The 3 Steps to Handling a Crisis

Amid the “19 Kids and Counting” scandal, there were a few missed opportunities for TLC to use handy PR tricks to help save face. During these tough times, it is important for companies to stay ahead of the issue at hand in order to restore their image and the faith their stakeholders have for their company. These are the steps TLC should have taken to handle the crisis/scandal/issue

1.   Communicate the issue. Once these types of scandals break, the media will be all over you looking for comment. Although there is no rush to provide one, it is not good to completely ignore the media outlets. This will allow other people to speculate your stance on the issue and create new opinions that could distance them from your service. People need to know where you stand on the issue.

2.   Apologize. Everyone is human, and humans are not perfect. Regardless if your company is in the wrong, you should always apologize for the situation at hand. It shows that your company is compassionate and cares about the people who are involved in their business.

3.   Be transparent. Be available to stakeholders to voice their opinions and concerns, and take serious initiative to make change. Every scandal presents a company with the opportunity to make positive changes and be more open and honest with its constituents. Companies should share as much as they can with their constituents to prove that they are taking the necessary steps to make changes.

All of these steps help companies deal with crisis issues and help solve them quickly and swiftly.

This guest blog post was written by PRowl staff member Rene Cosides. 

What I Learned About PR By Filling Out A March Madness Bracket

When thinking of terms to describe myself, sports enthusiast is definitely not one that comes up. As much as I enjoy a fun Temple basketball game, I have very little knowledge on other college teams and their stats. With that, I was probably underqualified when filling out a March Madness bracket but I thought that it would be a new experience. I chose and placed teams throughout my bracket solely on their names, locations, and uniform colors. Just as any other PR major would, I found that there were many valuable lessons to be taken from this March Madness bracket experience that could be applied to a scenario seen within the field.

Here is what I learned about PR while filling out a March Madness bracket:

Always do your research. In most cases, it is okay to fill out a March Madness bracket just for fun without any prior knowledge on the teams or their season stats. In PR, this is never acceptable. When creating interesting pitches angles, it is important to have research to back up your claims. You would never want to put yourself in a place where reporters deem you as untrustworthy because that’s a guaranteed way to never place your client in that publication.

Pay attention to news. After completing my bracket, I tried to watch as many games as I could to follow along with my bracket. This is an important commitment to see my bracket thru to the end and make sure I am aware of who is winning and losing. When representing a client, it is important to stay current on what’s going on in the news nationally, regionally, and in their industry. You never want to miss an opportunity where your client could receive news coverage.

Don’t be a sore loser. So the bracket I made was subpar and was ruined once Gonzaga lost to Duke, but that’s no reason to stop watching March Madness! When you miss an opportunity to place your client in a relevant story, don’t beat yourself up about it. Take that as a learning lesson. Prepare a pitch for a follow-up story or use this as opportunity to create a relationship with that reporter so they will leverage you as a source in the future. Always try to learn from your mistakes because it will make you a better person and PR professional in the end.

This guest blog post was written by PRowl staff member Rene Cosides.

Winter Break: No Time For A Break In PR

As finals are just around the corner and winter break is nearing, students find themselves rushing to finish the classes and head home for much needed relaxation. This includes every other type of student besides a Public Relations student. Trained to keep going and to take charge, PR students begin to make winter break plans that will help them get ahead in the upcoming semester and year.

Below are some of my plans for winter break that I believe would help my fellow PR students prepare for another hectic semester and continue to add to their resumes.

Blog: Think about creating your own blog or find outlets to contribute your own blogs to over break. With the extra free time you will have, it is a great time to unwind, distress and write. As PR majors, we are always writing but it is nice to be able to relax and focus all your thoughts in some new pieces. All of these can be added to a portfolio later on, too!

Networking: With all of your free time, it is a good time to reach out to your professional contacts and keep in touch. Also, this would be a great time to collect all the data from the business cards you’ve collected over the semester and put them in a neat and tidy Excel document. This way, you will have all the contact information of every person you’ve ever met in one convenient location! You never know when you will need to reach someone in your professional network and this ensures you will always have his/her contact information on hand.

Apply to Spring/Summer Internships: Towards the end of the semester, it gets hard to keep track of all the internship advertisements sent over listservs while juggling final projects and papers. Take this free time to carefully plan your next semester and summer. Reread all the emails you’ve received over the semester and begin your research. This break provides ample time to make strategic plans that ensure you are going after all the internships that interest you! This is also a great time to figure out firms and companies that offer summer internships and prepare your paperwork necessary to apply.

With these tips, you will feel prepared and ready to tackle the next semester easily with all necessary tools for success! 

This guest blog post was written by PRowl staff member Rene Cosides.