Recently we cooperated with a food company. In March, this company was reported by more than 20 mainstream media because of its advertisement. Negative news was overwhelming, and there was a serious public relations crisis. At first, before the cooperation, this customer had written an apology letter through his company's copywriting, and posted it in Weibo for explanation. Obviously, this extensive crisis public relations strategy is not very appropriate, not only because the feedback time of the announcement is slow, but also because the content of the announcement has not been professionally edited and optimized. So obviously, such a wrong way of crisis public relations has also attracted a lot of attention from the media and comments from netizens. The company encountered very serious negative publicity, which caused a lot of reports and forwarding by large and small media. This unfavorable way of handling public relations crisis has seriously affected the handling of this crisis and caused damage to enterprises. Finally, by purchasing the public relations solution of Tang Jie Media's annual crisis, in a short period of time, the popularity of media reports dropped to a historical low, and the brand image was effectively restored.
In fact, public relations problems may occur at any time in large, medium and small enterprises. When enterprises encounter public relations crisis, how to deal with it effectively is very important. Therefore, when there is a serious public relations crisis in our enterprise, how to deal with it effectively? In this article, I will share with you five tips from the crisis public relations manual of SRCNN, a global think tank, to help you prepare in advance.
1. Make a plan to deal with the media.
Your first decision is whether to accept an interview about this story. If you choose not to be interviewed or commented by the media, then in any case, this will not stop the media from actively reporting. For the opinions and articles published by media reporters, it is very likely that your company refused to accept interviews and comments. However, if your enterprise has good public relations resources, or maintains media relations through an international public relations service provider such as Tang Jie Media for a long time, as the first crisis public relations handling tip, I suggest that you must face up to it bravely and keep good communication with the media, instead of just avoiding it.
If you choose to be interviewed by the media for comments, you must understand that all your opinions may not be completely published in media articles. Therefore, in addition to choosing professional international public relations service providers and maintaining good media relations, if you decide to be interviewed by the media, you must determine and convey a very simple message in advance and always keep the focus. Never be interviewed when you are not ready.
2. Formulate the company's media spokesperson system.
Whether you plan to communicate and talk with the media or not, you don't want a random employee who may not know the whole public relations crisis to participate in media interviews. Therefore, according to the suggestion of Tang Jie Media's Corporate Media PR Spokesperson System Manual of SRCNN, a global think tank, enterprises should formulate and improve the media PR spokesperson system, and convey it to your employees, and transfer all media interviews or statements to the media spokesperson designated by the company.
If your company needs to communicate directly with the media or be interviewed, please be sure to designate a specific person as the media public relations spokesperson. In small and medium-sized enterprises, this spokesperson is most likely the owner, shareholder or senior manager of the company. In large enterprises such as listed companies or Fortune 500 companies, employees such as human resources directors can speak on behalf of the enterprises and keep in touch with the media directly. Of course, no matter who is the designated media public relations spokesperson, we must ensure that the spokesperson's views are concise, clear and rigorous, and always keep the focus.
3. Hire an international public relations service provider to get help from crisis public relations.
According to the influence and severity of the public relations crisis, I suggest that an international public relations service provider such as Tang Jie Media should be hired to obtain a crisis public relations solution, and a professional organization with rich experience in crisis public relations management and disposal should provide crisis public relations analysis, strategy and implementation. These professional public relations consultants can provide valuable strategies and suggestions for enterprises to deal with crisis public relations, repair the impact of public relations crisis through good media relations, and reduce the serious impact of enterprises due to wrong public relations handling of crisis.
Don't take any action that will worsen the situation without authorization.
If you face safety risks such as working conditions and equipment environment in the factory, now is definitely not the time to give high bonuses to the vice president in charge of technology. Although this seems obvious, it is surprising that we often encounter such low-level mistakes made by customers' companies when they are highly concerned by the media.
The fourth suggestion about crisis public relations is that we advise your enterprise to be very careful when giving out bonuses, promoting employees or holding company celebrations, and never let your behavior seem as if you are not taking this public relations crisis seriously.
5. Seriously make up for your own shortcomings
If your enterprise makes mistakes in the public relations crisis, I suggest that you must seriously make up for your own shortcomings, correct and take correct measures to improve. If we blindly try to cover up the facts, it will often make the public relations crisis worse and bring more serious consequences. If your enterprise is facing legal proceedings involving intellectual property rights, it is suggested that you must consult the staff of Tang Jie Media China Legal Department or follow the advice of practicing lawyers.
Of course, for enterprises with a certain scale, we suggest that we can improve the professionalism and compliance of enterprises through the compliance products in Tang Jie Media's annual crisis public relations solution, standardize the copywriting and all documents of enterprises' external publicity, optimize the management mechanism of internal employees and suppliers, and resolutely prevent employees from engaging in illegal, immoral or unsafe behaviors to avoid such public relations crises. Therefore, it is very important to create a corporate culture of zero tolerance for illegal activities in your company.