Lucien Canton is a management consultant specializing in helping managers lead better in a crisis. He is the former Director of Emergency Services for San Francisco and the author of the best-selling Emergency Management: Concepts and Strategies for Effective Programs used as a textbook in many higher education courses.

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with Rob Burton on his Tea and Chaos webinar. We talked about the Incident Command System (ICS) and what can make it successful. Since our conversation, I’ve had some continued thoughts about ICS and the complaints people have about it. One of the complaints I hear more often is that it is the system that is flawed because it’s too challenging for people to use. They argue that it should be easier to implement with little training.

I believe I mentioned in the webinar that using ICS is not like riding a bike or tying a shoelace. It’s not something you can be trained on then expect to be able to perform years later (with no interim training and application) with little to no difficulty. ICS, a tool of incident management. Incident management is not only a perishable skill, but also a technical skill.

A technical skill is something you are trained on and hone with practice over time. Technical skills are typically industry specific and require a specialized knowledge set. It could be anything from video editing to surgery. In either of these examples, people learn the knowledge needed and acquire the skills to implement. They learn and perform every detail, becoming proficient in the practice, processes, and associated tools. If they want to stay current and relevant, they take opportunities for continuing education. They learn about new approaches and tools. They maintain proficiency through repetition and application of new knowledge..

Tim Riecker is a founding member, partner and principal consultant with Emergency Preparedness Solutions, LLC, a private consulting firm serving government, businesses, and not for profit organizations in various aspects of emergency and disaster preparedness.

I think we’d all agree any complex task goes a lot better when the proper tools and training are in place before you decide to get started, right? While it’s easy to put online reputation management on the back burner when it’s smooth sailing for your business, laying the groundwork is critical to succeeding when the inevitable storm appears on the horizon.

Sure, the excuse of, “I’m not an internet person” may have worked ten years ago, but it can only harm your business today. The good news is that positioning to protect your good name online it doesn’t have to be a headache! In this post we’ll share some tips from our expert crisis management consultants meant to help you lay a strong foundation for your own online reputation management needs. Without further ado, let’s dive right into these 5 Tips to Help You Prepare for Online Reputation Management:

First, make sure you’ve claimed your profiles on all major review and social media platforms. If you simply don’t have time to stay active on multiple social media accounts that’s fine, but you need to own your profiles and have alerts for new messages or interactions delivered to an email you check regularly.

This will help more people get in touch with legitimate questions, position you to respond to issues on the major platforms, and ensure nobody can impersonate you to spread ill will — an increasingly common tactic for upset customers to employ.

Erik Bernstein is President of Bernstein Crisis Management, a specialized firm dedicated to providing holistic strategies for managing crisis situations.