The Public Relations Blog

When handled appropriately, PR crises can help your company in the long run.

There’s a cliché that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.”

While I’m not a fan of that statement nor that corporate communications strategists are the same as publicists, here’s some proof that (even bad) PR works.

Construction companies are only as good as their last mistake. This applies to their reputation as well. While unfortunate to note, many clients can remember mistakes, and very few can recall successful projects and excellent work done. Most clients also remember mistakes long after they have been addressed.

Clients can be very unforgiving. A bad reputation can undo thousands of hours of hard work. Just like getting contractor insurance to safeguard your construction business, you also need to protect your company’s reputation at all times if you want to stay competitive. 

So how do you manage damage to your construction company’s reputation?

To repair any damage to your construction company’s reputation, you need to create a plan of action. This is important, so any issues are addressed right away before they cause irreparable damage. 

Your company makes a mistake, one that directly impacts its relationships or reputation. Now that you’ve addressed the issue, the challenges aren’t over yet. How do you convince clients or customers they can trust your company again? While most consumers are often forgiving. Customers may be less forgiving, as past mistakes often remain clearly in people’s minds. To win them back, consider the following:

How to avoid getting into hot water when a crisis arises

When a crisis hits, the priority is to not do or say anything that can make matters worse. You don’t want to prolong the crisis and generate even more negative buzz for your company. It’s better to learn from the mistakes of others instead of repeating those same mistakes.

When your company is going through its own crisis, use these three steps to prevent any further damage. 

Knowing what shows up when your name is searched on Google is essential. A future employer or even a customer may read an article or a post about you. Here are five things you should avoid at all costs to save your online reputation:

A crisis communications plan protects and defends companies and organizations from a fallout in the public eye. These crises are caused by issues like a company scandal, an executive’s inappropriate behavior, or a product recall. Developing a crisis communications plan can help companies maintain their reputation. 

Companies task public relations agencies to design comprehensive crisis management plans that limit risks to their brands. We craft specific messages for employees, investors, customers, the public, and news outlets. Insufficient external and internal communications can cause the following:

• Operational response failure

• Stakeholders reacting negatively

• Public perception that the company is inept and, even worse, criminally negligent

• Sever impact on the company’s brand, reputation, and finances 

Crisis PR is key to a great crisis plan, so make sure your insurance helps you pay for it

When your company is in crisis, you’ll take in many sudden expenses that you’ll have to pay for out of pocket. This can strain budgets that used to be open or push your already tight budget to its limits. One of these expenses includes crisis public relations to manage your reputation in such a trying time. Having insurance help pay for crisis PR is a big help, but can insurance do that?

No company is safe from crisis as we’ve seen with the coronavirus pandemic. Although your communications strategy and tactics must shift to crisis communications during a time of emergency, it’s still of utmost importance to monitor and evaluate your company’s coverage as it weathers the storm.

You should continue to measure your company communications during a crisis, and you should include these four values in your criteria.

The year 2020 started with a focus on the latest public relations trends. Niche targeting, live streaming, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Big Data integrations generated the most buzz, and they continue to do so. Although they haven’t faded in the background, the focus on how to use them has drastically shifted.

Brands have started to actively market to a niche audience through influencers, self-publishing platforms, social media, and informative content. The top players from brands have started to use live streaming to get in front of the audience. 

Artificial Intelligence and big data have become the go-to source for brands to monitor social media platforms, predict consumer needs, and develop targeted content based on causes impacting their audience. Handling it all from behind the curtain is an experienced public relations agency. 

Public relations agencies are well-aware of the changing times and have doubled down on their efforts to point brands in the right direction. We want to highlight how PR has changed in 2020 and what to do about it.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies have decided their best course of action is to suspend their ad spending and limit their PR expenditures. This could wind up being a big mistake.