Any business, regardless of size, sector, experience or turnover, can fall victim to PR ‘issues’. These could range from a poor customer experience which gained traction online to a more detrimental ‘crisis’, such as putting your customers and the public in danger.
Issue v Crisis
Despite sounding similar, a PR ‘issue’ tends to be less urgent and critical than a ‘crisis’. However, many crises begin as minor issues before reaching the tipping point of full crisis.
Typically, an issue would not pose any danger or harm to customers or the public, nor will it have an overly damaging effect on the brand itself. It may create a temporary negative reputation for the company, but it is unlikely to cause a drop in sales or business. On the other hand, whilst dealing with a PR crisis, you are more likely to see immediate effects to your business, whether through profits or online reputation.
Remember Kendall Jenner’s infamous Pepsi ad? Back in 2017, the campaign caused severe backlash across social media when the global brand and model were accused of insensitivity and using recent news of racism and police brutality to promote their brand. Whilst Pepsi faced scrutiny for a short time, given time and the brand’s notoriety, the campaign was nearly forgotten apart from the occasional meme and comedic reference.
Response time also varies between an issue and a crisis. Whilst a PR ‘issue’ should still be dealt with rapidly, you can have more time to create an action plan moving forward or draft content to respond to the situation. On the other hand, a PR ‘crisis’ may not allow for this, and you will be forced to make quick decisions to resolve the issues.
One brand familiar with a public relations crisis is Facebook. From cybersecurity issues, allowing false political information to be served, and whistleblowers exposing internal management scandals, the platform frequently makes headlines for its legal troubles. Whilst the brand remains one of the most recognisable and prominent globally, the consistent negative press has kept many users off the platform. Data from 2019 showed that teenage users in the US had dropped by 13%, and a survey by The Washington Post found that 72% of people did not trust Facebook.
Whilst these issues are easy to spot in major worldwide brands and likely even more apparent if happening to your own business, how do these issues develop, and how can you take control of the situation before it gets out of hand?
The four stages of a crisis
Most PR crises typically follow a four-step plan. These stages could be spread over months or even a matter of days. Let’s take a look at each stage:
Breaking news stage, aka ‘The Golden Hour’
This is the initial stage of the crisis. Information about the situation is just starting to be shared in the news, so coverage and attention on social media are probably low. This is when the crisis comms team should start to work on their management plan and should be assessing the situation to decide what actions to take next.
If you don’t have the capacity for an internal comms team to manage the crisis, consider employing an agency to look after this activity stream for you. Trying to handle the crisis with limited time and resources will likely have no improvement, or runs the risk of exacerbating the situation. An external team will allow you to control the crisis while continuing daily activities.
Unfolding crisis stage
The crisis is in full swing by now, and there are few actions to take that could reduce it. The team needs to start putting their plan into action, and all employees and stakeholders should be alerted about what will happen and what role they will play.
Regular meetings within the team can clarify everyone’s roles and responsibilities. Communication should be maintained throughout, and all key stakeholders should be involved and informed of any changes. Records of actions and communication should be kept for reviewing and evaluation post-crisis.
Blame stage
The crisis will have reached its peak by now, but there is still plenty of management to ensure it does not pick back up. At this point, brands will be able to assess the damage caused by the crisis, whether purely financial or loss of trust and reputation.
This can be ideal timing to make a public announcement in person or online. If a stakeholder is giving an interview, they should be briefed on what information they need to share and what key messages they want to get across. They should also be prepared to answer difficult questions about the crisis. Any communication across social media should follow guidelines that should be shared across the team to ensure all content follows the same message and doesn’t include conflicting information.
Fallout/Resolution stage ‘the inquiry’
At this point, you may find some opportunities to use the recent events to your advantage or work on your plan to build your reputation again. Once you believe you have done all you can to manage the crisis, you can look back on your actions to reassess your strategy for management and find any decisions that worked or caused more issues or should have been made earlier. Evaluating your management decisions and actions can be vital if you face a similar situation in the future.
What can you do to manage the situation?
Whilst your business may not have a global reach or a huge marketing budget, various media monitoring tools are available that enable you to keep track of the public’s opinions around your brand, particular topic, or individual.
You can view posts that have mentioned your account directly within most apps. However, getting an overall sense of the responses can be tricky if your brand has a large social following. Some tools, such as Hootsuite, are designed specifically for monitoring social media and evaluating how positive or negative posts about a particular topic are. Tools can also allow you to monitor factors such as where the tweets are coming from and what words or phrases are often used in tweets directed to you.
Here at Wild PR, we can support you with all your social media, PR and digital marketing needs. To find out more about our work, please visit https://wild-pr.co.uk/portfolio/.
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