Pr technology – crisis public relations

Public relations consists of three elements: social organization, public and communication. Public relations is public relations, darker, public relationship management, the operation of enterprise through a series of activities to establish and maintain the public image of the enterprise, enterprise culture, build a bridge of communication between enterprise and society, have a purpose, in a planned way to influence public psychology, so that enterprises are in a good social environment. Broadly speaking, the target of public relations should include: customers, employees, communities, shareholders, financial circles, suppliers, competitors, press and publication circles, the public, government agencies, industry associations, etc. Public relations of enterprises is to promote enterprises with the concept of marketing, so as to make the brand lasting and fragrant. In this sense, public relations work can never be a short-term behavior. All the corporate behaviors expressed through public relations work must have its continuity. No matter whether the packaging is deliberate or not, once it is transmitted to the public level, it must be followed for a long time. Therefore, pr work must be considered in combination with corporate strategy, and its work content must represent the long-term interests of the company.

（I）technical public relations is one of the categories. It refers to technical public relations. 

A good public relations people, one of the skills needed is social skills, public relations people are need to people in every aspect and have a good communication, make yourself and other people are familiar with the industry, in his own time to seek their help can also be good communication, not because the public relations people poor social skills and led to oneself have no way to get the help of one of the industry, after a lot of problems when trying to solve the problem of the first time is still attack people, if their poor social skills, is difficult to find relevant personnel for help. Of course a good pr people strain skills, whether company, star has its own public relations people, that’s because public relations people can found wrong place, at the first time to find the corresponding solution as soon as possible back to their company’s image, and not being polyhedral attack, so a pr person without a good strain ability, they won’t be in such a short time to solve the problem.

（I-1） so what pr skills does a good pr person need?

(1) resilience and communication skills are very important skills for public relations personnel.

Firstly, the ability to respond to changes, which is the most important skill for public relations personnel. Public relations means dealing with people, and crisis public relations is to deal with special situations when public relations personnel come out to smooth things over, adjust and make a sound. Therefore, public relations personnel must have super ability to respond to changes. If you don’t respond the right way in the first place and have to go back to draft, you’re probably missing the best response time.

(2) communication and presentation skills

It is not enough for an excellent athlete to have good adaptability, but it does not mean that he can do a good job in public relations. Communication ability is the weapon of public relations personnel, who can convey the meaning through verbal expression.

(3) creative ability

Traditional pr firms, long criticised for their “lack of creativity”, are increasingly under pressure. With the proliferation of fragmented information brought by the rise of social media, there are no good ideas and attractive contents, and resources are just empty shells. Pr firms have been trying to sharpen their creative skills. In addition, in a recent survey, it is found that clients pay more attention to the creativity of pr agents, and their early experience in a specific field is often no longer an important factor to consider. Among the many reasons why clients decide to change agents, the lack of creativity is the first.

(4) multimedia content creation ability

Multimedia content creation is a skill valued by both parties. From a press release to an offline event, there are a growing number of examples of using multimedia to enhance communication. For example, it has been advocating the use of multimedia to release official news for many years. As mentioned in the Storytelling guidelines for corporate press releases, media, search engines and social networks are increasingly visual in their presentation of content, and relying on text-only Storytelling can reduce the effectiveness of information dissemination. Research also shows that a common text press release if video, pictures, sharing buttons and other multimedia elements, the amount of reading will reach the original 9.7 times.

(5) insight and planning ability

Pr communication in the traditional sense is relatively simple, planning, writing, holding a press conference, the reference draft sent out, media briefing back, even completed the task. But now, I’m afraid, the effect is limited. The overall environment and general trend require pr companies to adopt strategy-oriented practices and multi-dimensional solutions. Many experts therefore believe that the current pr industry has entered the “industrial upgrading period”, that is, the role of strategy development and formulation has been upgraded from strategy execution. In addition, sensitivity to news points and social events, as well as a high degree of insight into the client’s industry, are all skills that future public relations practitioners are in urgent need of.

（II） In numerous cases of public relations, it is inevitable to encounter thorny events, which test the technical skills of public relations personnel. We call this serious technical work – “Pr crisis”.

Pr crisis — we certainly don’t like that. But for companies, if it happens, you have to figure out how to deal with it.

