Coronavirus is on the forefront of everyone’s minds, news headlines, and trending stories. It is a global pandemic, an economic disaster, and a business crisis.Lives are on the line, and businesses should respect the risk of the virus but not be blind to opportunity. This is a chance for you to show how your company handles crisis and navigates through unknown waters. PR is relevant always, especially in times of crisis. We want to look towards PR to learn how to respond to crisis and how to continue conducting business empathetically, and how to maintain a positive reputation with the public amidst panic. Here are some tips and ways to practice PR in times of crisis of today’s age Proactively Understand the Facts and Situation
Provide clarity, remain calm, and gather all the information necessary to educate yourself and your company first. Remember, this crisis is not a PR crisis and is not about you. We need to educate ourselves on the situation in order to partake in an informed action within our community. Then, we communicate all relevant details to the people so we are all on the same page moving forward. Business is at stake, but our priority is assessing the situation for reassurance so as not to cause unnecessary panic. Put yourself in other people’s shoes as you consider what to say and what not to say. You don’t want to cause a frenzy with miscommunication, nor do you want to remain silent and risk coming off as inept towards the aptitude of the situation. Of course no one can predict an emergency or crisis, but we can prepare for one. Make a full checklist of all the business essentials required to keep it running and things to reconsider when functioning atypically, then communicate this plan to your audience so they can feel reassured. Now, you’ll at least be prepared when caught off-guard by a crisis and can in turn practice PR with your customers and clients to lead them to calmer waters. Show honesty, have humanity, encourage empathy After gathering the facts, you should ask yourself how others feel in this situation. Listen to the people in your own team, and others in the industry so you don’t respond too negatively or cast emotions onto the sidelines. Being open and honest is good for your brand, even if you’re highlighting the struggles you’ve been dealing with. It shows humanity and in the long run, your clients will remember that in times of crisis you were empathic and cared. Often times, companies and brand representatives interpret this as providing emotional, unfiltered responses, which is not an empathy-encouraging action. Many people on social media now have started speaking out against their companies that still force them to go into work instead of moving to remote work. These companies will be remembered after the crisis for not adapting and showing their heart during times of need. Know that many others around you are all going through the same crisis and dealing with the impact on their lives and businesses so it is encouraged to empathize with them and show vulnerability in admitting your own impacts. Communicate your Plan and Build Strong Messages As we get into actually communicating your messages to your consumers, you can not pretend the crisis is not happening. If we are not to avoid the topic, then we must hit it head on with our response. Be mindful of the facts and the emotions. Your first response should envelop these two balances and communicate a clear, well-articulated response that is relatable and genuine. Use the facts to frame your response, be transparent about the situation, and disclose your commitment to continual monitoring of the situation. You are not a news outlet so you do not need to continuously update your audience on the situation of the crisis, just one message plus a possible follow-up if necessary is needed. Be Adaptable Like we said earlier, nobody can predict an emergency. This means that the plans we had going forward up until the crisis must be reevaluated and reconsidered through the lens of the crisis. Is this content still relevant? Is this topic too insensitive and unemotional? Is this the time to announce surprise releases or new launches? What does this mean for the events we had planned? After Hurricane Sandy hit New York, many families and businesses were affected. This was also the time of the Newtown shootings so there were multiple tragedies and emotions to be aware of. One company in particular learned to be more flexible with their conditions but also made PR mistakes that were unexpected. One thing they had to learn the hard way was to turn off pre-scheduled online activity. They said, “During times of tragedy, it’s important to be aware of any online activity—automated email promotions, tweets, facebook posts, blog updates, etc. that you’ve pre-scheduled. Allowing business-as-usual posts for your latest product or service to be sent out during a time when serious news is unfolding, can certainly appear disrespectful and insensitive. My advice is to cease all scheduled updates for the time being. It’s just not relevant.” This is just one example of being adaptable to the situation and accepting that some things that were in the plan before just cannot be carried out anymore. Yes it is so much hard work behind those plans that must be thrown out. However, everyone is impacted in a different way to these plan changes and in order to thrive and maintain good public relations, it is essential to show versatility and capability to adapt. The Summer Olympics held in Japan has just announced they will be postponed for about a year. Many other sporting events, conferences, and festivals announced their cancellation or postponement early on, but it took quite some time for the Olympics to make their decision. We know it was a hard decision to make considering all the training the athletes have put in for 2020 but it was the right choice for the ultimate safety of the athletes during their training. This shows their ability to adapt and accommodate for change and their respect to the spread of the virus. Use your platform as a way to provide support and understanding Lastly, navigating through unknown waters is scary. Nobody is an expert in handling it and we’re all learning from each other. Part of maintaining a good reputation is offering a helping hand or showing your support. Ford announced that it is working with 3M and GE Healthcare to produce respirators, ventilators and face shields to address shortages in the treatment of coronavirus patients. This shows their clear response in empathy, their knowledge in the needs, and their step of leadership for support. Even if you’re not able to financially provide additional support in your services, you may offer redirection to sites or organizations that offer much-needed resources. Consider what your company is able to contribute, whether it be healthcare, food, or deferrals. Large or small, the important thing is showing that you can help. It will contribute to the overall story, that every company is jumping in on, of community and teamwork. Communicate your voice and what you’re doing to help, which should naturally inspire and lead others to join in as well. Others may include those in your industry, supply chain, or government and should all support each other. Assess what your capabilities are and what the attainable needs are, then find an intersection to apply your business towards. Times of crisis are challenging, we admit it. But we want to help inform you on how to deal with it and keep practicing good PR while we’re here. We’ve covered how to gather proper information on the crisis, apply empathy, communicate effectively, be adaptable, and offer your business as support as just some different ways to practice PR in times of crisis. We hope to have inspired you to do the same and follow us on our blog and social medias for more updates.
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