A PR crisis can touch anytime and anywhere – are you prepared?

There are many cases where a brand has had a reputation crisis due to unintended controversial advertising campaigns, negative assessments, product failure, play of social media, ethical or moral controversies, lack of transparency, poor employee relationships and mismanagement.

The most recent high -profile crisis includes the American Eagle brand and the “SEENEY” contact about the denim line with a limited edition. The advertisement has criticized its messages and images online and ultimately the marketing intention of the brand muddy.

The key is to already have a continuous, proactive reputation management strategy that promotes confidence in your brand and, if a crisis occurs, you are ready to tackle this. A strong strategy for reputation management helps to shape and influence how consumers, customers and other stakeholders observe your brand on digital platforms.

Related: Reputation management starts before your first poor assessment – here is how you can develop a proactive crisis plan

Developing authoritative content to build trust and credibility

Develop a strategy in which continuous content is created to establish yourself and your company as a leader and authority in the industry. Content must be authentic and contain regular blog posts that use the user experience, actual case studies to present customer success stories and educational sources on your website, as well as messages on social media and deserved media that show expertise. In contrast to paid media, deserved media include any mention or reporting that you receive organically, such as the inclusion of quotes in news articles or podcast interviews, and helps to build up goodwill and public trust.

Not only helps strategic content creation to determine credibility, but it also helps to reduce negative press in searching. Positive content helps to have the influence on how people will receive negative information about your brand. They consider your brand as a whole, instead of based on insulated information. If a crisis occurs and you tackle it, your established credibility will go a long way in people who trust what you have to say.

Related: Your reputation is your currency. How do you invest in yourself?

Optimize for visibility in the search

When people search your company, about you and your most important managers, this is the first impression that they will come over your brand. Optimize your online features – websites, blogs, messages on social media, reviews of the review platform – with relevant keywords and complete information, so that your brand appears at the top of the search in Google and accurately displays what you are about. Make sure you often update your information to maintain the visibility of the best search and improve the content rankings.

Check your online brand listings

Brand statements are on social media messages, blog articles, news sites, forums and customers for customer reviews. They are important because they serve as backlinks, so Google knows who you are and helps to build up credibility on the internet. Just as important is checking what is being said about your brand, so there are no surprises and you are prepared for how you can respond to a potential crisis.

Negative reviews, comments, messages and news stories can quickly escalate in a PR nightmare if you are unprepared and do not tackle them quickly. The dissatisfaction of a customer, the misstep of a director or a product failure or controversy can become viral on social media if you are blinded and do not get a grip on the story.

Social listening aids are available that automate the monitoring process, or you can use Google Alerts, which is free and checks web content, including news sites, blogs and other indexed pages, and send e -mail reports when your brand name appears in new content. Immediately tackle both positive and negative feedback with authenticity and transparency. When you respond to negative comments or reviews, you do what you can do to prevent a potential crisis and even make a lawyer from a dissatisfied customer. Offer a clear solution, respond quickly with empathy and let the customer know that you appreciate his or her feedback.

Related: they googled you. What they saw, she let them run away – here is how you can turn your online reputation into 6 steps

Have a crisis plan

Appoint a team or individual, or use a third party, depending on the size of your company, responsible for tackling possible reputation dictations. This person or team is responsible for monitoring your brand destruction and evaluating signs that can indicate problems for your brand. A clear plan must be drawn up to communicate internally (with employees) and externally (with media, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders), whereby it is outlined 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 the leadership act and tackle the issue of what went wrong, who has been hit and what is being done to remedy the situation?

Fast action, becoming property in the beginning and staying transparent, going a long way to reducing a reputation crisis.

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

There are many cases where a brand has had a reputation crisis due to unintended controversial advertising campaigns, negative assessments, product failure, play of social media, ethical or moral controversies, lack of transparency, poor employee relationships and mismanagement.

The most recent high -profile crisis includes the American Eagle brand and the “SEENEY” contact about the denim line with a limited edition. The advertisement has criticized its messages and images online and ultimately the marketing intention of the brand muddy.

The key is to already have a continuous, proactive reputation management strategy that promotes confidence in your brand and, if a crisis occurs, you are ready to tackle this. A strong strategy for reputation management helps to shape and influence how consumers, customers and other stakeholders observe your brand on digital platforms.