Skip to main content
search
COCO PR
In Business, PR Crisis

Golden Rules Of Public Relations Crisis Management

Golden Rules Of Public Relations Crisis Management COCO PR AGENCY SINGAPORE

Every business will go through some kind of public relations crisis communications and is inevitable. How a business handles the crisis determines how and whether they’ll be able to move forward.

Golden Rules Of Public Relations Crisis Management COCO PR AGENCY SINGAPORE

What is Public Relations Crisis Management?

The public relations team is the gateway between a company and the public. They are responsible for all external and internal communications including crisis management.

Golden Rules Of Public Relations Crisis Management COCO PR AGENCY SINGAPORE

What is the key to successful Public Relation Crisis Management?

Honesty. When crisis strikes within an organization, honesty is key to successfully handling the situation. Ignoring a situation only makes it worse in the long run.

So what are the Golden Rules of Public Relations Crisis Management?

  1. Have A Plan

    Crisis management involves dealing with a crisis when it happens, but it begins with having a plan. Every public relations team should prepare a public relations crisis management plan for their clients. Promptness is critical in dealing with a crisis so the organization can control the narrative as soon as the public learns of it.

  2. Be Proactive

    One key mistake that many companies have made when dealing with crises is not being proactive enough. The longer you wait to respond to a situation, the worse it gets. If you react early enough you can control the narrative, rather than allowing the public to come up with their own stories.

  3. Be Accountable

    During a PR crisis, never attempt to place blame on outside sources, rather than accepting accountability for what’s happened. Get ahead of the situation, assume responsibility, and apologize. The sooner the better.

  4. Show Compassion

    “We’ve got it under control” is a blanket statement that does nothing to help your organization during a PR crisis. Instead of making vague statements that do nothing to better the situation, focus on protecting your brand by showing the public that you truly care about what happened and actively working to make it right.

  5. Communicate, Even If You Don’t Yet Have An Answer

    Communication is key. Communicate thoroughly with stakeholders, with your team, and with the public. Be transparent about where your organization is at with the handling of things, even if you’re still assessing the situation. Saying “no comment” when asked about a crisis is just as bad as, if not worse than, saying nothing at all.

  6. Be Consistent In Your Response

    Having one consistent message every step of the way is key to a smart resolution during a PR crisis. It’s critical to ensure that your entire team is on board with the same message so that you don’t have conflicting messages going out to the public. When you lack consistency, the public loses faith in your brand.

  7. Be Prepared For Backlash

    In a world where nearly everyone is active on social media, word gets out quickly and you can’t control what people say on Twitter or Facebook. The quicker you put out a statement, the less social media can harm your brand. It’s important to get ahead of the situation because people will make their own assumptions until you address it and they won’t have a problem putting those thoughts online.
    Accept that you can’t please everyone.

    Golden Rules Of Public Relations Crisis Management COCO PR AGENCY SINGAPORE

Conclusion For Public Relation Crisis Management

A PR crisis is difficult to go through but is inevitable in business. The most important thing you can do for your organization is to have a crisis management plan in place prior to any situation so you’re ready when it happens. This is key to minimizing the damage to your brand and recovering from it swiftly. Public Relations teams exist for this reason, so as long as you show the public that you care and adhere to these Golden Rules, you’ll be prepared to work through any crisis.

You can visit our post blogs here: COCO Public Relations Blog

Follow Us on Our COCO Public Relations Socials!
Instagram / Facebook / Youtube

COCO PR
In Business, Covid-19, PR Industry Trends

Public Relations in a COVID-19 World

Public relations covid-19 singapore

Public relations has been adjusted to a new normal and will continue to be affected by COVID-19. In times of crisis, companies need to be responsible for their messaging or risk and not damaging their brand. At COCO Public Relations, we help our clients navigate the current media landscape. This helps our clients to support their brands while remaining socially responsible

A Shift in Public Relations

PR professionals are accustomed to dealing with short-term crises. A long-term crisis that faces the entire world is a completely different thing. With the dialogue having shifted worldwide to a singular topic, brands face the need to adjust their messaging accordingly. COCO Public Relations helped our clients to restrategize the public relations approach during Covid-19. This is to ensure that their new marketing model is communicated to the press.

It’s extraordinarily rare for the entire world to go through a crisis that affects us all equally. Many brands started to take a new public relations and marketing approach that quickly gained popularity with the public.

What Can Public Relations Agency Do?

The question to ask yourself is: What do consumers need right now that my brand can provide? Safety is a basic essential need for humans, and right now the need for comfort is greater than ever. Consumers want, and even expect, their favorite brands to swoop in and make them feel better.

With people being encouraged to stay home, companies are being forced to get creative in order to stay afloat. Here’s what our team at COCO Public Relations Agency has learnt so far:

1- The world is in crisis management mode. It’s important to stay up-to-date on what’s going on around the world and how different governments are reacting.
2- Brands face the need to refine their values and ensure that they fit with the current climate.
3- Staying silent will render your brand irrelevant. And have consistent conversations with your public relations professionals on  how to create appropriate messaging to your audience.
4- Now is the time to focus on building strong relationships with influencers and key opinion leaders. They can provide attention back to your brand when life goes back to the norm.

