Financial Crisis Management: Plan for It

Working in public relations my entire career has been both rewarding and challenging. I am rewarded by the creativity that goes into building a client’s brand reputation and amplifying their message to the right audiences. On the other hand, public relations can come with its challenges. For example, a client crisis can hit at any time—5pm on a Friday afternoon, over a 3-day holiday weekend or even in the middle of the night!

Of course, there are different levels of crises that can occur, from legal issues to internal business issues that creep into the public’s radar. In the world we live in today, news travels at lightning speed and something that may not have started as a crisis, can evolve into one, simply due to the sheer number of people spreading the word through social media.

Here are some tips to consider based on my years of experience successfully tackling crisis management.

Prepare for a crisis before it happens.

Scenario Planning Document:

It may not sound like a necessary “to-do” list item to think of all the various scenarios that could happen. But, it’s smart. A crisis usually starts as a business issue. It becomes a PR crisis because the company didn’t have a plan prepared in advance. 

Scrambling at the last minute is not ideal. Who can think clearly in that stressful of a time? Fighting a crisis in the moment can be done, but not without difficulty.

At the onset of each year, I like to do a scenario planning exercise with my clients and lay all the skeletons on the table. We pull out scenarios where there may be a potential PR or business risk and start preparing a mitigation strategy for each target audience. Doing this allows you to think of all the different directions the situation could go in—where it could go on social media, news media and even internally. The strategy acts as your play book on game day—should that day arrive.

Holding Statement:

Similar to the scenario planning document, preparing a holding statement—or multiple holding statements—forces you to recognize the potential for different ways scenarios can unfold and how you would respond in each situation.

Typically, the holding statement is direct and to the point, includes an apology if applicable and describes the facts.

Crisis Readiness Team:

Since crises can occur without warning and require fast action, it’s essential to assemble a “crisis readiness team.” Along with the prepared statements and scenario planning documents, these predetermined team members are already in the know and understand the process in order to activate immediately, preventing any last minute panic attacks. Time is precious and having the team ready can have a real impact on the ability to manage the crisis effectively.

Prevent rumors from going viral.

With the entire world on social media, everyone is a reporter. The best thing to do is track the rumor in real time. There are a number of monitoring tools that can help with this including Radian 6, Hootsuite, Meltwater and others. You can’t and shouldn’t respond to everything, but depending on the level of influence in the “Twitter-sphere,” LinkedIn, or wherever the rumor lives, it may require a more rigorous process. For instance, if the person has 30,000 followers, most of which are your target audience, acting quickly is necessary.

If a rumor is not dissipating, or if it has some truth to it, you must immediately position the conversation to your benefit. It may require releasing news you were trying to hold back. Despite how unpleasant it is, it’s always better for people to hear it from you. It also provides an opportunity to reshape the message and bring balance to the conversation—something we at JCPR counsel our clients on.

Keep in mind that engaging people online can, at times, escalate the problem quickly. If engaging with them is necessary, it’s always preferred to take it offline and address the rumor or concern in a nonpublic forum.

Trust your “background negotiators.”

While the crisis is publicly being dealt with, as your public relations partner, we are simultaneously working diligently in the background with the media. For example, in financial services, there is a lot of movement of people and teams within advisory firms. Within the last few years, we have dealt with people who were managed out of the process or gone through a “rightsizing”. Some of those people who are forced to leave the firm, despite being tied to clauses, like to talk—a lot.

In an effort to mitigate the situation through background conversations with the reporter, we try to shape the negative story so it’s honest and balanced. There are even some cases where we were able to completely stop the story from running, or entice the reporter to hold the story from publishing for a few weeks by offering exclusive information.

Adapt to an “always on” world.

The industry has shifted to accommodate a 24 hour-online news cycle. Gone are the days when print and broadcast were the only ways to get news. I wish we had a stronger appreciation for the luxury of time we used to have, knowing a publication wouldn’t go to print until the next morning. Nowadays, everything is in real time, making it more important than ever to have a plan prepared. The real danger I’m seeing is the ease in which people can share news. All it takes is a shared link, potentially causing it to spread like wildfire.

The best thing we can do is help our clients present the best public face possible and keep their trade secrets confidential until we’re ready to talk about them.