As a public relations professional, you’re often found in a situation that can go from zero to 60 fairly quickly, and strategy, research and know-how is really what keeps a cool head in sticky situations. PRSA Young Professionals Network hosted a “How to Handle Your First PR Crisis” panel at Weber Shandwick’s Chicago office this week, and gave advice to current students, recent graduates and junior publicists looking to further their career in PR. While the discussion was targeted toward junior staff, crisis and issues management is an important skill for all career levels to attain.
Panelists included Allison Isakson, senior account supervisor for Edelman’s Corporate and Public Affairs practice; Dennis O’Sullivan, senior director of the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council (MCHC) Government and Public Relations department; and Kelley Yoder, vice president at Weber Shandwick’s corporate practice.
Starting out the evening, moderators asked the panelist what exactly is a crisis? What constitutes it?
For Isakson, there are varying degrees and levels of a crisis and finding out the longevity is crucial to a client’s reputation. “There’s a broad lens to determine if this issue could create longer-term damage on the company’s reputation,” she said.
Yoder agrees with keeping reputation management to mind when calculating the next step. “Is it really going to have an impact and is it a publically traded company? And if you can answer yes to both of these questions, I think you know you’re embroiled in a crisis,” she added.
During a social media crisis, backlash can happen within a blink of an eye and needs to be handled immediately. An example of a PR crisis Yoder recently recalled was the social media error by popular frozen pizza brand, DiGiorno when its social media team tweeted “#WhyIStayed You had pizza.” The tweeter didn’t know the controversial meaning behind the hashtag and quickly removed the tweet, but the damage had already been done. As a client of Yoder’s, the action plan was to apologize to every person that reached out to them. “That’s not necessarily the norm, we wouldn’t recommend it for every brand.”
Working in the healthcare industry, O’Sullivan is on the frontlines of panic where “it’s virtually a crisis every day.” He witnessed when Emory University Hospital in Atlanta had housed the first U.S. Ebola case and social media blew up from all sides of the issue.
“Social media has been really important tool for us in driving our message at MCHC,” he said. “With crisis management, make sure you’re part of that conversation that’s happening anyway. Might as well be a part of it.”
In terms of creating a crisis plan for new clients, how important is it?
Yoder explained that every client and brand has vulnerability, and it’s best to be prepared for any situation. Even if the plan is as simple as having key contacts, an updated communications flow chart and some key company messages. “But it’s important to remember that when a crisis does hit, no matter how robust of a plan you have with a client, it pretty much goes out the window,” she said. “You can reference it, but you really have to be strategizing, refining.”
Due to HIPAA laws, it’s mandatory for O’Sullivan representing hospitals in the metro area to have a crisis media guide. “It’s a key component for our members,” he said.
Isakson’s perspective is that it depends on the client’s budget, but an important aspect. “It helps everyone to be more nimble at identifying ‘hey, is this going to be an issue?’ and ‘this is how we can approach it as best as we can to prevent a crisis from happening,’” she said.
The panelists then shared some helpful recommendations that they’ve learned through crises during their professional careers working side by side with colleagues.
“If you don’t have every single player in the room singing off the same song and using the same messages… you’re frankly screwed,” Yoder quipped. “The most important thing is to make sure everyone is aligned and have the key messages.”
“We look at it as a roadmap,” O’Sullivan said. “You have to have your team in place with exact duties – stay in your lane – if you’re in charge of media relations, you’re going to be doing media relations.”
If time affords it, research how other companies have handled similar situations. Isakson did a media audit on a company that had a similar litigation case and found out how things could pan out for her client as well. “Being able to have those concrete examples to show the client ‘this is what another company did, these were the results’… was an opportunity to strengthen the relationship with the client because they found that they could come to us and get that kind of expertise that they didn’t have in-house.”
To add, research is detrimental to crisis management. “Ongoing monitoring can seem really dull or redundant but it’s really important because a lot of the junior team members are smarter than the client because they are reading the news every day, they know the issues in the industry, they know how the company is being mentioned and represented in the industry,” Yoder explained.
Preparing, monitoring, researching and being proactive are just a few examples of how to manage crisis. But all the panelists agree that junior members learn best by doing, with trial by fire.
When hiring junior members, a few characteristics that the panelists mentioned that they look for is someone who is independent, has critical thinking skills, confidence, takes initiative and pride in their work, strong work ethic as well as takes ownership and care into their work.
“Crisis can scare junior members because it can be long hours, trial by fire, working weekends. You really have to have an appetite for that and love the adrenaline rush,” Yoder said. “It’s certainly not for everyone, but I think if you’re interested in it, raise your hand, get involved, get a seat at the table and eventually you’ll be moving up and be listening to the people who are getting counsel and that could be you someday.”
Last piece of advice and take away from the panelists was to stay calm, collected and always ask questions.
“Look for that objective view. Try to make sure the messaging is impactful and covering all the bases. Get that 360 view,” O’Sullivan said.
“Ask smart questions that will give you the information that you need to be able to make the judgment calls on what is the strategy,” Isakson added.
“Don’t let them see you make the sausage. Stay calm. Internalize it. Work with your team members and don’t project that onto the client,” Yoder explained. “Even outside crisis, in general to have that calming demeanor is important to have in our industry.”
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