How do you identify Public Relations crises?

1 Monitor your environment

The first step to identify a PR crisis is to monitor your environment constantly. This means keeping an eye on the news, social media, blogs, forums, reviews, and other sources of information that may affect your organization or industry. You should also track your own metrics, such as website traffic, sales, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement. By monitoring your environment, you can spot potential issues, trends, or opportunities that may impact your reputation. You can also benchmark your performance against your competitors and industry standards.

2 Assess the impact and urgency

The second step to identify a PR crisis is to assess the impact and urgency of the situation. Not every negative comment, complaint, or feedback is a PR crisis. You need to evaluate how serious, widespread, and lasting the problem is, and how it affects your stakeholders and goals. You can use a simple matrix to categorize the situation as low, medium, or high impact and urgency. For example, a low impact and urgency situation may be a minor error on your website that can be fixed easily. A high impact and urgency situation may be a major product recall that affects millions of customers and poses a safety risk.

3 Listen to your stakeholders

The third step to identify a PR crisis is to listen to your stakeholders. Your stakeholders are the people or groups that have an interest or influence in your organization or industry. They include your customers, employees, investors, partners, regulators, media, and the public. You should listen to their opinions, feedback, concerns, and expectations regarding the situation. You can use various channels and tools to communicate with them, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, social media, email, phone, or chat. By listening to your stakeholders, you can understand their perspectives, needs, and emotions, and how they perceive your reputation.

4 Analyze the root cause

The fourth step to identify a PR crisis is to analyze the root cause of the situation. The root cause is the underlying factor or factors that led to the problem. It may be related to your strategy, processes, products, services, culture, or communication. You can use various methods and techniques to identify the root cause, such as the 5 Whys, the Fishbone Diagram, or the SWOT Analysis. By analyzing the root cause, you can find out what went wrong, why it went wrong, and how to prevent it from happening again.

5 Prepare a response plan

The fifth step to identify a PR crisis is to prepare a response plan. A response plan is a document that outlines the actions and resources needed to address the situation and protect your reputation. It should include the following elements: a clear goal, a target audience, a key message, a spokesperson, a communication channel, a timeline, a budget, and a contingency plan. A response plan should be based on the impact and urgency of the situation, the expectations and emotions of your stakeholders, and the root cause of the problem.

6 Evaluate the results

The sixth and final step to identify a PR crisis is to evaluate the results of your response plan. You should measure and monitor the outcomes and feedback of your actions and communication. You should also compare the results with your initial goal and expectations. You should use various indicators and tools to evaluate the results, such as media coverage, social media sentiment, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, sales, and reputation. By evaluating the results, you can learn from your experience, improve your performance, and strengthen your reputation.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?