{"id":1475,"date":"2017-02-28T21:41:31","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T21:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.santacruzpr.com\/en\/?p=1475"},"modified":"2018-09-16T00:40:59","modified_gmt":"2018-09-16T00:40:59","slug":"our-brand-is-crisis-dealing-with-fake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/santacruzpr.com\/en\/our-brand-is-crisis-dealing-with-fake-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Brand is Crisis Dealing with Fake News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I stole this title from the 2015 movie starring Sandra Bullock, in which a presidential candidate from Bolivia hires a very competitive campaign manager just to create a fake political crisis in order to make the population believe that the country\u2019s only way to overcome it, was by voting for him. After a fierce competition and thanks to a specific strategy based on instilling fear and lies in the people, he ultimately wins the presidency.<\/p>\n

As I was watching this movie, I realized that as Public Relations professionals we usually encounter the same situations when a client, or the organization that we represent suddenly becomes involved in a false story. Before the blink of an eye the story spreads and if we don\u2019t react properly it can just explode into a scandal. The discouraging fact is that the public doesn\u2019t realize that sometimes a rumor, or fake news, is only created as a strategy by other companies or competitors to create a crisis that doesn\u2019t exist. In this specific situation, our profession demands that we react quickly and with a specific plan that takes us a step ahead to overcome the crisis, and control the message to stop the communications crisis. Although in most of the cases we cannot predict when this type of situation will occur, we can certainly follow these steps to be prepared and react:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Keep Calm<\/u>: Besides being communications specialists the reality is that sometimes we must act as psychologists for our clients. Why? Because during a media crisis our client becomes defenseless and the only reliable person for them is their public relations representative. Even if you are worried, make them feel secure and confident with the fact that you are on it and ready to start working on fixing the situation.<\/li>\n
  2. Get the Facts and Get a Lawyer<\/u>: If you don\u2019t prepare, you will cause more damage. Have a conversation with your client to get all the information regarding the rumor or news that is being featured. Ask as many questions as you can and after you have the company\u2019s version put your team to do research on everything regarding that specific topic. Hire a lawyer and understand the legal side of the issue either for your benefit or damage. Gather all the necessary information because those facts are going to be your most valuable tool when reporters start blowing up your phone or email.<\/li>\n
  3. The \u201cNo Comment \u201capproach<\/u>: Once all the information to evaluate the situation is available, you will be able to decide if it\u2019s worth responding or not. My advice is that if reporters start publishing information or calling and asking for some type of a response, you should definitely respond. The way in which you respond should also be thought out carefully because no matter how you respond the important thing is to control the message you want to disseminate.<\/li>\n
  4. Speed<\/u>: In a moment of crisis time is key. When a crisis starts, you need to immediately develop a plan to react and include all the possible outcomes (good outcome, regular and my favorite the \u201call hell broke loose \u201coutcome) be sure to have this strategy in place within 24 hours. After your plan is ready all you need to do is wait and decide the moment to put your plan in action.<\/li>\n
  5. Monitor:<\/u> If monitoring the news was important in a crisis communications plan before, nowadays in the digital era it is pivotal. As soon as you are notified about a possible news crisis contact the digital department of the company and ask them to keep close attention to the conversations taking place online. Keeping an eye on social media will allow you to get an idea of what is coming and will help you to decide your next strategic move.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Finally, the truth is that everyone in our line of work at some point of our professional career will encounter a communication crisis, so besides keeping in mind the steps listed above, the best thing to know is that when the time comes you must trust your instincts, be patient, keep calm and carry on!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I stole this title from the 2015 movie starring Sandra Bullock, in which a presidential candidate from Bolivia hires a very competitive campaign manager just to create a fake political crisis in order to make the population believe that the country\u2019s only way to overcome it, was by voting for him. After a fierce competition…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-news","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzpr.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzpr.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzpr.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzpr.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzpr.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzpr.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1724,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzpr.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475\/revisions\/1724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzpr.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzpr.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzpr.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}