„Public Relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.“ – a definition given by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR). As it is stated, the status of a company (or a figure) is the most important part of public relations and managing it requires a competent PR practitioner, or even the whole team of them, just to help create and maintain a brand's reputation.
However, the reputation can be tainted despite the hard work of the PR team and it usually happens when an unexpected crisis befalls a business. That is a situation where communication between a company and it's public is being shaken and it requires an immediate reaction and response in order to stay on track with PR's main goal – preserving the reputation.
Timothy Coombs wrote a very interesting paper ( https://bit.ly/2AWrSRk ) in which he states that a crisis is „the perception of an unpredictable event that threatens important expectations of stakeholders and can seriously impact an organization's performance and generate negative outcomes“.
So, how to actually detect and handle a developing crisis?
According to professor Coombs, it is essential to establish a crisis management team with a plan that contains key information and contacts to start solving the issue as soon as possible. There is also a need for a spokesperson that will handle the questions on live press-conferences and similar events, as well as already drafted messages waiting to be sent to different social platforms and the media channels, in order to give yourself the advantage of controlling the story in the press and the eyes of the public.
PRNews also carried out an article with their views on how to act if an issue is rising within the company: https://bit.ly/2IhvRYG. To start with, it is crucial to identify the potential scenarios that could befall the organization. Further on, possible or real issues should be evaluated in a realistic way, followed by addressing the correct protocol for handling it, either in-house or through an agency.
By this moment, all the roles and responsibilities should have been assigned for managing the situation. Additionally, the most important stakeholders ought to be alarmed about the ongoing crisis, including the audience through the media as well as other investors and shareholders.
Lastly, it is safe to say that all the priority goals need to be set straight and fulfilled in accordance with previously made plan templates and contacts.
For further reading - a very interesting crisis example and management by one of the biggest companies in the world - Apple:
https://bit.ly/2yAmP5B . They have been sued for deliberately malfunctioning older versions of iPhones in order to push their customers into buying the newer models. Despite this crisis, they are still the leading smart phones and laptop sellers worldwide.
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