The Public Relations Blog

It depends on how much you want to avoid (or survive) your next crisis

Ben Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Indeed, it is much easier to safely extinguish a campfire with water and soil than it is to battle a raging forest fire. You can say the same for crisis management.

Learn why your company needs social media channels for effective crisis communication

General Motors CEO Mary Barra apologized for the disaster surrounding GM’s faulty ignition switches. Domino’s Pizza CEO Patrick Doyle expressed regret after two employees created a disgusting YouTube video prank featuring nothing you would ever want on a pizza. But was this enough? 

Prepare for the worst so you perform at your best

Consumers are irrational. It’s part of the thrill of doing business: seeing if your company can decipher the right combination of wants versus needs and create an optimum strategy for pricing products for maximum profit.

Businesses generally have policies or processes to handle expected variables such as low inventory, staff illnesses or a new product launch. Rarely, however, are companies in the mindset to pre-identify triggers that would help them recognize when events start drifting outside of the realm of normal operations.

Nowadays, it seems that everyone wants to know everything as soon as possible. This culture of instant gratification pervades everything from social media and internet gossip channels to the national news networks. It has even intruded upon the business environment.

Why it's important to communicate bad medical news about a CEO

Nothing is more troubling to a public relations spokesperson than having to communicate the poor health or advancing illness of the CEO of a major corporation. Simply put, there is no good way for a PR person to make the news story appealing to the investing public, and no matter how he or she positions the news, the public will usually decry the spokesperson for one of two things: being less than forthcoming on the details or being downright duplicitous.

Social media is optimal for promoting interaction between your company and the public in a way that is meaningful and delivers results. But a social media crisis can send your company into a tailspin if your social media campaign is not on target.

Several top companies have experienced social media woes that they could have easily avoided – or at the very least minimized. Here are a few examples, followed with the steps they might have taken to avoid a social media crisis.

In many matters, it pays to take your time and think about a decision – that's why mortgages and car loans allow a three-day, penalty-free grace period in many states, just in case buyer's remorse sets in. When it comes to dealing with a corporate crisis, however, time is always of the essence. Here are four reasons why you should move quickly during a crisis.

5 ways to guard your company against digital hackers

You think it won’t happen to you, until it does. Whether it’s your identity, your reputation or your social media accounts, digital hackers are alive and well.

Last week, Ole Miss Rebels lineman Laremy Tunsil personally learned just how social his social media accounts could be when they were hacked during the NFL’s opening draft night.

When your CEO creates a firestorm

An instance of self-induced crisis cleanup began on Wednesday when Verizon workers went on strike over several key issues – which, in itself, wasn’t the crisis.

In the presidential campaign events the next day, both Democratic candidates took to the stage to support various aspects of the Verizon workers’ decision. This is common for politicians; it only became an issue for Verizon when the company’s CEO chose to respond to only one candidate, Bernie Sanders, but remained silent regarding Hillary Clinton’s similar statements on the same day.

Don’t dig yourself into a hole during a PR crisis

Not having your customer’s pulse for your brand can hurt your business when the public is expecting a response from you, but so can a knee-jerk reaction. No matter what noise is in the background, responsible corporate statements always need to stay on message, on time and be delivered via the appropriate channels.