My heart goes out to the people of Moore, Oklahoma. As emergency personnel and government officials described the disaster relief efforts after the terrible tornado this week, I was reminded that many of the same steps are necessary for public relations crisis management. In both cases, the crisis is often difficult to avert but effective management will make a huge difference in the overall outcome.
8 Steps for Public Relations Crisis Management
Public Relations Management resembles handling the advent of a tornado. In both cases, you should
- Tornado: Keep an eye on weather forecasts. When a storm watch is posted, secure your property. It is critical that you are doubly vigilant when weather conditions are conducive to the development of a severe weather event.
PR Crisis: Monitor media for reputation-damaging mentions
2. Tornado: If the warning is escalated to a watch, increase your alertness and prepare to take immediate action.
PR Crisis: If operations, customer service, marketing, legal, HR, or another department warns about an area of risk, public relations should provide leadership to proactively correct the problem.
3. Tornado: A tornado warning means that a tornado has been detected. Take cover immediately.
PR Crisis: Open a thorough public relations investigation and immediately acknowledge the problem publicly and provide credible assurances that inquiries are being conducted and remedies will implemented.
4. Tornado: In most cases, if you have prepared, you will have minimized the damage that results from a tornado.
PR Crisis: A Crisis Management Plan and immediate activation of it will keep the situation from escalating unmanageably. This is very important for getting a head start on public relations crisis management.
5. Tornado: Immediately after a tornado, make a quick assessment of additional vulnerabilities.
PR Crisis: Determine whether there are other situations that are related to the problem and limit further exposure.
6. Tornado: Take immediate steps to contain additional damage. Quickly cover holes in the roof, cut down precarious tree limbs, and protect perishables.
PR Crisis: Consider suspending or curbing activities that are related to the crisis that has caused the incident.
7. Tornado: Once you are protected against additional exposure, create a comprehensive damage assessment and plan steps to make repairs.
PR Crisis: Solicit reports from stakeholders to determine the extent of the damage and establish remediation processes and responsibilities.
8. Tornado: Execute the steps. Contract with repair specialists and oversee renovations.
PR Crisis: Supervise the execution of the plan and assess results. Debrief stakeholders to eliminate future exposure.
Whether your business is large or small, you should take the time to be prepared for an unexpected public relations crisis in order to minimize the resulting damage to your reputation and your sales.
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