In today’s always-on 24/7 social media era, potentially damaging news travels faster than ever before. That’s why crisis communications is one of the most important functions of contemporary public relations. An effective crisis management strategy ensures that businesses, brands and those in the public eye are able to maintain a high level of trust and a positive relationship between themselves and the public.
As Warren Buffett famously said, “it can take 20 years to build a reputation and only five minutes to ruin it.”
A crisis can be defined as any situation that may result in the loss of public trust, support and legitimacy for businesses, brands and public institutions. Without an appropriate crisis management plan in place, negative news about any organisation or individual in the public eye spreads like wildfire.
Successful crisis communications strategies are those that look to put in place a set of best practices and processes to effectively manage and contain any news that could potentially lead to a drop in levels of public trust, a financial loss or significant damage to the reputation of an organisation or individual.
Poorly handled, a crisis can lead to financial and reputation loss. Crisis management is a set of practices, actions and tools aimed at reducing the harmful effects a crisis can inflict on an organization, its stakeholders, or the industry.
Crisis communications protects and reduces the impact of the various threats to individuals or to organisations and their stakeholders. Mistakes, serious errors of judgement or natural disasters cannot be foreseen. This means that every public-facing organisation or individual is vulnerable to crises.
The fundamental idea that underpins the best crisis communications strategies is simple: preparation is key. You cannot foresee when a crisis is going to occur. But you can formulate an effective crisis communications plan to deal with it when it does.
In terms of timing, the thing to remember is this: the worst possible time to develop a crisis communications plan is after the fact. Reacting to an emergency or dealing with a potentially tough reputation-damaging issue requires a calm, confident, level-headed and well-coordinated response.
Speaking to a PR agency that’s experienced in crisis communcations and management for particular industries, cases or countries is without a doubt one of the best ways in which organizations or individuals can prepare themselves for – or successfully handle – PR crises.
Some commons crisis communications activities include (but are by no means limited to):
Collaborating with a crisis communications agency is one of the best ways in which organisations or individuals can prepare themselves to deal with unforeseen crises, protecting their reputation and their bottom-line.
A specialist crisis communications or reputation management agency augments your in-house team, gives you access to any necessary independent experts and helps you keep the public updated via the media, social media and all other relevant channels. It can also help you to develop a crisis management plan, identify and pre-brief your best spokespeople, choose the correct communication channels to engage with your audience and rapidly analyse and respond to your audience’s feedback throughout the lifespan of any crisis.
An essential role is played by planning for worst-case scenarios. The ability to react with efficiency and calm based on a carefully prepared plan, to predict the potential escalation of a situation and to form a contructive dialogue cannot be replaced by post-factum reaction that merely aims to achieve damage control. When taken by surprise, panic and ill-considered communication occurs and this is precisely what needs avoiding.
In terms of preparation some of the best practices include:
The crisis response is what a person or organisation does and says after a crisis has occurred. Public relations professionals play a major role in helping to create a carefully considered message for public consumption, one that ethically and properly addresses the core problem while ensuring that the organisation has the knowledge and resources to mitigate a mistake if that is the case, or to honestly improve a service or situation where this is possible.
The golden rules of crisis communications:
This stage involves identifying the negative factors and outcomes, drawing thoughtful conclusions, and drafting a further action plan to stabilise an affected reputation and improve an organisation’s public image.
Actions taken at this stage often involve short and medium term activities like publicising the measures taken in order to inform the public and the stakeholders that lessons have been learnt and firm actions were carried out to address a wrong. But long-term planning based on fresh and comprehensive risk assessments, as well as establishing new rules – or updating existing rules – to address new risk factors that could affect reputation, are also common crisis management tasks.
Having a crisis management plan in place that involves identifying potential risks and defining a set of initial actions to implement as well as clear roles and responsibilities, along with training a crisis response team before a critical situation emerges, are certainly things to consider.