（II-1）A good crisis prevention system is top-down for a company — it requires the public relations, founders, operation, technology, sales, customer service and other departments involved to work together to find out what the company’s problems are, and give timely and rapid correction and remedy plans. Pr doesn’t teach you to be the bad guy, it teaches you how to defend and not let all your hard work go to waste in extreme situations. Crisis management is hard to do, but there are still some ways to follow:

Let me start with a few common examples of public relations spats:

1、In the first case, you said that I plagiarized, and I replied that I didn’t — this approach is actually useless.

2、In the second way, I first said A and then B. You said I plagiarized, but I said I had no choice but to copy. I said I had something in the middle.

3、The last kind compares rascal, you say A, I say this is basic national condition.

（II-2）In fact, there are countless cases of such nonsense in life. Therefore, how to effectively communicate, respond quickly, make rational judgment and solve problems has become the most important link in public relations technology.

1. What are the practical methods to do well in crisis public relations?

First, know that consumers understand that businesses are as imperfect as people. Seeking perfection on the road of imperfection is the path for an enterprise to grow. In this process, if you try to prove yourself to be perfect in some ways and methods, you will fail to do crisis pr with such a starting point.

At the same time, we need to understand that crisis management is a strategic problem, not a tactical problem. There is no trick to eat all day. So it’s hard to say there’s a practical way to teach you, and then you’re a pr juggler, which is unrealistic. However, there are several principles that we often talk about in crisis pr, including: effective communication, quick response, rational judgment, how to solve problems, how to be honest and trustworthy, and how to speak correctly.

If you want to make a correct speech, what kind of emotion, what kind of words and what kind of words do you need as a public relations spokesman to face the public? How do you make a statement that you are a very responsible person while still being clear?

A lot of pr debates right and wrong in statements. This thinking is quite wrong. If there is negative news, we should bear the corresponding responsibility. If we debate the right and wrong, it is easy to be seized by the public and make things worse. If I can say that a well-tested and universally applicable criterion of crisis public relations, it is that an enterprise should have a firm corporate values at the beginning of its establishment. When there is any positive or negative impact and crisis in the future, we should stick to our own values. Then do a rational analysis when something happens and take action to respond to the feedback from the public and the media. This is the most practical. Can ensure the consistency of external and internal pr caliber.

2. In the face of negative news, how can enterprises respond to minimize the impact?

The knee-jerk reaction to negative news is unprofessional. Crisis pr should be handled properly in daily operations. First, we should determine what happened, what was the core of the matter, who was the promoter of the event, whether we should respond publicly, what strategies and information we used, who responded and when.

So when we have a pr crisis, we need to calm down first.

First, crisis pr is not to manage the event itself, but to manage the public sentiment after the outbreak of the event, which is actually emotional management. Second is the management of events, things have happened cannot be changed. So we’re not managing the event itself. Break down the whole crisis pr project, which are the core, which should be dealt with, which should not be dealt with.

Second, we need to deeply understand the media. What is the driving force for the media to do these reports?

* for example:

Negative case:《 dolce & gabbana insult to China》

On November 21, 2018, Dolce & Gabbana will hold The first large-scale fashion Show “The Great Show” at The center of The Shanghai world expo, and many stars will be invited to attend. Meanwhile, Dolce & Gabbana filmed an AD campaign called “eat with chopsticks” during the warm-up, which combines traditional Chinese culture with classic Italian food.

However, the AD has caused dissatisfaction among Chinese Internet users. Some netizens pointed out that the narrator’s “Chinese pronunciation” and intonation, as well as the “Chinese model” eating pizza and sweet Italian rolls with chopsticks, were suspected of discriminating against traditional Chinese culture. Although @dolcgabbana deleted the video on weibo, it still posted it on instant news and Facebook accounts, and the “suspected insult to China” incident caused much controversy on foreign social media. However, since weibo’s video has been deleted and dolce & gabbana has invited a number of popular stars to the show, including dolce & gabbana’s brand ambassadors for Asia and the Pacific, Ms. Murck, Ms. Wang and other celebrity fans were the focus of early public opinion on the platform. However, there are also big v-shaped problems and sounds. On November 20 at 21:54, fashion blogger @serena Hottie posted a video in which she “eats with a knife and fork within seconds, objecting to Diss Dolce & Gabbana insulting China”, accusing Dolce & Gabbana of “discriminating against Chinese money in the circle” and tweeting it more than 6K times.

