When the organization is going through a crisis, their credibility is on the line. People are trained to believe the worst, and they are often right. To save your credibility, respond quickly and be as forthcoming as you can, show your human side. You need to take clear measures to resolve the issue and prevent this to happen again. The most challenging aspect of readiness is the strategy for first response. Problems may become emergencies due to hesitation or confusion that happens when the threatening situation is recognized. A successful first response is activation of pre-authorized crisis response plan.

Crises are not always necessarily bad. An emergency or controversy may give you the opportunity to reach large numbers of people with your company’s perspective. Good or bad, there are few key tactics in handling the crises. Advance preparation can turn rough situation into a smooth operation. Have facts and figures ready and make sure spokes people are well trained to deal with media. Have the media plan ready; know the media and how to reach them off-hours. “No comment” is often the worst statement implying evasiveness or guilt. If the response for media inquiries is not ready or there are no current updates, let the media know when an answer or next update will be available. Another words, be prepared and forthright.

Below is link to July 2011 – The Five Worst Video Media Disasters. If you were a PR professional, what do you think are these PR nightmare or opportunity?

http://www.mrmediatraining.com/index.php/2011/07/28/july-2011-the-five-worst-video-media-disasters/

Photo courtesy of eReleases

http://www.ereleases.com/prfuel/how-to-maintain-your-credibility-during-a-pr-crisis/

- Kristel

Abercrombie claims it is because The Jersey Shore cast is harming their brand image………interesting……last year they were selling “Fituation” t-shirts. So, just 12 months before, they were selling shirts to support this man, now they want to pay him not to wear his clothes. It is hard for me to understand.

A&F have been dealing with employee lawsuits, for example, a lawsuit for requiring an employee with an aesthetic arm work in a stock room versus the store floor, minority class action law suits and job applicant law suits.  Might be good to divert the attention to these legal issues….

The advertisements parade young men, shirtless, tanned and in great shape. The stores pump cologne through the store and play extremely load music. Sounds a lot like “Jersey Shore” to me.

Let’s call it like it is, a clever way for A&F to get their name in front of people during the shopping season of ‘Back to School’.

Public Relations are key to any organization. This is a nice example of how not to be truthful in a PR stunt. The majority of the general population realize that this is just a publicity stunt for A&F. Even bad publicity is still publicity, we are all talking about it.

Well played A&F.

Jackie

Some are using platforms like Radian6 to engage in online communication and measure the feelings and perceptions surrounding their brand. Whether to better understand consumer behavior or develop a more relationship-orientated strategy, top brands acknowledge and embrace the influence consumers have over prospective publics.

Case in point: an airline that suffered an explosively public blow to its ego from a passenger’s Twitter uproar channeled the setback into an opportunity to build a mutually beneficial social media presence. Southwest Airlines has become a leader in listening and providing solutions to customer dissatisfaction while taking positive interactions to the next level. A corporate policy dedicated to how employees respond to customer inquiries online resulted in exponential growth to its Twitter and Facebook followings, 12 million monthly visits to its Website, and over 29,000 travel guide reviews.

Tried and true, you can’t make everyone happy. Rather than being afraid of what unsatisfied customers might post to your Facebook page, counter negativity with incentivized communication, enticing audiences to think twice before abandoning your brand. I recently joined Southwest’s Rapid Rewards program for several benefits, all of which were targeted to me with the right message in the right place at the right time.

A peacock escaped from the Central Park Zoo on Tuesday, shortly after the news broke the peacock had two twitter accounts. The peacock perched in the window on a swanky Fifth avenue high rise and tweeted about his inner most thoughts and feelings. He referenced the two other escaped zoo animals. He hinted that cobras aren’t very smart and denied the allegation that he is the father of the peahen’s babies saying “I’m calling Maury!” He even started a hash tag #ReplaceAWordInaMovieTitleWithPeacock, which yielded some hilarious responses like “James and the Giant Peacock” and “How to Lose a Peacock in Ten Days.”

On the list of bad things that can happen at the zoo, an animal escaping is near the top. However people weren’t talking about what the Central Park Zoo may have done wrong. They were talking about the wit and hilarity of the smug tweeting peacock. So who is behind @CentralPeacock? Is it an astute, PR savvy zoo employee? According to his tweet, it is a freelance writer who was simply the fingers, not the brains of the operation.

-Erin
Photo courtesy of: nydailynews.com

I am aware of the facts about how blogging drives traffic to websites and how large companies have advanced with the utilization of social media and I know how many people are on Twitter (175 million). Despite this, I still have trouble giving advice as to the implementation of social media as a form of marketing that has direct benefit.

I have found that when I put social media in the context of public relations, I have an easier time conceptualizing results.  Companies believe in the value of having a public relations team that pushes stories, maintains relationships and is well connected within the community.  Social media platforms are the outlet for public relations and public relationships.

Two bloggers who I cross paths with regularly have very different views on this topic.  To learn more about why social media is NOT public relations click here, and to learn about why social media IS public relations, click here.  I would strongly encourage you to check out their opinions and see where it falls within your organization’s conversation.

-Kelly

photo source: designbeep.com