There’s a particular kind of email that can change the atmosphere of your entire day. A journalist introduces themselves, explains that they’re working on a story and asks you to respond to a series of questions. There’s a deadline, usually considerably sooner than you would like. You read it twice, feel slightly sick and immediately start imagining who else might have received it.
Or perhaps it starts with a post. Someone has made an accusation about your business, shared a private conversation or uploaded a clip that leaves out rather a lot of what happened. Your phone starts filling with messages from people asking whether you’ve seen it. Unfortunately, yes. You’ve seen it approximately forty times.
This is often when people start searching for a crisis PR specialist. They might type “help with negative press”, “how to respond to online backlash” or “someone is damaging my business reputation”. They aren’t necessarily familiar with crisis communications. They just know something is happening, it feels serious and they don’t want to make it worse.
I’m Lauren Beeching, and I work with public figures, founders, creators and brands on crisis PR and reputation management. Part of my job is helping people navigate precisely these moments. But the point at which you feel you are officially “in crisis” isn’t necessarily the best point to start getting advice. There can be useful work to do considerably earlier.
What does a crisis PR specialist actually do?
Crisis PR has acquired a slightly theatrical reputation. People imagine urgent phone calls, someone demanding that a newspaper pull a story and a publicist arriving with an apology that somehow makes everything disappear by lunchtime. I can understand why that version appeals. It would certainly make scheduling easier.
The actual work involves understanding what has happened, establishing what can be verified and working out which decisions need to be made. Who is affected? What information is already public? What is being alleged? Is there a genuine problem that needs addressing, an inaccurate account that needs correcting or a complicated mixture of both?
From there, crisis communications support might involve responding to journalists, preparing statements, advising on social media or helping a business communicate with employees and customers. It can also mean working alongside legal advisers and making sure the people involved understand what they can responsibly say.
A surprising amount of the work happens before anything is published. Reading the background properly. Asking the awkward question nobody has asked yet. Noticing that the response someone wants to send contradicts something their business said last week. Those details can become very important once other people start examining them.
You don’t have to be famous to need crisis PR
The word “crisis” can make people assume this is a service for celebrities, politicians or enormous companies with communications departments spread across several floors. But reputational problems don’t become less consequential because fewer people know your name.
For a founder, a damaging story can affect relationships with customers, employees and investors. For a creator, a controversy can raise questions with commercial partners. For someone running a small business, a public allegation might reach precisely the people whose trust keeps that business going.
The size of the audience is only part of the picture. A post seen by a few hundred relevant people may deserve more attention than one seen by thousands who have no connection to your work. What matters is what is being said, who believes it and what could happen as a result.
You also don’t have to wait for public criticism. You might be preparing a difficult announcement, dealing with a sensitive departure or anticipating questions about a past association. Getting advice at that stage gives you time to think while there is still some space to do so.
A journalist has contacted you and you’re tempted to explain everything
An unexpected press enquiry can produce a very strong urge to send your entire life history in response. You know the background. You know which details have been left out. You want the journalist to understand why the situation is unfair, complicated or considerably less interesting than it has been made to sound.
That instinct is understandable. It can also lead to an email that introduces three new issues while failing to answer the original question. When you are emotionally involved, it can be difficult to distinguish between information that matters to the story and information that matters enormously to you.
Before replying, you need to understand the questions, check the relevant facts and consider what you are able to substantiate. You also need to know the deadline and whether other people should be involved in preparing the response.
A crisis PR specialist can help you work through that process. Sometimes a detailed response is appropriate. Sometimes a shorter statement is more useful. Sometimes a particular claim needs challenging directly. The answer depends on the enquiry and the evidence, which is why I would want to read both before recommending wording.
Online backlash can make every decision feel urgent
One of the strangest things about being criticised online is how quickly the conversation can take over your sense of proportion. You keep refreshing because you want to know whether it is getting worse. Every refresh gives you something else to worry about. Then somebody sends you a screenshot you hadn’t seen, which feels almost offensive given how thoroughly you have been monitoring the situation.
Meanwhile, people around you are offering contradictory advice. Ignore it. Apologise. Defend yourself. Post the receipts. Turn off the comments. Go live and explain. Each suggestion may sound convincing for a moment, particularly when it comes from someone who cares about you.
But responding to online backlash requires more than choosing the most reassuring opinion. You need to understand the criticism itself. Is someone raising a legitimate concern? Is inaccurate information spreading? Has a response already been given and misunderstood? Are people asking for something you can realistically provide?
It is also worth considering what a public response will actually achieve. Could it answer a reasonable question, correct an important error or explain action you are taking? Could it expose private information or draw a much larger audience towards a claim? Those are decisions to work through carefully, even when your notifications are suggesting that everything must happen immediately.
A statement needs something credible behind it
There is an enormous amount of attention paid to the wording of public apologies. I understand why. Wording is visible, easy to analyse and sometimes spectacularly bad. But even a well-written statement has limits if the people affected cannot see any meaningful response behind it.
If customers have lost money, they will want to understand what happens next. If employees have raised concerns, they will want to know how those concerns are being addressed. A carefully phrased expression of regret won’t answer practical questions on its own.
Part of crisis PR is identifying those gaps before the statement goes out. What can you explain now? What is still being investigated? Who needs an update, and when can you realistically provide one? Promising something because it sounds reassuring can create another problem if you cannot deliver it.
Equally, an apology should not be treated as an automatic response to every accusation. If a claim is inaccurate, the task may be to explain that clearly and support the correction. The facts need to shape the communication.
Your reputation continues after the conversation moves on
During a difficult situation, the immediate focus is usually on getting through the day. Answer the enquiry. Speak to the team. Decide whether to publish a response. Try to eat something that isn’t whatever happened to be nearest your laptop.
But there is a longer question: what will someone find when they search your name afterwards? A potential client may discover the original article without seeing a subsequent correction. A prospective business partner might encounter an old controversy without understanding how it was resolved.
This is where crisis PR and online reputation management overlap. Handling the immediate situation is important, but so is reviewing the public information that remains. Does it accurately represent what happened? Is your own website current? Are important developments missing from the material people are likely to find?
Depending on the circumstances, reputation management can involve seeking corrections, requesting updates and improving the information you publish about your work. The possibilities vary. I would be cautious of anyone promising that every negative result can simply be removed. You need a realistic assessment of what can be addressed and why.
When is the right time to ask for help?
If you are spending hours drafting and deleting a response, worrying about a press enquiry or trying to judge whether a situation could affect your livelihood, that is a reasonable point to get advice. You don’t need to prove that things are sufficiently disastrous first.
Earlier advice can also help with decisions that look straightforward until you examine them properly. Who should hear an announcement before it becomes public? Who will answer follow-up questions? Does everyone involved have the same understanding of what happened? Discovering those gaps privately is usually more manageable than discovering them through a journalist.
When choosing a crisis PR specialist, look for someone who asks questions, explains their reasoning and is honest about what they can achieve. You need to be able to share the uncomfortable details, including anything that might change the advice. Confidentiality matters, which is why I keep my client work private.
I provide confidential crisis PR and reputation management support for public figures, founders, creators and brands. You work directly with me to assess what is happening, understand the options and prepare a considered response.
If you are facing negative press, online backlash or a situation you are concerned could become public, get in touch confidentially. You don’t need to arrive with a polished explanation. We can start with what has happened.