I’ve seen a lot of people online chatting about branding and marketing lately, but they seem to only talk about how to set it up and what it is. They never seem to chat about how a crisis affects a brand. Before any crisis situation even happens, there are a few things savvy business owners can do to protect themselves and their brand. Here are 3 basic things that you can do before a crisis situation happens.
Regularly Monitor Traditional Media and Social-Media
This is something that should be happening on a regular basis for your business. You need to monitor what is going on around you. The three best things when it comes to traditional media to monitor are world news, local news, and industry news. You should also be paying attention to what is being said about your business specifically on social media. Customers might not always write you a testimonial or provide other types of feedback for you. They will, however, tell all their friends on social media. Using media and social media monitoring should give you a big picture of what’s going on. This will, hopefully, help your business anticipate something that might affect you before it becomes a big crisis.
Have a Crisis Plan
In addition to your regular marketing, social media, communications, and public relations plan you need a crisis plan. This is usually a binder or notebook that anticipates different types of emergency crisis situations that could affect your business and what to do about them. It also gives you and your team a basic plan of action for a crisis or situation that wasn’t anticipated. Having a plan like this in place will help your business act quickly when something unexpected happens.
Know Your Business’s Values and Mission
If or when a situation arises keep your eye on your values and your mission. These need to be something that everyone who is part of your business whether external like a freelancer or internal like an employee needs to know. These two things should be the core of your branding and help guide your decisions as the emergency situation unfolds.
While there is a lot more that goes into crisis public relations and protecting your brand during a crisis, these are some basic things a business can do before a crisis happens that can make a big difference.
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