re safe, he said. That includes heeding calls to evacuate, and doing it early enough so that you have time to leave the area that’s in danger. If you’re in a large metropolitan area like New York City, know what to do and review your city’s Hurricane Evacuation Plan.

“Make sure that you’ve brought enough food, water and ice,” Lewinter said.
     
     
Employees Next
     
“Know the phone numbers of all of your employees, and keep them in a safe, secure offsite location,” he said.

The list should include their home addresses, home phone numbers, email addresses and a friend or relatives to call in case of an emergency.

If you won’t be able to return to your office for days, or even weeks, how will your employees be paid? Have a contingency plan for payroll. 

How will you communicate with them during the disaster? Create procedures for keeping them informed. 

“Remember that you’ll have to make sure your cell phones are fully charged,” he said.  “You can charge them in your car if you have a battery charger, or you can charge them from the USB port on your computer.”

Have support systems, such as counselors, in place just in case employees may need them. 
     
     
Have an Emergency Plan  
      
“If you can’t operate from your office because of a power outage, or flooding, or whatever the damage happens to be,  you’ll need to retrieve all your data. Back it up daily—not just on site but also to a secure location off-site.” 

What if you’ve backed up your data offsite, but your office building was demolished during an earthquake, or it was so severely damaged by a hurricane that it will take months to repair?

Have a contingency plan. Call your insurance agent and ask if you’re fully protected under your current policy. Do you have enough insurance protection? Does your policy cover earthquake damage?  Some policies don’t.

Is there another office building you can use temporarily? How much would it cost to relocate your business, or even to suspend it temporarily? Seek multiple opinions from the experts so you can make the right decision.

Do you lease your office, or the building? If so, you must know what the lease agreement says about emergencies and who is responsible for what, Lewinter cautions. 

Confused about something in the lease?  Make sure you understand anything that’s vague. If necessary, get it in writing.

If your building is still intact, but you’re without Internet or telephone service, have a contingency plan for that, too. Should your business have its own backup generator to produce electric power?  Make that decision BEFORE a disaster, not after.
     
     
Take Care of Your Customers

Keep a current list of customers and all contact information—again, at an off-site location.

“After a disaster, call or email them and let them know what’s happening,” Lewinter said. “Be as accommodating as possible so that they can continue to do business with you once your business has returned to normal.”

And don’t forget your vendors such as freelance writers and photographers, artists, printers, and even ad agencies.  
     
    
Take an Inventory of What You Have
     
Lewinter loves lists because they’re stress-reducers in times of emergency and they help you to think first, panic later.

“Create a list of equipment and services you need to run your business such as computers and furniture,” he said. ”Your insurance agent may ask for it. Your banker might, too, if you need to borrow money. This list will also give you an idea of what it will cost to keep the business going until normal business resumes. ”

Take photographs for insurance purposes.

Have contact information for utilities, all services you outsource, and emergency numbers you may need, like your insurance company. 

Keep a list of current PR projects and delivery dates.  

Copy all important business papers and keep them in a fireproof filing cabinet, or offsite. During a hurricane, important papers should be stored in an airtight, zip-lock bag, even if you’re taking them with you when you’re evacuating. 
     
    
If You Don’t Have Time for All This
     
Many of the items on this list can take weeks to accomplish.

If the hurricane is just a few days or hours away, where do you start? At the top of the list.

Also see Ben Silverman’s excellent Disaster Preparation Tips for PR Firms. It’s as beneficial today as it was when he wrote it more than two years ago. 
     
    
My Own Tips

Use your company blog as your main communication tool. Most PR firms probably blog, but I’ll bet some sole practitioners don’t. If you’re not blogging yet, you should be. See Time-saving Tips for Smart Business Blogging. 

Make maximum use of all your social media sites. Keep your connections informed on LinkedIn and use the Q&A feature when you need help. People will come to the rescue. You can also seek help by asking questions on Quora.

Use Twitter to communicate with your followers, vendors, employees and customers. Use hash tags to make it easy for people to find updates about how the company is doing. Don’t forget Google+.

