From the course: Public Relations (PR) Foundations

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Distinguishing between issues and crises: Choosing the right response

Distinguishing between issues and crises: Choosing the right response

From the course: Public Relations (PR) Foundations

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Distinguishing between issues and crises: Choosing the right response

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- With the speed of social media, you can't afford to underestimate any issue that can turn into a crisis instantly. But how do you know when something is an issue versus a full-blown crisis? Let's clearly define both. In PR, we manage issues by understanding, mobilizing, and coordinating to quickly determine each issue's impact on stakeholder audiences. Here's an example. Let's say a famous athletic apparel brand recently shipped yoga pants that were see-through when customers stretched, this situation would lead to customer frustration and negative reviews on social media. It's an issue and not a crisis. Why? While the situation caused customer dissatisfaction with yoga enthusiasts, it didn't affect the company's bottom line. They haven't suffered reputation damage on a large scale across all their brands. Also, they have time to react and develop a solution such as issuing refunds, offering replacements, or investigating the cause of the manufacturing issue. With an issue, there's…

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