As a franchise business, you are tied to numerous employees and owners who directly impact your overall brand message. Whether a crisis strikes your company as a whole or an individual franchisee, your entire brand can see negative effects.

However, with the proper franchise public relations strategies set in place, your franchise system can safeguard itself from potential crises that may arise.

We've outlined four ways to avoid a crisis through different PR strategies:

1. Reputation management - With a comprehensive public relations strategy put into place, your business can benefit from multiple forms of reputation management. This includes monitoring your franchise online presence, regularly earning positive media coverage, and establishing your system as credible to potential leads.

2. Crisis plan - When your company has a professionally-prepared plan on hand, it can help prepare your business for a potential crisis before it arises. A well-thought out crisis plan will define possible scenarios that could impact your franchise, establish a crisis spokesperson, and outline the best courses of action to take during media scrutiny.

3. Media policy - Having a public relations professional develop a media policy for your company can help maintain positive media relations, and relay accurate information to your brand's audience. These policies are designed to designate a company spokesperson, and outline procedures for speaking to press regarding your franchise business.

4. Social media policy - In the franchise realm, most companies will have localized social media pages for each franchisee. With so many voices managing your brand's social networking presence, it's vital to develop a franchise social media policy to outline rules and regulations for representing your company online. Having a policy set in place will help to avoid brand confusion and varying messages to consumers.

Your reputation as a franchise is an invaluable source for generating sales leads. Don't let a crisis cause a chain reaction that negatively impacts your company, your brand, and your franchisees. At Ripley PR, we have extensive experience developing B2B public relations and franchise communications strategies for our clients. Contact us today for more information.

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