Post photos to sites like your Facebook page and Flickr account.

As you rebuild and get back on your feet, consider documenting your progess via videos and uploading them to YouTube.

And, finally, don’t forget to publicize your own story! You have loads of journalist contacts and you know how to pitch the media. Use them.

Write letters to the editor and op-eds, if appropriate. Comment at other blogs, too.

Those are our tips. Now what about yours?

What have you done to minimize the risk to your own company from a natural disaster, regardless of whether you specialize in PR? What tips can you add to this long list?

What nasty things are people saying about you online, even if they haven’t done business with you?

Has somebody tried to buy a product at your website, but a glitch in your shopping cart wouldn’t put through the order?

Have they called you, left a message, but no one has returned the call?

Have they filled out one of those annoying customer service tickets at your website, but never received a reply?

Unless you’re regularly searching for “(Your brand) sucks,” as in “Publicity Hound sucks,” via the search engines, or on a site like Twitter, how would you ever know?

I seldom use Twitter to gripe about my consumer problems, but during my nightmare with AT&T last week, I couldn’t help myself.

I switched Internet and telephone service from AT&T to Time Warner Cable, and cable service from Direct TV to Time Warner. When I called AT&T to ask a simple but important question about ending my service, I was transferred to the wrong department four times.

The fifth agent, who promised to stay with me on the call until I got through to the right person,  said she, too, was frustrated because no one would answer. But by then, I’d been tweeting about the experience, using the hashtag “#attsucks”. 

Six of my Twitter followers started replying, either complaining about their own experiences with AT&T, or simply commiserating:  

Finally, @ATTJessica, responded: 

But that time, the fifth agent was so frustrated, she called up the notes in my account and answered my question for me. (Why didn’t she just do that as soon as I was transferred to her?)

Companies ought to be monitoring Twitter, Facebook, discussion boards and consumer websites and trying to help. But more importantly, they can save a lot of wear and tear on their brand if they provide excellent customer service from the outset.

I’ve been a new Time Warner customer for less than a week and already love their service.

• I dealt with the same salesperson when I ordered Internet, phone and cable service, and she gave me her direct phone number if I needed to call her back. AT&T won’t assign you one agent. In fact, I called AT&T three times about the same problem and got three different answers.

 

• I can call Time Warner tech support 24/7. AT&T isn’t available on weekends. This was particularly annoying when, over the weekend, I could make calls but couldn’t recevie them. Time Warner tried to solve the problem, but couldn’t, because AT&T agents weren’t available.

 

• Time Warner’s friendly agents don’t put me on hold while trying to get answers to my questions. They always ask if they can call me back. And they do. Promptly.

 
What companies have you dealt with that have provided such horrendous customer service that you’ve shared your bad experiences online? Did they find your complaints and respond? Did you stop doing business with them and switch to a competitor?

If you, or your PR client, are interviewing with the media, and you haven’t prepared answers to difficult questions, particularly if you’re in a bad news situation, you’ve blown it.

That’s what happened last week when a correspondent for the BBC interviewed Mike Lazaridis, the co-chief executive of Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian firm behind Blackberry.

After discussing the new Playbook tablet, the focus of the interview shifted to the company’s problems in India and the Middle East, where governments want to gain greater access to the tight security system used for Blackberry’s business users.

Lazaridis wasn’t ready for the question and complained that it was unfair.  His PR person tried to intervene.  Things got ugly.

The correspondent kept his cool.  But Lazaridis got flustered and eventually ordered the camera person to “turn that thing off.”

Bloggers, like PR consultant Greg Simpson in the UK, started writing about it and sharing the YouTube video:

Ben Franklin had it right when he warned: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

Be prepared.  Crisis communications counselor Jonathan Bernstein explained how to interview with sharp reporters (and nasty, hostile ones) when he was my guest during the teleseminar, “How to Keep the Media Wolves at Bay.”

Let’s see how savvy you are when it comes to interviewing with journalists.

