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Key Takeaways Reputation management amid a crisis requires digital intervention.
It also requires a well-crafted media response.
Understanding when and why to employ both channels of communication is your best chance of silencing the noise and reestablishing your own brand voice.
With all the high-stakes moments out there in the public sphere, businesses and business leaders need to have a handle on reputation management more than ever. One ill-advised tweet that goes viral can cause as much damage as a full-length exposé, and yet the two scenarios do not pose the same threats or require the same type of response.
“Triage” is necessary, sure, but what kind, what does it entail and how do you best enact it? These are questions I regularly face at my PR firm, where I’ve been navigating reputation management crises for years and am responsible for both calming and expertly coaching my clients through them.
I’ll tell you what I tell them: Some fires burn hot and fast on social media, some burn slow and wide in the press, and, unfortunately, some do both. Determining the type of damage-control intervention that will be most effective at dousing the flames is the key to appropriate response strategy.
Social vs. press platforms
Before delving into the triage tools of the trade, I want to clarify that we are indeed talking about reputation crises that surface on social versus those that spread in media outlets, but we’re also talking about responding to a crisis — any kind of crisis — primarily in the online digital realm versus the more traditional media outlet realm.
So the “fires” I just talked about? It’s important to differentiate the characteristics of each, to not treat every crisis like it’s the same crisis, because that’s the fastest way to lose control of a narrative.
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