A PR Crisis Can Hit Anytime and Anywhere — Are You Prepared?

There are many cases where a brand has faced a reputation crisis due to unintentional controversial ad campaigns, negative reviews, product failures, social media backlash, ethical or moral controversies, lack of transparency, poor employee relations and mismanagement.

The most recent high-profile crisis involves the brand American Eagle and the “Sweeney” controversy over its limited-edition denim line. The ad has ignited online criticism over its messaging and imagery, ultimately muddying the brand’s marketing intent.

The key is to have an ongoing, proactive reputation management strategy already in place that fosters trust in your brand and, if a crisis does occur, you are ready to address it. A strong reputation management strategy helps shape and influence how consumers, clients and other stakeholders perceive your brand across digital platforms.

Related: Reputation Management Starts Before Your First Bad Review — Here’s How to Develop a Proactive Crisis Plan

Develop authoritative content to build trust and credibility

Develop a strategy that involves creating ongoing content to establish yourself and your company as a thought leader and authority in the industry. Content should be authentic and include regular blog posts that tap into the user experience, actual case studies to showcase client success stories and educational resources on your website, as well as social media posts and earned media that demonstrate expertise. Earned media, unlike paid media, involves any mention or coverage you receive organically, such as the inclusion of quotes in news articles or podcast interviews, and helps build goodwill and public trust.

Not only does strategic content creation help establish credibility, but it also helps mitigate negative press in search. Positive content helps influence how people will receive any negative information about your brand. They view your brand as a whole, rather than based on isolated information. If a crisis occurs and you address it, your established credibility will go a long way in people trusting what you have to say.

Related: Your Reputation is Your Currency. How Are You Investing in Yourself?

Optimize for visibility on search

When people search your company, about you and your key executives, it’s the first impression that they will get about your brand. Optimize your online properties — websites, blogs, social media posts, review platform listings — with relevant keywords and complete information so that your brand appears at the top of search in Google and accurately reflects what you’re all about. Be sure to update your information often to maintain top-of-search visibility and improve content rankings.

Monitor your online brand mentions

Brand mentions are on social media posts, blog articles, news sites, forums and customer review sites. They are important because they serve as backlinks, letting Google know who you are and helping build credibility across the internet. Just as important is monitoring what is being said about your brand, so there are no surprises, and you’re prepared on how to respond to a potential crisis.

Negative reviews, comments, posts and news stories can quickly escalate into a PR nightmare if you’re unprepared and fail to address them promptly. A customer’s dissatisfaction, an executive’s misstep or a product failure or controversy can turn viral on social media if you’re blindsided and don’t get a handle on the narrative.

Social listening tools are available that automate the monitoring process, or you can use Google Alerts, which is free and will monitor web content, including news sites, blogs and other indexed pages, and send email notifications whenever your brand name appears in new content. Address both positive and negative feedback immediately with authenticity and transparency. When responding to negative comments or reviews, do what you can to preempt a potential crisis and even turn a disgruntled customer into an advocate. Offer a clear solution, respond with empathy quickly and let the customer know you value his or her feedback.

Related: They Googled You. What They Saw Made Them Walk Away — Here’s How to Change Your Online Reputation in 6 Steps

Have a crisis plan in place

Designate a team or individual, or use a third-party, depending on the size of your company, responsible for addressing potential reputation threats. This individual or team is responsible for monitoring your brand mentions and evaluating any signs that could indicate trouble for your brand. A clear plan should be created to communicate internally (with employees) and externally (with media, customers, vendors and other stakeholders), outlining how to respond and the necessary measures.

For example, will the company apologize for errors made before an event escalates to a more serious level? Will leadership step up and address the issue of what went wrong, who was affected and what is being done to rectify the situation?

Acting quickly, taking ownership at the outset and remaining transparent go a long way toward mitigating a reputational crisis.

No brand is immune to controversy or criticism, but the way you prepare and respond makes all the difference. By building credibility through authentic content, optimizing your digital presence, monitoring brand mentions and having a crisis plan ready to deploy, you can strengthen the walls around your reputation before a storm ever hits.

There are many cases where a brand has faced a reputation crisis due to unintentional controversial ad campaigns, negative reviews, product failures, social media backlash, ethical or moral controversies, lack of transparency, poor employee relations and mismanagement.

The most recent high-profile crisis involves the brand American Eagle and the “Sweeney” controversy over its limited-edition denim line. The ad has ignited online criticism over its messaging and imagery, ultimately muddying the brand’s marketing intent.

The key is to have an ongoing, proactive reputation management strategy already in place that fosters trust in your brand and, if a crisis does occur, you are ready to address it. A strong reputation management strategy helps shape and influence how consumers, clients and other stakeholders perceive your brand across digital platforms.