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Key Takeaways

• Prompt action is necessary during a reputation crisis. But not so prompt as to potentially create further damage.
• Facts, not feelings or gut reactions, should drive crisis communications.
• Team alignment, consistent messaging, and creating time to assemble accurate, verifiable information are key to weathering a PR crisis.

The world seems pretty fraught with all kinds of dangers out there now, doesn’t it? If you’re a business owner or company executive, a sudden hit to your own personal reputation or that of your brand is an always-looming threat, especially in these days of instantaneous news and viral social posts.

I’ve been in the PR and marketing space for more than 15 years — all the while, growing and protecting my own brand — and I can tell you that there’s never been a greater demand for crisis communications, a specialty area of public relations, than there is right now.

Having repped my fair share of celebrities and bigwigs, I’ve learned many vital lessons and have amassed much useful advice. Regardless of whether you’re a public figure or not, whether you run a large or a small operation, you can benefit from these pointers on how to best handle a reputation crisis. And it all rides on the first 24 hours.

1. Get your facts straight before making any other move

Very often in crisis management, the first impulse is to speak first, ask questions later. I’m not denying that acting quickly is critical … but you don’t want to act too quickly at the risk of exacerbating the situation. Yes, you want to reclaim the narrative as soon as possible, but making the wrong statement or taking the wrong action can be even more damaging than the original crisis.

Your very first step in reputation crisis management, then, is to go on a fact-finding mission. Find out precisely what happened, who is being affected by it, who’s aware of what’s happening and who needs to be aware. How can you craft an apology video that will land correctly or respond to media inquiries with accuracy until you know this information? You can’t and you shouldn’t.

So gather your team together right away and join forces to obtain the necessary facts. As you do so, make sure to differentiate between the story that’s being circulated or speculated upon and what is actually confirmed and verifiable. If you don’t have the answer to a question, determine who does and chase down that input pronto.

The truth is, any good reputation management strategy comes down to one thing: information. You can shape your internal strategy on what’s not known yet — like unclear details, who will be the company spokesperson, and pinpointing which audiences to target first — but your external public strategy should be driven by facts.