According to the spread of this microblog, after the second round of forwarding by major newspapers and news agencies in the evening of the same day and the early morning of the next day, the popularity of the microblog rapidly increased, with a wide spread and a great depth of spread.

Founder publish “insult China” speech, star exits diffuse public opinion

21 at 11 PM, ins on the net friend and dolce & Gabbana designers and one of the founders, Stefano Gabbana screenshots of a dialogue between a real began to spread quickly on weibo, fashion bloggers @ Fashion_BangZ @ iDest related screenshot forward weibo have gained a lot, if said previously about advertising video, netizens have their own interpretation, for “the” humiliating to China also somewhat controversial, then capture a dolce & Gabbana is filled in the name of a humiliating to China, the network public opinion is an uproar.

A number of Chinese celebrities, including zhang ziyi, huang xiaoming and li bingbing, have refused to attend the brand’s annual show. On the afternoon of the show’s original date, China culture and tourism department issued a notice canceling the event, and the event’s public relations department later confirmed the news.

DG officials later clarified the incident with a simple but false statement, saying the account had been stolen and that the interlocutor was not the person in charge of the brand.

But for such a simple and insincere explanation, no one will pay the price! Even the communist youth league’s microblog denounced the incident, saying: ‘we welcome foreign companies to invest in China, but this should be based on mutual respect.’ Obviously, DG has broken the rule this time.

On the evening of the 21st, I thought DG would make an apology for this wrong behavior, but instead, netizens and others came with another cold word, saying that it was unfortunate to cancel the “brand show”. It’s obviously a feeling, not them, but people who love their brands, that they have suffered the most from the cancellation of the show, which is infuriating. Now DG has no sincerity to apologize, maybe its brand influence will be greatly reduced in Chinese people’s mind.

 It can be seen that such an event in D&G is not built in a day. It is because of the company’s long-term disregard for the influence of “ideology and social environment” on market operation, and the lack of necessary management on the words and deeds of senior executives and employees, which inevitably leads to self-inflicted consequences. In fact, this factor often brings fatal blows to enterprises. At present, D&G may be difficult to revive in the Chinese market, and even some Chinese from other countries or regions may join in saying “NO!” to the brand. In the queue. This is D&G insult China incident first damage point.

So, from the perspective of crisis handling, although you can’t assume that, only a little “hindsight” feeling that if give D&G one chance again, perhaps in the event of the first time the text carries on the spread of values, apologizing and reflection, and decisive insulting China comments will partner with the brand thoroughly cut, is the only possible to save the opportunity and method of D&G. Of course, the premise must be that most of the decision-makers in D&G are not really rooted in the “idea” of contempt for Chinese consumers, but merely cultural strangeness, discomfort and misunderstanding. Otherwise, such an event will come sooner or later and is doomed to be incurable and irreversible.

As for the “account stolen, such arguments are misjudged the situation of events, this also gives more enterprise and public relations professionals to provide a warning: culture can have a deviation, the values can be divided, behavior can have faults, but, don’t try to in inconsistent with the facts of orbit in crisis public relations of the conversation. The reason is very simple: the fact is considered as the first element to effectively deal with crisis pr, because it carries multiple evaluation latitude of universal value, legal scale and moral code. Any mismatch in one latitude cannot help resolve crisis pr, on the contrary, it will make the crisis result worse.

Return to the chase

3. How long is the golden response time of crisis pr?

In theory, the prime time for crisis management is 24 hours. Now the new media time is even shorter, Internet enterprises including start-up team enterprises, there is no crisis pr team first do not rush to respond. Make an ambiguous response and then settle down to parse the whole thing to find a better response. Be consistent in your response time. Making an inappropriate statement is counterproductive.

One of the things that you must pay attention to when doing crisis pr is that your first response determines your attitude and beginning in crisis pr. If there is a problem with the first response, no amount of effort can be made to remedy it, so I suggest making a statement three hours after the negative event.

4. How to choose the response channels of crisis public relations? Besides their own official channels, should they continue to speak out in unofficial channels?

In a public relations crisis, the general rule is that the public doesn’t really care what you say. They are more willing to listen to what the experts say, what the attitude of the KOL is, how the media interprets it and so on.

Therefore, in many cases, the voice of the external media and KOL is more important than the official channels, but it will not be very effective to seek it after the crisis. So be sure to maintain these media relationships in your daily public relations.

