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For people and businesses all over the world today, the consequences of a reputational crisis can be catastrophic, triggering a loss of trust, damaging their brand, and ultimately impacting performance and profitability. All too often, people neglect to safeguard their online reputation, leaving them vulnerable and exposed.
Chad Angle is Head of ReputationDefender, a global reputation management and digital privacy company established in 2006. This article will look at the various stages of a PR crisis, sharing strategies to help counter negative publicity.
When strategizing a crisis management plan, it is important to understand the various stages that unfold during a PR crisis, identifying every step to explore all possible options and outcomes. Exploring the various stages that typically unfold during a crisis helps people and businesses to better respond to the situation at various key points.
In the world of business, a corporate PR crisis generally consists of six key stages.
- Warning. Although it is impossible to predict with certainty when a crisis may happen, there are often warning signs. These may include factors such as company financials, an employee’s behavior, or an overall change in public sentiment toward the business.
- Risk Assessment. This phase begins as soon as the crisis is in its incipient stage, occurring when key management staff start analyzing the impact of the situation on the business and its customers and staff. At this point, the crisis situation is acknowledged, with key players weighing up the potential for damage and resulting issues discussed. It is at this stage that parties may start discussing the worst possible outcome, strategizing how to avoid it.
- Response. Armed with a clear idea of the level of risk, the parties can start to plot their course in line with their crisis management plan. In a business, everyone that can contribute to resolution of the problem, including emergency response teams and employees, are usually informed at this point. This stage involves a lot of back-and-forth communication as key players plan actions to manage and mitigate the incident.
- Management. This phase requires cohesion and collaboration between those with the responsibility and ability to address the crisis. The immediate effects of the incident need to be carefully monitored, along with any changes that arise. In a company, it is at this stage that open communication should take place with employees, customers, and other stakeholders.
- Resolution. At this point, an action plan is implemented, with everyone involved in managing the crisis carrying out their individual tasks, pulling together to resolve the issue. The priority at this stage is achieving the best possible outcome and preventing the damage from spreading, enabling the business to get back on track.
- Recovery. Once the crisis situation moves from resolution and recovery, the business can start functioning normally once more, with employees resuming routine operations. Another important part of this phase is analyzing the results of the crisis management plan during the recovery phase to better understand how to avoid or mitigate the impact of a similar PR crisis in the future.
Today, online reputation management (ORM) is crucial for people and businesses seeking to create and maintain a positive online presence. ORM involves monitoring the online narrative attaching to the individual or organization across various digital platforms and taking proactive steps to shape public perception. For businesses, ORM is integral to portraying the organization in a positive light, helping to boost the brand with potential customers to enhance trust and sales.
To reduce the risk of reputation crises occurring, it is crucial to adopt a proactive approach to ORM, creating high quality, authoritative content that accurately reflects the individual or business’s values and mission. It is also vital to update webpages regularly with relevant and engaging content to maintain a positive image while simultaneously decreasing the visibility of any negative content.
ReputationDefender provides crisis management services helping people and businesses who find themselves at the epicenter of a major ORM crisis. With more than 15 years of experience pioneering the reputation management industry, ReputationDefender has invested circa £20 million in research and development to date, having developed patented solutions and technologies to safeguard the online reputations of its clients.
Operating with the ethos that all people and organizations deserve to be fairly and accurately represented online, ReputationDefender helps clients to correct misleading search results, protect their privacy, and future proof their personal and professional lives.
