What should you do when a public relations (PR) crisis starts to brew? Or more importantly, what should you avoid doing when an emergency, scandal or disaster strikes your company?
Wonder no more because the good folks from News Exposure have come up with an infographic detailing what the top tips for managing a PR crisis should be.
Everybody loves the limelight. Well, almost everyone.
Done well, publicity can help you to gain significant brand awareness, trigger customer interest, and build your corporate reputation. Media coverage on a respected national or trade publication can also help you to achieve legitimacy for your brand.
United Airlines is now one of the most Tweeted, Googled and Facebooked airline on social media.
It has gone viral in a spectacularly wrong way. And all for an “airline disaster” that you would never imagine.
What is the role of Public Relations (PR) in the digital and social age? Should we merely hustle for media coverage while producing corporate annual reports?
Well, the answers to these questions may surprise you. At least according to Gini Dietrich (above), author of the book and website Spin Sucks.
Courtesy of Nikon Facebook
“Look up in the sky! It’s a bird… It’s a plane… It’s a doctored photo which won a Nikon trolley bag!”
OK, just in case you were hiding behind a huge rock over the past 48 hours or so, a huge viral Facebook event has overtaken Singapore. Shutterbugs everywhere are talking about this photo contest so widely that it will probably become the most “viral” Facebook photo contest ever organised in Singapore.
Are these foods not “white” enough? (courtesy of Daniel’s Food Diary)
When the ingredients to a dish are not properly assembled, the outcome could be a recipe for disaster.
It all started rather innocently and positively. Pitched as part of a global initiative, Dîner en Blanc is the world’s first viral event premised on the concept of a “très chic picnic” imported from Paris. According to its website, this mass gastronomic extravanganza have taken place in outdoor public spaces in 20 cities across 5 continents this year, from Barcelona to New York City, from Montreal to Sydney.
BP Former CEO Tony Hayward’s Apology came too little too late (courtesy of Infinite Unknown)
Recently, everybody in Singapore has been talking about the spate of SMRT train delays and breakdowns in December. Numerous netizens have called for extreme measures to be taken, including the resignation of the CEO, granting of free rides to commuters, andother actions to be taken.
As an aftermath of the incidents, we learnt that the CEO Saw Phaik Hwa has apologised soon after the incidents. The SMRT Board has also apologised for them, and has commissioned a committee led by NTUC Dy Sec Gen Ong Ye Kung to look into the matter. Separately, the Government is also investigating the incidents as part of a formal Committee Of Inquiry.
It was the best of times, it is the worst of times in this tale of two culinary crises. The first has the potential to be truly cataclysmic, while the second could balloon into a major corporate catastrophe.
How both incidents have rippled through the social media world makes for an interesting study.
Crises can be opportunities if handled well, as these Chinese characters show (courtesy of tingilinde)
One of the most important skills PR practitioners need to know is crisis communication. That is when things go wrong but need to be made public. Public listed companies would probably be most familiar with this when sharing their quarterly earnings reports.
Hiding the truth is probably one of the worst things to do in such a situation. The widespread availability of information and records through both the internet and public libraries makes it difficult for one to fudge. Sooner or later the truth will come out, and it would be far better coming from you rather than a third party source.