5S general principles of media crisis public relations

Strategic weapon for crisis management

No manager is indifferent to organizational security issues, and no manager can guarantee that his unit will not have an accident. In addition, the society has entered the era of mass communication, and media reports have almost become the primary factor in social life. Once the incident appears, it will immediately become a hot topic of media coverage. If the media concerned make a mistake, the incident will soon turn into a real crisis, social shock and the organization will suffer heavy losses.

The strategy to deal with the crisis should become an organization’s strategic reserve, just like the weapons in the arsenal. When a crisis comes, you can fight with weapons. If you don’t have weapons, you can only sharpen your guns when you get cold feet, and failure is inevitable.

In the process of dealing with the crisis, crisis experts have summed up all kinds of useful knowledge, from principles to strategies, from strategies to behaviors. You Changqiao, a famous crisis public relations expert, summed up a set of crisis management principles, which are concise and to the point, and should be an effective weapon in the crisis management arsenal of organization managers.

1S

Shoulder the matter principle of taking responsibility

Once the incident was reported, the public immediately became highly nervous and paid close attention to it. At this time, the public has four psychological characteristics:

First, I believe in media reports, but I don’t believe in the speeches of the organizations concerned, and I am emotional;

Second, it is better to believe in it than to believe in it, and to presume guilt;

Third, eager for new information, chasing new information and thinking that the new is true;

Fourth, to generalize, to doubt and deny.

Beneath this emotional state of mind, there is hidden public calm value concern. What does the public really care about?

First, the interests of the victims, and thus the interests of the public itself;

Second, who is responsible for the interests of victims and possible victims.

In the public’s state of mind and value concern, the first principle for the organization concerned to deal with the crisis is to take responsibility, regardless of whether the organization concerned is responsible or not, whether the responsibility is light or heavy. Declaring responsibility is a moral obligation that an organization, as a member of society, must fulfill, and it is also the best choice for organizations to resolve the crisis. It can effectively and quickly calm the public’s excitement, avoid the danger of further intensification of the crisis, and create a good public opinion environment for solving the crisis.

The public is undoubtedly emotional, but this does not mean that the public is indiscriminate. The words and deeds of the organization’s courage to take responsibility will produce a good response in the public mind. This response is the most valuable support for the organization to properly handle the crisis, and it is also a solid foundation for the organization and its products and services to continue to survive and develop among consumers after the crisis.

Avoiding responsibility, the organization may be destroyed by the pressure of society; Take responsibility, the organization will be praised in the crisis and turn the crisis into a turning point for development. Therefore, it can be said that the organization concerned announced to the media, the public and consumers at the first time of the incident, which is the most important choice for the organization not to be destroyed.

2S

Sincerity principle of sincere communication

When the incident comes out, no one can change it, but everyone wants to change the views of the media, the public and the victims. The key is whose method is effective.

Only sincere communication can be effective, and any insincere practice can only intensify contradictions and trigger a greater crisis. So what kind of communication is sincere communication?

First, fully spread. The organizations concerned provide all possible means of communication to the media, the public, consumers and all people who are concerned about the incident, such as press conferences, live media interviews, online interaction, hotline calls, open letters, advertisements, text messages and other means of communication to ensure the public’s right to know.

Second, take responsibility. By using such means and tools of communication, the organizations concerned are not trying to justify, argue, shirk their responsibilities, blame others, express their grievances, bow and scrape, readily agree, please the society, etc., but to declare that they will bear the necessary responsibilities for the victims. The so-called responsibility, as a responsible member of the society, is a moral commitment to the victims and the whole society after the incident, and it is the social moral obligation that the organization should fulfill. This is a belief, not a utility.

Third, it is human. The truth is undoubtedly important, but in the process of event communication, the importance of audience feeling even exceeds the event itself. If the organization concerned blindly "speaks with facts" and ignores the inner feelings of the public, the organization will still be considered "insincere".

3S

Speed first principle

In the era of mass communication, any news-worthy event will be reported immediately after the event, even at the same time, and will soon become a hot spot of media attention, triggering public shocks and forming a crisis.

Therefore, if the organization concerned cannot announce the truth of the incident to the media as soon as it happens (as far as it knows), it will lose the best fighter to control the deterioration of the situation, and it will take a hundred times of efforts to save it in the future.

From the perspective of crisis management, it is the premise of crisis management to deal with the incident immediately and correctly; It is the core of crisis management to spread the incident immediately. The content of communication should not only be correct, but also the time of communication should be "immediately".

From the perspective of communication, the first 12-24 hours after the incident is the time when the news spreads fastest and the deformation is the most serious, and it is also the time when the audience is most anxious, most eager for information and most anxious. Every move of the organization concerned has been widely reported by the media, so adopting the right means of communication to spread the right content at the first time is almost equivalent to laying the foundation for successfully handling the crisis.

Not sleeping for 24 hours is totally worth it; Otherwise, you can’t sleep for 24 months.

4S

System system operation principle

At present, crisis management systems and crisis management systems are being established in all aspects, from national to local, from public administration to specific social organizations. This is an inevitable problem with the high development and high integration of social politics, economy and cultural life, that is, how to ensure the normal operation of a huge social machine, how to rescue an accident in a certain link and make it return to normal as soon as possible.

Crisis management is to ensure that the measures taken by the organizations concerned are timely, correct, consistent and in line with long-term interests. Every large organization, especially in the pharmaceutical industry, should establish a crisis management system to ensure that once a crisis occurs, the crisis resolution procedure will be started immediately and the system will operate to resolve the crisis.

Generally speaking, the crisis management procedure includes the following elements:

First, set up a crisis management team with the participation of relevant personnel, and the senior leaders of the organization are responsible for commanding and fighting continuously;

Second, implement special control within the organization to ensure internal stability and unified external information;

Third, do a good job in crisis communication and maintain benign communication and interaction with the media and the public;

Fourth, take decisive measures to solve the problem and treat both the symptoms and the root causes.

5S

Standard authority confirmation principle

It is easy to understand that an incident was reported and triggered a crisis. No matter how the organization explained it, the media and the public would not believe it. Who would believe a person suspected of being guilty and show that he is innocent? !

Are there any problems with the products, services or other things of the organization concerned, which caused the incident? Such problems can only be concluded by the competent government departments or the third-party authoritative organizations after careful investigation and study. Therefore, after the incident, the organization concerned only needs to solve the problem in good faith and wait for the authoritative conclusion. Any self-conclusion will not help, but will also anger the victims and aggravate the crisis.(Cheng Wuzheng)