Public relations covid-19 singapore

The Role of Public Relations in the New Normal

As companies all over the world shifted to working remotely and the conversation shifted to being predominantly about COVID-19, Public Relations professionals had a huge responsibility right away to help their organizations transition into this new normal. This included adjusting company values, creating new communication strategies and processes, and figuring out how to provide employees with a sense of togetherness during a time when they aren’t going into the office.

It’s important to understand your consumers and identify whether or not your current messaging still fits in a COVID-19 world. Brands have a responsibility now more than ever to humanize themselves and help bring more positivity into the world. How does the current state of the world relate to your brand and to your audience? Are you adapting your messaging to show authenticity or simply ignoring that times have changed?

For industries whose main sources of income have been all but halted due to COVID-19, it can be difficult to know how to stay relevant with consumers. User-generated content, which literally means content created by the consumers, is an incredibly powerful tool right now for staying relevant. With social media booming more than ever from so many people craving human connection while stuck at home, user-generated content has been exploding in popularity among brands. People are constantly looking for relatable, engaging, and inspiring content to feel connected to. At COCO Public Relations, we believe in utilizing market trends along with thoughtful planning and creativity to help your brand thrive even amidst this new normal.

Here are some tips on what you should be doing right now:

Be a leader in the community

Your company may already be an outstanding corporate citizen, but during these trying times it’s important to do even more. Put extra effort into forming strong relationships with your community, whether it’s through financial support or volunteer work.

Reminisce on past experiences

This is where user-generated content comes into play in a major way. It’s no secret that people are feeling more nostalgic than ever. Trips and events have been cancelled all year and have them reflecting on the fun times they’ve had in the past. If people are already thinking and posting about past experiences, why not encourage them to talk about a past experience with your brand?

A good example on this kind of campaign is when Hamilton Island ran a social media campaign asking past visitors to use the hashtag #HIRememberWhen and share their memories of the island on their social media accounts. The campaign ended up garnering over 6.7 million impressions and resulting in 4x more than their usual web traffic.

Create virtual experiences

While travel restrictions are still in place and people are being encouraged to stay at home, many companies are opting to bring their customers options for virtual experiences instead.

Zoos are live-streaming their exhibits, gyms are offering virtual training classes, and cooking schools are offering virtual cooking classes. Take what your brand has to offer and adapt it to the virtual world so that you can continue to provide for your customers. When Covid-19 hit our shores, we as a public relations had to take immediate steps to re-look and strategise for our clients. One of our client, B.P. De.Silva, the home-grown luxury jeweller’s virtual concierge service was launched during the circuit breaker in Singapore. When Covid-19 happened, it became exceptionally clear that the best way the brand can be connected with their clients was through the web.

At some point, we will be on the other side of COVID-19. When that day comes, people will be more concerned about both their physical and financial safety than ever. It’s important to ensure that your brand takes these concerns into account and does everything in its power to build trust with consumers and make them feel safe. Utilizing the expertise of public relations professionals at  is integral in moving forward after COVID-19 and making sure your brand thrives above the rest. And we at COCO Public Relations can help communicate your brand to your consumers in this new norm and beyond.

Public relations covid-19 singapore

You can visit our post blog about covid-19

Follow Us on Our COCO Public Relations Socials!
Instagram / Facebook / Youtube

COCO PR
In PR Industry Trends

Why Public Relations Can Never Be Replaced By Automation

Why Public Relations Can Never Be Replaced By Automation

The looming threat of automation has been a worrying trend for many. Yet, while automation has been such a useful tool for many Public Relations practitioners, we’re confident that Public Relations can never be fully replaced by automation. This may seem like a bold statement – but here’s why we think so!

What Automation Can Do for Public Relations

Undeniably, automation has contributed to Public Relations in many aspects. Consider social media monitoring and analysis – without tools such as Google Analytics, it’s nearly impossible to keep up with the wealth of content that is generated every second. Automation is thus, in some ways, complementary to the work of Public Relations professionals. It improves efficiency, and takes the hassle out of menial tasks.

What Automation Cannot Do for Public Relations

However, at the heart of it, Public Relations is the business of forming human connections and establishing trust among consumers. This often comes in the form of highly personalised storytelling shaped for niche target audiences.

So, what does automation specifically lack that cannot replace the human touch?

1. An Understanding of Social Relationships

Why Public Relations Can Never Be Replaced By Automation by COCO Public Relations Agency - An Understanding of Social Relationships

Public Relations is about one-on-one communication with multiple stakeholders and requires tailored relationship management strategies. This requires not just merely a mechanical exchange of information. Rather, it is an exchange of shared meaning, which requires empathy – to ensure that the audience’s culture, backgrounds and their needs and wants are fully accounted for. This can easily be skimmed over by technology, which may lack the same level of contextual awareness that humans possess. For instance, think about a Public Relations professional’s relationship with multiple journalists. It takes a keen understanding of each journalists’ perspectives to develop story angles that are specifically aligned with their interests, values and beliefs. This key ingredient – being able to understand others’ perspective – seems almost second nature to human beings, which can hardly be taken away from us, much less replaced by artificial technologies.

