By Felicia Knight

We’ve all been there.  The five stages of grief.

Numb with disbelief, simmering rage, looking for some give and take, laid low by loss, then facing the truth: No one is going to bite on your pitch. Responses so far have ranged from dead silence to “good luck with that.”

Now comes the worst part: you knew it would end like this. Why? Because you let the client steamroll you with a project that either wasn’t ready, didn’t have a clear strategy, or, in the end, just wasn’t a good story.  A good public relations campaign starts with a good story. If you don’t have one, start pushing that boulder up the hill.

By Felicia Knight

Managing a public relations crisis isn’t easy. That’s why we advocate avoiding a crisis in the first place. It can be made a little easier, however, by understanding what’s happening, what’s at stake, and what needs to be done. Most important is how you respond and the best way to respond is with a story—a true story, a better story—that moves beyond the crisis.