A company is bound to face some sort of public relations crisis over the course of time. With it being Halloween, I thought I’d outline what a PR Crisis is for you – because honestly – is anything scarier??
According to Merriam-Webster, a crisis is an emotionally significant event or radical change of status is a person’s life.
When we look at this from a company’s standpoint, a crisis is an event that throws your company underwater – and to survive, you’ve got to figure out the quickest way to swim back to the top and catch your breath – that’s where a PR professional comes into play.
There are a variety of types of crises, and they can range from small to life-altering.
According to Forbes, there’s ways you can react to the crisis to give you an image boost and not do so much damage to your brand.
- Take responsibility – don’t try to cover up what happened. Admit it and work on moving on.
- Be transparent – today it takes almost no time for something to go viral. Going back to #1, don’t try to cover up the scandal. Open up about what you know and what you plan to do.
- Get ahead of the story – getting ahead of the story is key. Start communicating and apologizing quickly. Don’t wait days – sometimes silence says more than words and can end up damaging your brand.
- Be prepared for backlash – one of the worst things about social media is you have complete strangers that hide behind a keyboard and type mean words. Be prepared for the firestorm that could ignite thanks to social media.
- Be human – don’t just say “you’ll look into it,” show your feelings.
- Monitor – keep your team on alert and have them keep an eye on activity.
- Develop a strong brand culture – work on preventing the crisis by being good to your employees and having a strong team.
- Turn off the fan – when the you-know-what hits the fan, turn it off. Don't keep adding to the problem.
It’s easy to get wound up in a crisis fast and act rashly, but if you’re prepared to handle these kinds of situations when they happen, you can make more calm and well-thought-out decisions. Let’s keep the frights and scares to fun Halloween costumes one day a year. There’s no need to have frights and scares take over your company year round.