7 Step Plan for Crisis PR
Crises are inevitable, so how should you handle your company’s public relations when ‘stuff’ hits the fan?
When a story could or has had a negative impact on your company, how you respond will help mitigate the fallout to your organization’s image and business.
1. Before a crisis ever happens, you must prepare by establishing a designated permanent response team and have experts ready to bring in when it is appropriate. A strong crisis management team is the key to surviving a PR disaster. Staff that would be appropriate members of a PR crisis team would be, human resources managers, public relations representatives, communications and marketing executives, and any key operational staff.
2. A PR incident management team has a designated leader, and other team members are assigned specific roles to help gain control of negative situations and make decisions. When forming this team, determine who will be the spokesperson for the company. There are two schools of thought on who your spokesperson should be:
One is that you never have your head people serve as the spokesperson, it should be a ‘flak.” Flak is term – sometimes admittedly pejorative – for a public relations person who acts as a flak jacket for the organization, protecting it from harm publicly.
The other school of thought on your spokesperson is a bit more modern. In this school of thought the spokesperson should be a high-level person in the particular area responsible for the problem who is articulate and trained on speaking with the press.
3. When a crisis happens, after gathering your team, research the issue and ensure all of your facts are in order to
Draft a statement
Develop talking points
4. Include preemptive and responsive PR in your plan
If you have time to get ahead of the story, post blogs and social media and issue press releases that shine a more positive light on the organization in the same topic area as the potential problem.
In the platforms you own and as quickly as possible, post a statement on your website and include it in your social media and newsletters.
Respond to press inquiries on time for the deadline, and for the love of everything, do not say, ‘No comment.’ See No. 6.
5. When responding to a media request for an interview, make sure your PR person is also present to take notes and ensure the subsequent reporting is accurate.
6. Never say, “No comment!” Journalists are naturally, and by training, skeptical. It sends up a red flag that you’re hiding something.
7. Be ready to debrief by discussing what went well and what improvements could be made.
Crisis mitigated if not averted entirely. Right? Hopefully, but bear in mind, public relations is not a silver bullet. It can only do so much. If an organization has fundamentally crashed & burned or ethically “grumpied” the bed, as Johnny Depp might say, it might not be able to come back for a long while, if ever.