Which of the following would you consider a trick question:

A. “What’s your annual revenue?”

B.  ”I know you feel uncomfortable commenting on that topic, but how about telling me off the record?”

C.  ”What’s the worst business mistake you’ve ever made, and what have you learned from it?”

Take a minute and actually write your answer on a piece of paper. A, B or C, or any combination of the above?

As a former journalist, I’ve asked those three questions many times. Now, let’s see if you’re right.

A. What’s your annual revenue?

This is not a trick question. If your company is publicly held, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t answer it.

If you’re not publicly held, don’t sweat it. Just give a range (“over $500,000 in sales”) or explain that you’d rather not provide that information for competitive reasons.

Many business stories, particularly those about small businesses, state that the owner declined to offer sales and revenue figures. Not answering won’t kill the story, even in business journals. (See “How to Use Business Journals to Tell Your Story.”)
 

B. “I know you feel uncomfortable commenting on that topic, but how about telling me off the record?”

This can be a trick question. But it’s also a very dangerous question. So pat yourself on the back if you chose B.

If you spill the beans to a reporter you do not know or trust and it’s “off the record,” it might show up in print.

A reporter might take something you’ve given him and run it past two other sources.  If those sources confirm the information on the record, the reporter might use it.  Policies on using information obtained off the record differ among media outlets.  But why take chances?

Also, experienced reporters who pry off-the-record information out of you will sometimes wheel and deal and try to get you to agree to let them use parts of it.  Before you know it, they’ve talked you into using all the material on the record.

Sometimes sources find it necessary to talk off the record in cases where they want to flag a favorite reporter to something that will be happening, like a major announcement, and to explain the background so the reporter will be ready to write about it when the story breaks.

Understand, however, that the 24-hour news cycle makes “exclusives” more of a risk to the source. If it’s a major story and you promise it to a reporter, but the editor doesn’t think the story is very good, she might bury it in the back of the newpaper. That can alienate other reporters who you want to c over it.

These days, many companies break news by writing about it at their blogs, and then tweeting the headline  and linking to the blog post so that all media can have the story at the same time.

If, for whatever reason, you’re inclined to give the story to a reporter you know and trust, do this only if you’re experienced dealing with the media. I prefer that companies break their own news at their blogs. (See “The Dangerous Hidden Secrets of Print and Broadcast Reporters.”)
 

C.  ”What’s the worst business mistake you ever made, and what have you learned from it?”

This is not a trick question, so don’t be embarrassed or get rattled.  Everyone has a worst business mistake.

Anticipate this question and prepare your response.  The media love to help their readers and viewers avoid other people’s mistakes.  Rather than just identifying the blunder, explain how others can avoid making it.

If your mind goes blank when the reporter asks this question, don’t blurt out the first thing that pops into your head. Ask, “May I take a minute to think about the answer?” Or you can say, “Can we revisit this question later?”

Reporters usually don’t mind waiting.

Learn about more questions, trick and otherwise, in my “Special Report #2: Questions You Can Expect a Reporter to Ask During an Interview (Including Nasty, Hostile Ones).”

What other trick questions have reporters asked you? If you disagree with my advice, challenge me.

This month’s guest blog post is from Mark Macias, a crisis communications consultant. He runs a TV production and PR company that has consulted with restaurants, retailers, lounges and Congressional candidates. He also wrote the communications book, Beat the Press: Your Guide to Managing the Media.  You can read excerpts at BeatthePressBook.com. 

By Mark  Macias
Guest Blogger

Everyone likes to secretly Google himself, but what happens when Google turns up results you don’t like? How do you get your name removed from the search engines when the material is damaging?

Here’s a tweet posted yesterday from the Twitter account known as @BPGlobalPR:

That’s just one of a steady stream of sarcastic tweets that, as of this morning, has attracted more than 96,000 followers, almost 10 times more followers than BP has at its own Twitter account.

CNET News offers  a good summary of who might be behind the fake account, and what has happened since it was created.

It’s just one more episode in the PR nightmare tied to the Gulf Oil spill.

