One of the most challenging times to handle a crisis is when your secrets and private information are already over the news.
When it’s your first time facing a crisis, you’ll feel like you’ve hit a wall and there’s no way out. To add to that, handling media scrutiny is extremely challenging if you’re trying to battle it alone.
Having a Crisis PR person by your side to guide you through the process will protect your company’s reputation and mitigate the damage.
But what if you don’t have a Crisis PR team?
In this post, we’ll share how our firm takes our clients through dealing with the media.
If you’re lucky enough not to have the situation in the press, check out our blog, “How To Avoid a PR Crisis”, for tips on how to kill the issue dead in its tracks before things get out of control.
Cool Down and Be Practical
Don’t make any rash decisions, and always think things through. I know it’s hard in the heat of the situation, but if you don’t have an advisor to help you, you’ve got to do the best you can.
For example, if you spent a night in jail and journalists are currently surrounding your home, don’t go home. Find a safe place where the cameras aren’t. Then, collect your thoughts and develop a strategy moving forward. It’s a simple solution, yet so hard to think of when you’re stressed and in the middle of things.
What’s Your End Goal?
The first thing you need to do is figure out your end goal. In most cases, your goal is to save the company’s reputation by mitigating the damage.
Then, you need to ask yourself: If the goal is to protect the company, what is the best path forward?
Only then can you start creating a plan to save your company.
Get All Your Team on Board
While it’s rare to have everyone share the same opinions or preferred approaches when it comes to saving the company, EVERYONE must be on the same page regarding what the goal is and that taking actions counter to the goal jeopardizes the entire operation. Having everyone to agree on the purpose (the “Why”), you’ll hopefully eliminate any unexpected conflicts before they happen.
Talk to Your Most Important People First
For example, one of our clients has Disney as their most significant strategic partner. What this means is, if anything pops up, Disney is their TOP PRIORITY. How does this look in practice? It means that if you’re unfavorably mentioned in the media, pick up the phone and call your TOP PRIORITY. Check in with them by letting them know you’re handling the situation and ask if there’s anything additional you can do to ensure they stay protected.
So even if it’s a one-and-done story, you need to speak to those who matter most. At least to let them know you’re aware of the situation. It doesn’t matter whether it’s your strategic partners, investors, or even employees. If it might potentially impact them, let them know you’re thinking of them and their needs.
Talk to Big Media Outlets, Smaller Ones Will Follow
Think of which news outlet(s) are typically the leaders of the pack. Who are the outlets that are the first to publish a breaking story? Who is considered the most reliable or most read by your target audience?
If you already have relationships in the media, great! That might make this process much easier, depending on how bad the situation is. However, if you don’t have any connections, don’t fret. A reporter is always on the hunt for a good story, and if you can provide them an edge against their competitors, they’ll be grateful.
Shifting the Narrative
When speaking to the media, your goal is to tell your story on your own terms.
With your strategy set and talking points ready, make sure you stick to it!
Remember that it’s okay only to answer the questions that’ll help you shift the narrative and move things in a direction you’d like to head. This also means answering questions nobody asked and divulging details you shouldn’t is a big no-no. Don’t ramble aimlessly under any circumstances. That’s asking for trouble.
Operate Between a Troll-free Zone and Loyal Fan Zone
Your haters will always hate you no matter what. Even if you said something widely accepted as fact, they’d find a reason to complain. So please don’t waste your mental space and energy trying to convince them. On the other side of the coin, your loyal fans will (in most cases) always support you. So focus your efforts on addressing those in the middle who haven’t made up their minds yet.
To do this, we’ve found that establishing a commonality or some middle ground works best. If you can get people to agree that there are commonalities between you and them, you can build on that.
Avoid Having Information Voids When Talking to a Reporter
Avoid having any holes in your story. This goes for working with the media or talking to an employee. By leaving glaring holes in your story, it raises doubts about believability. You don’t need to go line by line and fill in a story with incredible detail, but you need to fill in the missing pieces because otherwise, your audience will fill in their thoughts and assumptions, and the missing secret piece can take on a life of its own.
So how about having a firm with more than 50 years of experience be on your side? Creating your plan, preventing crises from happening, and even if and when they do, they’re also ready to jump right in and get their hands dirty?
If this sounds good to you, click here for a free 15-minute consultation or call us at (310) 396-8696.
Gillott Communications is a Los Angeles-based public relations firm that specializes in high-stakes Crisis & Reputation Management with more than 50 years of expertise in strategic communications, corporate public relations, and working with the media.
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