PR Crisis? Know When to Fight It Online — and When to Take It to the Press

With all the high-stakes moments out there in the public sphere, businesses and business leaders need to have a handle on reputation management more than ever. One ill-advised tweet that goes viral can cause as much damage as a full-length exposé, and yet the two scenarios do not pose the same threats or require the same type of response.

“Triage” is necessary, sure, but what kind, what does it entail and how do you best enact it? These are questions I regularly face at my PR firm, where I’ve been navigating reputation management crises for years and am responsible for both calming and expertly coaching my clients through them.

I’ll tell you what I tell them: Some fires burn hot and fast on social media, some burn slow and wide in the press, and, unfortunately, some do both. Determining the type of damage-control intervention that will be most effective at dousing the flames is the key to appropriate response strategy.

Social vs. press platforms

Before delving into the triage tools of the trade, I want to clarify that we are indeed talking about reputation crises that surface on social versus those that spread in media outlets, but we’re also talking about responding to a crisis — any kind of crisis — primarily in the online digital realm versus the more traditional media outlet realm.

So the “fires” I just talked about? It’s important to differentiate the characteristics of each, to not treat every crisis like it’s the same crisis, because that’s the fastest way to lose control of a narrative.

In other words, digital fires spread differently than media fires, and as such, they each warrant their own language, timing and tone to tame them.

Digital triage: Fast and furious

A crisis that breaks online doesn’t unfold; it detonates. And followers don’t just react instantly, they react emotionally. Screenshots and reshares pop up at lightning speed, and comments from accounts completely unknown to you can rack up 10,000 likes over just your lunch hour.

Compounding the complexities of this online battleground is the fact that digital content is now algorithm-driven. This is the reality of digital reputation management today: it must recognize that digital crises run on feelings much more than facts and that what you’re trying to quell are actually faceless, nameless mathematical formulas intended to amplify conversations, not confirm accuracy.

Amid such unprecedented pacing and unpredictability, you have to do far more than just monitor comments or draft counter-posts to halt the progress of a crisis. Digital triage must take into account the psychology of online audiences, who respond to “vibes” first, information second. That’s why tone and timing are everything.

In the first few hours, then, rather than concentrating on a full statement for release, I advise following what I call the ASAP technique:

• Acknowledge the issue quickly (you don’t have to go into detail or disclose everything right away — you just have to show your awareness of the situation).
• Set the right tone, which is grounded, calm and relatably human.
• Assess where the problematic conversation is happening (hint: it’s not always on X).
• Pinpoint which influencers or communities are shaping sentiment (so you can target your responses to the source of the crisis).

Then comes the most important part of digital triage: knowing how to transform a digital moment into a solid, far-reaching communications strategy before the media grabs the steering wheel … and hangs on to it.

Media triage: Slower but potentially more significant

Once a digital spark ignites into a story that garners press attention, the game changes. To take control of the longer-term narrative, you have to call on more tactics in your playbook, not just lowering the volume of the loudest commenters, but redirecting public opinion.

Reclaiming and stabilizing your brand reputation involves utilizing specific tools (like legal counsel, brand protection approaches and time-proven PR methods), crafting a message cadence that will resonate and executing highly strategic delivery of crisis intervention steps.

Careful sequencing plays a much bigger role in media crises than in digital crises because you’re dealing with a cast of characters — journalists, editors, news producers — who will fact-check, cross-check and contextualize the information you provide.

Because every word carries weight when conducting media triage, you will want to:

• Prepare a formal press statement.
• Coordinate timing with your management and/or legal team.
• Provide background briefings to trustworthy reporters.
• Offer selective interviews when relevant.
• Build a sustainable message strategy that can withstand follow-up scrutiny.

Media crises aren’t about making noise; they’re about establishing credibility. Properly triaging them therefore calls for intention over instinctual reaction and shifting from emotional management to narrative architecture.

Where digital reputation management and media management intersect

How convenient it would be if publicized mistakes walked a single, clear path. In reality, they almost never do. Instead, they start in one lane and cross over into another, sometimes quite swiftly.

Similarly, reputation management doesn’t apply to just social platforms or just media outlets. There’s lots of overlap that can occur, making it challenging to know where to start and when to pivot. If you drag your heels in responding digitally, the incident can become a news headline. If you’re too reactive in the press, people will set fire to the story online and then continue feeding the flames.

Therein lies the rub of the media cycle and why modern crisis management has been elevated into an art form all its own. When a digital discussion blossoms into a media story (or vice versa), tone, messaging and factual accuracy should align across both, and traditional PR approaches should be coupled with leading-edge measures to keep mere rumors from gathering dangerous momentum.

Here are some final guidelines you can follow to skillfully maneuver this tricky terrain:

• Integrate real-time social listening and monitoring tools into your business plan.
• Follow and analyze public sentiment about your products or services.
• Develop expert messaging tailored to different platforms and coordinate your various teams on disseminating that messaging when it’s needed.
• Keep your narrative consistent, coherent and controlled.
• Consider hiring a PR agency to manage your reputation and to implement a reputation rebuilding campaign when applicable.

Crisis work doesn’t need to be flawless to be impactful. Clarity, compassion and honesty are what people respond to the most. When you position these elements at the forefront of your strategy, you will regain trust — and that’s the real prize in today’s marketplace, both in terms of digital reputation and media management.