What I find most bizarre about the fake account, which was created on May 19, is that Twitter hasn’t removed it. BP spokesman Tony Odone told AdAge.com:

“I’m not aware of whether BP has made any calls to have it taken down or addressed. People are entitled to their views on what we’re doing, and we have to live with those…People are frustrated at what’s happening, as are we, and that’s just their way of expressing it.”

My heart aches for the people and wildlife affected by the oil spill, and I don’t see anything funny about the sarcasm. BP has bigger PR problems than Twitter. But if I were counseling BP, I’d encourage them to contact Twitter immediately and ask them to either remove the account, or at least include a disclaimer. Here’s why:

• The fake feed is stealing BP’s brand.
• BP has proven it has little control over anything, including figuring out a way to stop the gushing oil. At the very least, it should try to minimize the damage however it can.
• The fake account I mentioned here has prompted several other imposters to create their own fake BP Twitter accounts.  That means trouble multiplied.

Am I wrong?

PR and crisis communications experts, how would you counsel BP? Should the company distance itself from information like this that further tarnishes its already-battered brand? What should Twitter do about fake accounts like this one? Should it treat them all the same?

What about BP’s CEO who told a news reporter yesterday “I want my life back”?

Update on June 9:

BP finally asks Twitter to make BPGLobalPR to post a disclaimer, and Twitter finally gets off the dime. The disclaimer reads: “We are not associated with Beyond petroleum, the company that has been destroying the Gulf of Mexico for 51 days.”

What took so long?

Piggybacking onto hot celebrity gossip ranks right up there as one of the best ways to generate free publicity for your product, service, cause or issue.

But hurry. This story may be old news by the end of the week.

Here are the Top 10 ways to create free publicity for yourself by participating in the Tiger Woods conversation online and offline:

1. If you’re an expert in a topic that ties into this drama, pitch influential bloggers who are writing about the story. Explain your area of expertise and offer commentary.
       
2. Post comments at high-traffic blogs like Huffington Post that are discussing the story. Ditto at blogs written by journalists, like sports columnist Jason Whitlock whose post on Tiger’s Real Crime? Not Playing the Media’s Game attracted more than 500 comments in about two hours this morning. Weave into your comment information about your expertise. If appropriate, lead people back to your website where they can find tips, advice or a quiz that ties into the topic.
        
3. If you’re a divorce attorney who can talk about prenups, an ad agency executive who’s an expert on branding or celebrity endorsements, a crisis counselor or PR pro who can discuss PR 101, and even a minister who can offer tips on how to forgive, write a letter to the editor of local, regional and national publications where the stories are appearing.
         
4. Call your local TV stations and offer yourself as the local angle to this international story. Offer a list of short tips.
         
5. Create a short two-minute video offering advice on what others can learn from Tiger’s mess and upload it to YouTube and the other video-sharing sites. Tag it with keywords that people are using to search for information on the story.
         
6. Subscribe to free media leads services like HARO and PitchRate, or paid services like ProfNet and PRLeads, so you know about the types of sources journalists are seeking for their stories.
           
7. Offer to write a guest blog post about it, with tips and advice. BloggerLinkUp helps guest bloggers and bloggers who need guest posts find each other. 
       

8. Pitch clever angles to this story to drive-time radio show hosts. Example: A cell phone expert can pitch a story on “Got a dirty little secret? 5 ways to cover your tracks on your cell phone.”         

9. Write your own blog post that ties into Tiger Woods, include lots of outbound links, and then bookmark it at sites like Digg and Delicious. The “Top 10 Tips…” headline works well. I got the idea for this post while reading Tip #3 in Bryan Eisenbertg’s blog post on Top 3 Problems of Social Media.
           
10.  Do all of the above, and link to them from Twitter and Facebook.

If you’ve piggybacked off the Tiger Woods is story to generate free publicity for yourself or clients, or you’d like to add to this list, join the conversation.    

John T. Unger of Mancelona, MI writes:

“My fire bowls, original art which I’ve been making since 2005, have been copied by a manufacturer.  He is now suing me in federal court to overturn my existing copyrights and continue making knockoffs. 

