Your MSP business may not be a controversial operation, but there will be PR crises in time. If you’re going to avoid them, you need to plan in advance. Following are tips to help you ford the turbulent waters of PR crisis:
- Figure out who the affected parties are, and answer them
- Organize response reams, plans, or both
- Carefully craft public messages
Figure Out Who the Affected Parties Are, and Answer Them
Your MSP business needs to know who’s been undermined, how, and why. Even if the negative PR is developing from something which has occurred through no fault of your own, you want to take what responsibility it’s reasonable to take and answer legitimate concerns.
If someone was harassed in a sexual way, you’ve got to do your best to restore them, and be legitimately altruistic about it. The press wants to skewer you; this is part of the reason fake news has proliferated. Put yourself in their shoes: how would you like to spend years writing about soccer games and farmer’s markets in your local community? If some MSP were implicated in a scandal, that would be an exciting day at the office! Remember, they’re out to get you, so plan accordingly.
Organize Response Teams, Plans, or Both
You need a response team if you have the manpower. If you can’t swing that, at least have a plan of action which addresses varying nexuses of PR and puts the right info out there.
Carefully Craft Public Messages
Whatever messages you relate to the public should be crafted with care and conscientiousness. It’s integral that you get every apostrophe, period, and semicolon in the right place. The press will seek holes in the “armor” of your response.
Diminishing Fallout
An MSP business in the midst of bad PR blow-back is an island in the midst of a typhoon. The best you can do is fortify hatches and wait for the storm to blow over. So, have a response strategy prepared should a hurricane assail the island of your MSP.