5. How to avoid the spread of negative news?

Negative news, by its nature, is hard to avoid. Take xiaomi for example. At that time, many media friends had many bad comments on xiaomi, and lei jun always consulted them face to face and gave solutions. Many vertical media turned to fans under such sincere responses, which laid a solid media foundation for xiaomi brand. In the usual work will be the corresponding node management. It includes KOL nodes, time nodes, such as 3.15, BAT and top 500 companies made preparations early, and nodes of media channels, which can only be controlled and cannot be avoided. When controlling negative diffusion, we should distinguish friends from enemies on relevant nodes. Some of them are normal reports of the media that cannot be disturbed, while some are sent by competitors. We should choose appropriate methods to fight back and explain.

6. How should the team divide labor in crisis pr?

Generally divided into three categories:

1. The CEO makes decisions

2. Write about relevant recommended methods

3. Create a positive speaker. A speaker is the outlet for all information.

No one should come up and say that this is the most deadly. Public relations must be a project for the CEO to take charge of, repeatedly emphasizing that the CEO has an inescapable responsibility for the company’s decision-making and life and death. Therefore, the CEO must be the core of the crisis pr team, but the spokesman may not be the CEO. The spokesman should be rational instead of emotional and emotional.

7. How to view media reports in crisis pr?

The media is the source of a lot of news. How to prevent in advance? This is something we should take into account.

You can’t say that the media who reported your negative news is hostile to you. We need to understand the responsibility of every media. It is the duty of the media to disclose this matter. The media is responsible for supervision, and it also brings you a lot of convenience when supervising other business environments. Understand the media, and don’t get into trouble with the media after a crisis. According to the needs of the media to communicate, clear up misunderstanding and reach a consensus. Work with the media to manage the public’s emotional response to the crisis.

（III）Conclusion:

According to the case above, no matter what you say or do, you will be scolded when a crisis has been created. Many companies are afraid of being attacked, so they are still looking for excuses to cover up their mistakes or compromise their responsibilities. In an age of highly fragmented information, it’s not good to know who has more information about the event.

Therefore, I think the best way of crisis management is to tell the truth in the shortest time and show your attitude, which is the best way to gain understanding.The simplest way to solve the public relations crisis by using public relations technology is to admit the objective problems, which cannot be escaped. These problems will exist sooner or later. It is better to face the facts and admit the problems and propose solutions. The key is how to give the outside world an acceptable solution. Properly handled cases have two things in common. First, they respond quickly in time. Deal with public relations crisis, especially caused by the public refresh, must be in the first time to react; Second, the core management of the company should come forward to objectively acknowledge the problem and give a responsible account to the employees and the public.

If it is due to misunderstanding, there are ways to correct it if handled properly. However, some problems may not be remedied, such as problems with the product itself, or strategic actions that violate the bottom line of government principles and social codes of conduct.

Every enterprise will have a good side, there will be not good enough to do. The problem is that when the crisis comes, everyone is focused on the bad point. A lot of people have the misconception that if you eliminate negative information, you can eliminate negative effects. In the face of crisis, the right approach is not to downplay or reduce the negative impact, but to take a sincere and responsible attitude, review their own problems and shortcomings, come up with practical solutions.

In this process, it is especially important to deal with the first wave of crisis so as to avoid the “overreaction” of the victims and form the second wave or even more shocks, which will be more violent and destructive. In this event, video transmission is the first wave of crisis, people at that time only question and controversy, if the brand can frankly admit his mistake, apologize, review of advertising the negligence in working process, put forward the ways to improve, or even simply apologize for a type of marketing activities, rather than the processing of a series of fuel type, believe also won’t appear behind you so fierce resistance, when this happens, no matter what brand side, founder of apology is difficult to recover.

A good public relations technology is that if the enterprise really has problems, it should admit that it cannot pass the buck. Moreover, it should correct the management of the enterprise itself. In fact, to solve the problems found by the enterprise itself is an opportunity for the enterprise to grow, and the user must not lose confidence in the enterprise.

References 

https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1617892934809839985&wfr=spider&for=pc

https://www.civiw.com/report/20181129093436

https://www.ymjrkj.cn/sh/10370.html

http://fashion.sina.com.cn/s/fo/2018-11-21/1732/doc-ihmutuec2330393.shtml