2 Big Don'ts and 1 Huge Do During a PR Blunder

It is an inevitable fact of business, especially in this day and age. Company scandals and bad PR moments are bound to happen. We business owners can’t control everything that goes on within or outside the confines of our businesses. We rely on tens, hundreds and sometimes thousands of employees. We are dealing with hundreds if not millions of consumers on a daily basis. This means controlling what goes on is nearly impossible.

Affordable airline company JetBlue had no control over the weather, which was the beginning of what became a huge PR fiasco for JetBlue. In 2007, a snowstorm hit the East Coast and turned the airport runways into skating rinks. But it wasn’t the snowstorm that caused the PR debacle. Rather, it was how the airline handled the entire nightmare that the passengers were facing.

And even though JetBlue was eventually fined $90K for not informing passengers they were allowed to deplane so they could eat, get something to drink and use the toilet, the airline has since then rebounded from its PR catastrophe thanks to the actions of its CEO, David Neeleman David Neeleman.

Neeleman didn't hide behind some PR flunky or blame the bad weather for how his airline employees handled the situation. Instead, he got in front of the media and admitted the company's wrong. Neeleman kept to his company’s standards of good customers service, and that meant a lot to many people, including the media.

And that covers the first thing you should do when you find your company in a violent PR storm: face the music and don’t shy away — and that means taking responsibility and admitting when you’re wrong. So what are some other good PR practices we can apply when all hell breaks loose?

Here are some PR do’s and don’ts you should follow when hit with a PR crisis.

Don't be a turtle hiding in your shell.

The first step is acceptance. Don’t be paralyzed and let the fear stop you from taking action. Former Toronto mayor Rob Ford should have come clean as soon as the allegations of substance abuse surfaced. Instead, Ford denied the accusations for several months and his credibility suffered each day. By the time he finally admitted his drug problem, his reputation was in ruins.

The first thing to do is accept that you were wrong. Don't be like a deer caught in headlights and allow your fear to keep you from taking action. When former Toronto mayor Rob Ford was accused of smoking crack cocaine on a cellphone video, he denied it. Instead of simply admitting to it and admitting himself into rehab as some had suggested, the PR storm lasted months and destroyed his career and his family.

Do plan ahead of a PR incident.

No owner or CEO of a company wants to go through a PR disaster, but they must always be ready in the event one takes place. Take the US Airways Flight 1459 which landing in the Hudson River after being struck by a flock of geese. This accident had nothing to do with how the airline maintained its planes or how the pilot flew - this was a totally unavoidable mishap from Mother Nature.

Nevertheless, US Airways CEO Doug Parker was briefing the media literally within minutes of the crash keeping people up to date as new information came available. This means he was already prepared to take to the media if anything serious were to occur involving his airline company.

Don't quit marketing — use the attention to build trust.

There is no need to view a bad PR moment as a time to shrink back into the shadows and wait for the smoke to clear. Believe it or not, your company can use this moment to build trust with consumers and even market how well your company can handle itself during a predicament.

When two real estate agents thought it would be funny to compare themselves as more professional "full-time" real estate agents compared to a mother with three kids (who was considered by the two as only "part time"), their poster card meme went viral on social media. Instead of acknowledging their blunder and using the chance to gain more awareness of their services, they disappeared from the scene completely. Until this day there is virtually no activity from them.

Today there are many great services out there that help companies, especially real estate agents, that offer cloud based solutions in order to give your PR campaign a boost, and allowing you to keep in touch with customers and clients via CRM, email, and social media. There is no reason to go into hiding when disaster strikes - it will only kill your business further. May as well make the best of the limelight and campaign harder (albeit wiser).