If you’re a PR agent or a crisis communications professional who believes in the old saying, “There is no bad publicity.” You might want to think about it again. The quote made famous by Phineas T. Barnum, an American circus man, and performer, has taken on a life of its own as one of the PR w biggest myths.
Why? The reality is, just because it’s not true. Sure, there are cases where negative publicity increases a brand name’s popularity and revenue – Kenneth Cole comes to mind – but there are examples of negative publicity that created a company’s downfall or its brand’s further drop.
A PR crisis can happen to anyone, regardless of the size of their business. Many companies and brands today are unprepared when a crisis should occur and often get caught off guard when they are hit with a difficult situation.
Let’s be clear: there’s more to reputation management than setting use cases for deleting inappropriate tweets or sending apologies. It’s unlikely that you can anticipate each PR issue for every circumstance, but it’s beneficial and good practice to plan for the worst with a short strategy.
It’s highly likely that you may not be fully aware of all the details surrounding the PR crisis at hand. Before rushing and making a statement to the press, be certain you know everything there is to know about the situation. Use online resources and take full advantage of your resources to gather the complete information, then make a press release or consider the proper direction for you to manage what is happening.
Have A Unified Message
Your reputation management and PR team should devise a single statement to present to your team. Collaborate with your marketing, social media, customer service, and other areas that communicate with the public. Keep your message simple, pure, and straightforward. Regardless of where you position yourself, your message should be clear and the same across all platforms.
Track & Measure Responses
You won’t know how effective your PR crisis strategy is until you measure it. Keep track of the plan and closely listen to and track your conversations. Add Meltwater as a social media management tool to track trending online conversations. You can also monitor Google Trends or Facebook Trends for the latest trends.
Be Transparent
To earn the trust of your audience, it is important to maintain an open and transparent connection. Many brands from days gone by deleted negative comments and ignored posts, and even falsely claimed their accounts were hacked even though it wasn’t. In today’s fast-paced digital world, users are also very content, often quick to share content with others.
Don’t hide anything from clients. If you made a mistake, admit it and treat it immediately so you can prevent damage to your reputation and relationships with clients. Let them know what actions you’re taking to prevent this situation from ever occurring again and whom they should contact in case they have any questions.
Promote Your Positives
Now that the message created is simple, it’s time to efficiently share it with the public. Pick your preferred distribution channels, such as broadcast TV, a press release, social media, blog, and other frameworks, making sure that your voice is truly a part of the conversation, and your target demographic is able to take part.
Consider it An Education
It’s apparent that businesses and brands need to attempt to prevent PR crises from ever occurring. But sometimes, when they occur, the PR and Rep Management teams are left with headaches and accounts of what they did and could have performed. Though it’s a daunting time, a PR crisis is also an excellent opportunity.
When dealing with a crisis online and dealing with a reputation, you’ll want to know how to interact with the audience. Remember that it’s important to stay calm, be as fair and honest as possible, provide an understandable and unified message, and listen and investigate all questions. Consider Rep.Agency as a consultant or Full-Service Agency to help you achieve success in a crisis. We’re rated on of the Top 30 Reputation management agencies in the US.
