The Public Relations Blog

Sometimes it’s what you don’t do that matters

Business icon Henry Ford said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” With that in mind, Axia Public Relations once again brings you the top avoidable PR goofs of the year. Let’s hope no one repeats the errors of 2016 next year.

No matter how bad your year was, hopefully, you can take comfort in the fact that you didn’t suffer a reputation-destroying PR goof. Here are five PR mistakes you can avoid making in the future.

3 ways Macy’s effectively handled its Black Friday virtual traffic jam

According to data collected by Adobe Digital Insights, Black Friday sales hit a record $3.34 billion in e-commerce. This marked the first time sales surpassed $3 billion. Successful companies know they must provide an optimum online shopping experience for consumers (75 percent of worldwide shoppers will abandon a company’s site if it’s buggy, slow or prone to crashes) and that includes preparing months in advance for the busiest shopping days of the year.

Learn from slip-ups, pick up the pieces, and move on with help from PR.

In the midst of a crisis, your CEO says something insensitive. During a media interview, a top executive mistakenly talks about a project you weren’t ready to discuss yet. Mistakes by a company spokesperson happen all the time. It’s how you handle them that defines your company and makes the difference between a minor error and a major mess.

To inform the public about your company, you must put yourself out there. The more you do, the bigger the potential for missteps. Learn these public relations tips and techniques to decrease the chances of a mistake happening to your company.

Valuable PR lessons from Starbucks that you can apply to your own crisis management strategy

Starbucks is no stranger to controversy, and this week’s release of a new coffee cup that the industry titan hoped would celebrate community stirred up some more.

5 lessons you can use in your own company

When Ben Franklin said, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” he was referring to fire safety. But this adage applies to many situations, including a corporation’s crisis management strategy. Planning makes for the best success, and this includes planning for an accident, an illness or an attack on a company’s principles.

PR tips for handling routine business and crisis errors

“To err is human,” according to Alexander Pope. But accepting that mistakes will happen is one of the biggest challenges top executives identify in their personal improvement plans.

Having a great team in place is the first step in handling mistakes, and public relations professionals provide rapid response to do the heavy lifting during the good times and the bad. Even if you aren’t certain of the cause of a crisis or the potential solution, responding in a professional (and fiscally appropriate) manner maintains your company’s reputation.

No need to dread if you plan ahead

While many crises are unpredictable, that’s no excuse not to plan ahead. We find that most companies are not prepared for a crisis; therefore, they don’t know how to react when one occurs.

A crisis can happen to any business and the results can be devastating. Even something seemingly insignificant, like an off-the-cuff remark by a CEO or other top executive, can snowball into a major public relations nightmare. When it happens to your company, what can you do?

Here is a checklist your business can use to ensure you handle the problem in the most effective way.

The new feature assists corporations, nonprofits and individuals during crises

In response to the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., Facebook activated its Safety Check feature. This marks the first activation in response to an incident in the United States.

Learn the top 4 ways your company can use PR to lessen the impact and longevity of a crisis

You see it all the time: There’s a news story about some large company screwing up in a major way, yet coming out of it relatively unscathed (and often with a boost in profits to boot). How do they do it? More importantly, what can your company learn from their experiences?

In this day of 24-hour news and things that go viral in the night, it’s no longer a question of if your company will go through a crisis, but when. Fortunately, there are plenty of examples to choose from of large corporations using PR crisis management tools in a successful way. Discover the right methods for dealing with a crisis to keep your company out of hot water.