One of the things that public relations professionals need to make sure that they address before a crisis occurs is to be able to detect some of these early warning signs or issues that could evolve into a bigger crisis. The thing is, no one wants to be the poster child 0n what not to do in a crisis situation. Sure, there have been plenty of those throughout history, however – there are some cases that just happened this past year for some corporations and individuals where these crises could have been avoided if they practiced good issues management practices.
One of the suggestions I have made to other professionals and my students when it comes to issues management is to be aware of how and what people are using in terms of technology to communicate.
By not having an official presence on some of these sites, it will create a weakness that others will take advantage of – whether that is create a prank on the organization or even misrepresent them to the online community. Both BP and Chevron have learned this lesson the hard way. Domino’s also was one case where they were not present on Twitter or YouTube, and this created a big issue for the pizza giant in terms of establishing credibility with their online audiences. So, there are several reasons why corporations should be on YouTube, and how to proactively use the site to their advantage.
So, the point is that you have to be aware of what is being posted, shared, and communicated on these social media sites to address any possible issues that could evolve intro a crisis situation. Not considering these various scenarios will not only impact your reputation, but it will question the role of the public relations professional. Your role is to think about all of the possible scenarios – unthinkable or not – that could potentially impact your client or corporation you are representing. You have to figure out what is the likelihood of each of these scenarios, determine what needs to be done to address these proactively, and communicate what action steps you want the specific audiences to do. These practices are not required – but if you don’t do them, you might be classified in being in the same group of case studies like United Airlines, BP, and Domino’s as an example of not practicing proactive issues management when it comes to emerging technologies like social media.
Hope you all are having a wonderful day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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