In today’s work environment, businesses go through various challenges and every so often companies and brands are faced with crisis situations that need quick resolution before the issues escalate further.
The pursuit of companies to keep their various stakeholders- shareholders, employees, customers etc., satisfied and for them to remain the brand of choice ahead of competitors while building or maintaining a good brand image can be an unnerving task.
Unfortunately, in the present digital era, we have seen crisis issues going viral on social media quicker than on traditional media channels.
Crisis management is the process of preventing or lessening the damage a crisis can inflict on an organization and its stakeholders.
More often than not, a lot of crisis situations are usually unexpected and therefore demands that the company has a team that can think quickly on mitigation strategies.
It is therefore imperative to have a well-trained Communications team or Agency on standby to shield brands against public outcries resulting from crisis and help them to regain the confidence of the public after any.
Today’s article seeks to highlight the role of PR in Crisis Management.
Advice and Guidance
To be able to provide the right advice and guidance, PR professionals evaluate the nature of the current issue, the context that led to the issue happening so that they can offer a step-by-step guide on managing the incident(s). They also do an analysis of the ‘trends’ on social media to establish the cause and the nature of the crisis if it was generated online. Based on their findings, the PR professional will then advice the client on which audiences and channels they should use to address the specific interventions to ensure they come to an end in the shortest time possible.
Spokesperson Media Training
It is often necessary and proper that brands experiencing a crisis come out to address the public so as to leave no room for speculation or further damage to their brands. Media engagement therefore gives the company an opportunity to reach their audience through these interactions. This also gives them room to address any further questions in relation to the incident at hand. In this regard, PR professionals work with and train the spokespersons of these brands to deliver public statements to tell their side of the story and steps being taken to minimize the effect of the crisis. It is often advised that during a crisis situation, a company should appoint one spokesperson to speak on behalf of the company during this period. This ensures that the same message is being passed on from one stakeholder to another leaving no room for misinterpretation.
In situations where the crisis involves two companies or brands working together, the two parties should align on one message and allow one spokesperson to speak on their behalf. The challenge on not aligning on the message means that one of the companies might put out a statement that is completely different from the partner company thus creating more room for speculation.
Choosing the right Communication Channels
The right choice of media is key in getting crisis response messages to the targeted audience. It is ideal that messaging channels are prepared ahead of the crisis. The channels and strategies used can be targeted and different for each of the stakeholders involved. The channels selected should also be the ones that will have the most impact in the shortest time possible depending on the nature of the issue at hand.
Pre-done Crisis Templates.
Even though crisis situations sometimes spring up on us, it is important to have pre-drafted templates such as risk matrix templates, press releases and statements on what to say depending on the crisis at hand. This gives more leeway to act faster when the issues arise. Public Relations professionals therefore help to draft these templates and plans. They may even go further to put plans in place that give their clients a strategy to fall back on if a similar incident or issue recurs in the future.
To conclude, during crisis issues, it is very important for the company facing the crisis to address the real issue on the ground without beating around the bush. Sometimes avoiding to address the issue further aggravates it. Being in crisis is not something that any company or brand would want to find themselves, however the strategies taken to ensure that they deal with the issue completely and restore the public confidence in their brand is the most important. The bigger picture question should always be futuristic and long term- How do I take my brand back to the positive brand image that I had before this whole issue?
Emma Wenani is Chief Director at Global Media Alliance.
LinkedIn: Emma Wenani
