One thing we all know is that you never know when a crisis will happen. It is just something that can't be predicted until it happens and the COVID-19 pandemic is a perfect example of that. Unfortunately, crises like this happen all the time but it is how one responds to it that helps determines the future and success of your company or business.
This past week, we delved into a lot of readings on crisis communication and how it is important to have a plan set in place as safety net for when crises do happen. Although one should never hope for a crisis to hit their organization, it is still pretty crucial to have a crisis communication plan in case you are faced with a dilemma and you know what steps to take to go from there and to recover from it.
In an article from talkwalker.com, it states that "every company should be prepared for the inevitable public relations crisis - data breach, executive scandal. negative review, failed event, badly planned marketing campaign. Yep, it happens to us all. Hit by a PR crisis, you'll need a fast and carefully crafted response. We're talking damage limitation, folks. It's about protecting your brand reputation." Often times, I think a lot of the more start-up companies who have very little to no PR experience forget about the importance of brand reputation so they don't even think about a crisis communication plan to help protect it if they were to be faced with some kind of crisis.
One of the readings we covered in my strategic communication class lists five different strategies a company can use to guide the makings of their own plan. I won't go into much detail about each one just because it is pretty big load of information but the article includes: spokesperson response, proactive damage control, case escalation, social media response, and customer feedback collection and analysis.
Social media response is a pretty effective strategy to me just because I think it can be the most efficient as far as getting the message or response delivered in a timely manner that supports an organization's cause. For example, we studied a case in my class that focused on an incident with two Domino's workers who were mishandling the food and then posting it all over social media. As a response, Domino's also used social media such as Twitter and YouTube to act upon the matter and handle it as the incident was initially brought to attention.
I think social media has a huge impact on public relations practices when it comes to crisis communications and reputation management. Social media has the power to reach a much larger audience when compared to depending on more "old-fashioned" mediums such as press releases. Also, with social media, you have the ability of sending a message at a higher speed and I think this is what makes it much more effective. While Domino's did wait practically a whole day to respond to the incident, using platforms such as Twitter and YouTube was a smart decision to make. Ultimately, these platforms allow companies to fight fire with fire and hopefully rebuild the image that the incident tarnished and possibly prevent situations like that from happening in the future.
We must also realize that with this particular incident involving workers from Domino's involved those two individuals alone. While they representatives of the company, their behavior does not reflect on Domino's as a whole but it is still important to effectively communicate with the public, especially those who eat at Domino's, how the situation is being handled to ensure that the restaurant is a safe and hazard-less place to eat.
When considering all of this, it is also important for companies and businesses to consistently monitor content on all social media platforms they are utilizing and are being represented on. Anything that is being said or discussed about a company on social media also reflects the image and reputation of such companies, so it is important that internal members stay up to date with a those forms of communication because it could either help or hurt the companies as a result.
Since we are on the topic of crisis communication, I think another topic that is pretty substantial to discuss is the actual crisis going on today and is affecting the entire world. With COVID-19, one thing we have all learned as a society is that crises can sometimes bring a lot of uncertainties and raise a lot of questions that may seem like the answers are completely impossible to find and with this particular crisis, it has made a huge impact in a big and negative way. However, when correlating a crisis communication plan into what seems like the impossible, it still provides some sense of structure and stability even when we feel like it is completely uncontrollable.
Has your company or business been heavily impacted by COVID-19? If so, how have you responded to help keep your organization afloat? Has your company or business faced any other crises? I would love to hear your feedback when it comes to responding to crises so leave a comment below.
Thanks for checking out my 'column!' During this crisis, I hope you are taking the appropriate measures for your personal health and the appropriate measure to ensure the stability of the company or business and I hope this post gave you some information to help you with that. Be sure to come back next week for a new post!
-CC
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