“It is our job to transport a company’s or brand’s messages to a variety of target groups via the local media in a way specifically tailored to their preferences.”
Ralf Hartmann, GlobalCom PR Network (Munich)
More than just a network of public relations agencies from around the world, GlobalCom is a well-established organisation with strong leadership and sound managerial infrastructure that can coherently and expertly help organisations with their crisis comms.
Why should you work with GlobalCom PR Network?
We are a large network of experts and agencies spread across the globe and we have worked with some of the best-known international brands, delivering results that speak for themselves. From market audits for crisis communications to crisis management, strategies, and everything in between, we help organisations deal with critical situations where their public image has suffered or simply needs training and preparation.
What is the difference between crisis communication and crisis management?
Crisis management is the process that guides a business or an organization in case of a sudden emergency situation. It is a set of tools aimed at reducing the harmful effects a crisis can inflict on an organization, its stakeholders, or industry. Whereas crisis communication is only one, although a particularly important, part of the crisis management process and it plans and implements what a person or company says and how it publicly communicates after a crisis has occurred. Public relations professionals play a major role in this process by helping to create messages for the public that help to manage the crisis and reduce the harmful effects on the reputation of the business or individual involved in the crisis.
What crisis communication services do you provide?
The GlobalCom PR Network team is ready to develop and implement specific risk mitigation actions or comprehensive strategies at any crisis communication stage, from risk analysis and crisis communication plan development to crisis management, media relations, training of company employees in crisis communication cases, media training, involvement of independent experts, preparation of press releases, and other statements including influencer marketing and social media communication.
Can a PR crisis lead to a complete business shutdown?
The short answer to this question is unfortunately ‘Yes’. Ill-handled crisis communications can potentially lead to a drop in levels of public trust, a financial loss, or significant damage to the reputation of the company hit by the crisis. In today’s always-on 24/7 social media era, potentially damaging news travels faster than ever before and a PR crisis can lead to boycotts from both customers and business partners, creating financial instability, and thus destroying a business.
Can companies completely foresee and prevent public image crises?
Thought-out risk analysis is the foundation of any effective crisis management plan, but no such plan can guarantee the anticipation of all possible situations. A crisis management plan is a good reference tool, not a blueprint to handling any situation. Nevertheless, it provides vital support for resolving any crisis, by training individuals, identifying the chain of command, drafting possible response messages, and identifying communication channels, thus in the times of crisis, helping to respond faster, more prudently, and thus more effectively.
When is it too late to plan crisis communication?
Although early planning and preparation is the ideal scenario for a crisis situation, it is never too late to start to communicate thoughtfully and effectively. Only a well-thought-out strategy can help regain public trust, reputation, and reduce the impact of the crisis on a company or organization. Professional crisis communication agencies can provide valuable support at any stage of a crisis.
What about crisis communications across multiple countries and continents?
The GlobalCom PR Network consists of more than 80 PR agencies that can provide expertise and help across the globe. In the case of crisis communication, a single response is crucial, so centralized crisis communication management and strategy planning is recommended, but implementation, in collaboration with our professional partner agencies, can take place anywhere in the world.
We have worked with some of the most important brands in all industries, delivering results that speak for themselves. From market audits for crisis communications to crisis management containment, strategies and everything in between, we help organisations deal with critical situations where their public image has suffered.
GlobalCom PR Network and our crisis communications partner agencies offer an unparalleled results-driven experience globally. Our agency partners will offer you the best, most up-to-date crisis and reputation management advice and assistance. Whatever your reputation management needs and crisis communications goals are, we can help you achieve them.
GlobalCom PR Network and our partner agencies’ many years of diverse experience, as well as our results-driven strategies can provide essential support at any stage of a crisis. We are here to provide you the best, most up-to-date crisis and reputation management advice and assistance. We are here to help you achieve your goals.
Use the adjacent form to get in touch with us about your crisis communication needs and we will get back to you in no time.
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