“I have a strong case, a great lawyer and believe that if I can continue to defend myself, the case will be resolved in my favor. You can read more about it at my blog.

“I did not initiate this lawsuit, but am defending my art, my creative rights, my reputation and my livelihood.  I’ve already spent over $50,000 out of pocket in defense of my original designs.  Seeking a judicial ruling in federal court will cost more than most artists or small businesses can afford, but attempts at settlement have been unsuccessful.  I am holding a fundraising sale of my artwork to finance a defense in court.

“What ideas do your Hounds have for using traditional and social media to raise awareness of the story, its broader implications for other creative professionals and raising funds to see that the laws which protect copyright are not weakened for other artists?”

        
The Publicity Hound says:

When John called me to ask for my advice on this, I suggested we use it as a Help This Hound question. He offered to send me a beautiful shovel mask ($59), artwork made from a recycled shovel, to thank me. I suggested we use it instead as a reward for the Hound who comes up with the best idea for his publicity campaign.       

Explain your idea in the comments section below. We’ll take ideas for two weeks, and I’ll announce the winner of the mask in my newsletter on Tuesday, Nov. 10.  Tweet this, and  share it with your Facebook friends. 

You’re being interviewed by a magazine reporter who clearly doesn’t understand the topic, despite your best efforts to explain it over and over again.

What do you do?

That’s what a graduate of The Publicity Hound Mentor Program asked me just now.

“A staffer recently did repeated interviews with a magazine writer, and sent follow-up emails for clarification, but the information still came out wrong in the article. What’s the best wording to use these days when you want to see what the reporter has drafted before it goes out? I realize that most reporters will at least read you back your quotes.”

Here’s what I told her:

When you’re being interviewed either by phone or in person, and you can tell that the reporter is becoming more and more confused, ask, ”I want to make sure I’m explaining this clearly enough and not confusing you.  Can you explain to me your understanding of this topic?”

If the reporter can’t explain it, he’s confused. If he insists on writing the article anyway, ask him to call you before the article appears to “fact check” it. Many reporters don’t know what a “fact check” entails because they work for publications that don’t routinely do fact-checking.

Big magazines check facts, however. A fact checker, who usually is not the same person who wrote the article, calls you, reads the facts to you, and verifies that they are accurate. If a fact is wrong, you can correct the record before the story appears. Sometimes a fact-check includes your direct quotes.

When the reporter won’t cooperate

If a reporter will not agree to do a fact check, don’t be afraid to take the next step. Call the reporter’s boss and explain that you’re convinced the reporter is confused. And then ask, “What can we do so that you get your story and your readers get accurate information? I don’t want your readers to be confused. I also don’t want to be misquoted. And I’m sure you don’t want to be in the embarrassing position of having to run a correction because your reporter printed something that was inaccurate.”

That should solve the problem. The editor might kill the story. Or she might quiz the reporter herself. Or she might make sure SHE’S the one who edits the story and is convinced the reporter understands what he’s writing.

If the topic isn’t confusing and you’re confident the reporter understands it well enough, you can still ask the reporter for a fact-check and to call you and read back to you only information that will be put into quotation marks.

When I worked as a reporter and sources asked me to do this, I almost always agreed. But I made it clear that if they decided that they didn’t like the way their quotes sounded, they didn’t have the right to change them. I would reword a quote only if I didn’t write it down accurately.

More ways to help reporters

You can also help a reporter better understand a complicated issue by supplying supporting data such as reports or other media articles, or blog posts you’ve written. You can offer statistics such as pie charts, bar charts and graphics. You can provide links to other online resources that clearly explain the issue.

Read my other tips on how to ensure accuracy during media interviews and how to ask a journalist for a correction.

Record the interview

When I interviewed crisis counselor Jonathan Bernstein on how to keep the media wolves at bay, he mentioned that if the topic of an interview is sensitive, you can always tell the journalist you want to record it. If the journalist knows you have a recording,  they’ll go the extra mile to make sure they quote you accurately.

And, yes, they get to record it, too. That’s only fair.  Check the laws governning recording phone conversations in your own state or country.