When businesses employ a PR agency, it’s often in the hope of increasing exposure, securing earned media coverage and building public image. But equally as important as brand promotion is brand protection – the art of shielding a reputation amid a PR crisis.

No business hopes to find itself at the centre of negative press. But if you do, it’s essential that you seek the right support and guidance on how to navigate it.

Here are eden’s top five pieces of advice for working your way through a PR crisis.

assess the situation

We understand it can be easy to panic when caught off guard by a quizzing journalist. In fact, it’s instinct to want to defend yourself or your organisation’s reputation, particularly if you feel the information you’re being told is inaccurate or unfair. But providing a comment when emotions are running high is almost never the right approach to take.

Before responding, take the time to fully understand the journalist’s query. What exactly is the claim or allegation? What do they want from you? And when do they want it by? It’s always best to provide a clear and thought-out statement in writing. This mitigates the risk of you being misquoted and means you have a formal paper trail of the request from the reporter and your response in full.

consider the wider context

A PR crisis looks different for every business and organisation. It can range from smaller-scale disagreements with a member of the public to scandals dominating the front page of the national papers. When crisis strikes, take a step back and look at the bigger picture. What other factors are at play here? And also, how will this play out in the news agenda?

For example, active criminal proceedings will majorly impact how a PR team can respond to a crisis. Here, an organisation should make no comment until these proceedings come to an end – usually when the accused person is either acquitted or convicted.

The news agenda will also play a part in how a crisis plays out. Any major political, economic or even sporting event can put a strain on resources in the newsroom, meaning journalists are unable to cover content as they usually would. It’s always worth considering how much coverage you anticipate something will generate and ensuring you’ve allocated enough time and resources to manage media requests on your end.

honesty

At Eden, we always encourage our clients to be open and honest with us about potential challenges or threats to reputation. As an agency, we work hard to understand our client’s business and their audience, but we can only wholly support when a client is transparent about the nature of the situation. This way, any PR professional can offer specifically tailored advice to help best navigate the situation at hand.

identify areas of risk or difficulty and plan for them

It’s important to focus on what you can control when a crisis strikes. A good place to start is by outlining any areas which may cause difficulty and planning to ensure everyone is well-briefed and versed. For example, is it likely that someone may have to take part in a potentially difficult broadcast interview? Choose a key spokesperson and be transparent with them about what the interview could involve. Get ahead and run through the key messages you want them to get across. This applies to print and online too. Take the time to create all relevant draft statements and get these signed off. This way you’re prepared for all situations, and can ensure swift and thorough responses to press enquiries.

have a crisis comms plan in place

While it’s impossible to plan completely for a PR crisis (it is a crisis after all!) it’s absolutely essential that organisations have a clear and structured plan of how any potentially damaging situation will be handled. These processes should be outlined during a period of smooth operations and shared with all relevant stakeholders to absorb in good time. Creating an effective plan should involve an open dialogue between PR professionals and all those who will be engaging with it – this will ensure everyone knows what their role is and is also fully on board.

Each plan will have to be tweaked accordingly depending on the nature of the incident, but a key outline will help reduce any feelings of panic or overwhelm when a crisis arises.

The team at Eden has extensive experience supporting various organisations with creating and implementing robust crisis communications plans. For more information on how our services can help you, please email enquiries@edenpr.co.uk