2. The Ability to Think on Our Feet

Why Public Relations Can Never Be Replaced By Automation by COCO Public Relations Agency - The Ability to Think on Our Feet

Because of the complex nature of communications, there is no one-size-fits-all approach for dealing with any unique situation. The process of relating to targeted audiences under specific circumstances needs an in-depth on-the-ground-sensing and a whole lot of intuition and adaptability. KFC’s response to negative social media sentiments is a prime example of this innate human ability, where they turned these negative comments into a positive opportunity to show how they care about their customers’ feedback.

3. Creativity

Why Public Relations Can Never Be Replaced By Automation by COCO Public Relations Agency - Creativity

Public Relations has a life of its own, a field with non-exhaustive possibilities, where extraordinary ideas take flight. The task of relating to audiences is tough work. It needs brilliant minds to know how to grapple with the audience’s emotions, to understand the kinds of information to foreground and what types of information to withhold. It needs people who colour outside the lines, to produce ideas that capture the attention of stakeholders. In essence, to tell compelling stories at opportune moments is an art form characterised by soul and fluidity. Public Relations communications is not meant to be boxed up in structured grids and computer screens.

In all, it’s time we start valuing automation as an efficiency-enhancing companion, rather than a competitor for Public Relations practitioners. With this mindset, we will not only move forward as an industry, but also be able to focus more of our energy on what truly matters – establishing and nurturing meaningful relationships with stakeholders.

You can visit our post blog about covid-19

Follow Us on Our COCO Public Relations Socials!
Instagram / Facebook / Youtube

COCO PR
In Hospitality & Tourism, PR Industry Trends

Travel & Hospitality:Embracing the New Era

We delve deeper into how the Covid-19 pandemic will change the era of travel and hospitality, quite significantly


The Covid-19 pandemic has devastated economies around the world and disrupted life in unimaginable ways. But as industries bounce back and weather the storm, most will need to embrace the inevitable new normal.

Amongst those which have been hit severely are travel and hospitality industries. As the pandemic gradually recedes, these industries will need to restore the confidence in future travellers to ensure its sustainability.

We’ve been hearing word that whether it’s weeks or months away, many airlines will be grounded indefinitely. And not to mention, a reduction in passengers on each flight to accommodate safe-distancing measures – with layouts in airports and airplanes having to be reconfigured – results in an increase in ticket prices due to higher demand.

Sooner than we think, the term “once-in-a-lifetime holidays” will be an actual thing. To put a positive spin to it, we find this new way of living will build a healthy amount of anticipation for an upcoming escapade.

TRAVEL WITH A PURPOSE

The key is to travel with a purpose.

This includes spending more time planning and prepping for that ‘dream holiday’.

Purposeful travel can take on a variety of different forms, from volunteer vacations to cultural exploration trips. Having a cause or subject you’re particularly interested in will strengthen the connection you have to a given destination.

When it’s just a short-term visit, it’s impossible to thoroughly experience every aspect of a new place. But focusing on just one interesting aspect of a place, like the schools in a small village, will allow you to feel more connected.

CLOSER TO HOME TRAVELS

This pandemic has taken a whole lot from many of us, some more severe than others. We find spending time in nature is good for mental health, stress relief and physical wellness. For restorative reasons, personal space and connection becomes more crucial than ever before.

However, this theory does not apply to everyone. Distance and perceptions of health-related risks tied to big cities will not influence business travellers as much. Instead, they will travel where their business needs take them. Conversely, travellers with leisure purposes are predicted to mostly focus on shorter travel within regions or neighbouring countries.

UNDERSTANDING NEW HOSPITALITY PRACTICES

Moving forward, what’s crucial is that the hospitality industry will split its customers into two categories – business and leisure.

Customers who had to postpone their travels are likely to start travelling once they feel safe and normal airline operation resumes. By the beginning of next year, it’s vital for businesses to start reconsidering their plan for the forthcoming wave of customers.

Travellers and guests can expect to be introduced to a new way of travel. Changes to hotel rooms may be apparent before you even enter. To ensure adherence to safe practices, some hotels have developed new technology. For instance, guestroom doors have seals to indicate they haven’t been accessed since they were last cleaned.

Others are removing items that are difficult to disinfect, including decorative pillows, bed scarves, notepads, pamphlets and pens. Minibars are gone too, though they may be replaced, such as with pop-up bodegas at the front desk of luxury boutique hotels. Other items, such as robes, will be available upon request.

Many hotels are providing safety kits stocked with masks, disinfectant and wipes for their guests. Daily newspaper deliveries will be going digital with electronic readers.

ACCEPTING LIFE AFTER COVID-19

It’s apparent how every industry has stepped up their game in battling the pandemic, only to emerge stronger than before. In every industry, trust is essential. In this case, well-communicated safety measures can help establish this trust.

You can visit our post blog about covid-19

Follow Us on Our COCO Public Relations Socials!
Instagram / Facebook / Youtube

Close Menu