When we talk about enterprise crisis management now, it seems natural to remind managers to look for the root of the problem from the enterprise itself, but many times the occurrence of enterprise crisis is not entirely their own responsibility, and rumors and rumors from various channels are the chief culprit to deepen the crisis. For example, at the beginning of 200 1, a large number of media articles claimed that "don't ignore the harm of microwave ovens" triggered a serious rumor crisis; In these crises, the uncontrolled spread of rumors is an important reason for the deterioration of the crisis. In mass communication, rumors are defined as specific information spread by the public without actual basis, and rumors often refer to malicious false information made out of nothing. It is conceivable how destructive this kind of communication is to enterprises. Especially in China, in recent years, the expansion of mass media and the enhancement of consumers' sovereignty consciousness have caused many crises. Therefore, when discussing the crisis public relations communication, we should pay special attention to how enterprises should effectively deal with the spread of rumors in the public relations crisis. Understand the spread of rumors in the crisis Faced with the complicated clues in the crisis, enterprises may not have time to deal with them, which creates space for the spread of rumors. Rumors spread suddenly and quickly. Like a plague, rumors often appear out of thin air and then start to multiply and spread rapidly. Generally speaking, the spread of rumors usually goes through three stages: formation, climax and decline. In the formation period of rumor spread, only a few people talked with each other as the birthplace of rumors, and then the spread speed of rumors began to accelerate and spread to others quickly, forming a chain-like spread, thus entering the formation period of rumor spread. In the formative period, the spread of rumors gradually accelerated, and rumors quickly started a prairie fire. More and more people are involved in communication, and the scope is getting wider and wider. When rumors are accepted by the vast majority of the public, the spread of rumors has reached a climax. Subsequently, with the weakening of the importance of rumors, the frequency of rumor spread began to decline, and rumor spread gradually entered a recession until rumors completely disappeared. For enterprise crisis management, it is extremely important to control the occurrence of rumors, and the effect of prevention is much better than that of control, that is to say, it is best to expose the motives of rumors in the formation period. In the crisis public relations of modern enterprises, the subject and motivation of rumor spreading are quite complicated, and consumers, competitors and the public will all become the sources of rumors, mainly including: competitors; Consumers; Mass media; Other members of the public who intentionally or unintentionally cause trouble play different roles. 1, competitor. In the increasingly fierce market competition, in the face of the lack of corporate integrity, one party in the competitive relationship will release some information without scientific basis and reality to attack the other party in order to squeeze past the other party and seize a larger market share. For example, it was once rumored by competitors that Chundu ham sausage contained human flesh. 2. consumers. In reality, consumers often unconsciously play the role of rumor makers and disseminators. Their motivation is often due to dissatisfaction with products or services, especially after claiming legal rights or claims are rejected, they often spread rumors to relatives, friends and the public to vent their dissatisfaction. For example, because consumers are dissatisfied with after-sales service, Hengsheng laptops spread unfavorable comments on the Internet. 3. Mass media. Modern media is like a tiger, and many enterprises are afraid of it. As the saying goes, success is also the media, and failure is also the media. The excessive enthusiasm of the media has no intention of making the news media the main body of rumors. What's more, the deliberate hype of the media often adds fuel to the fire for the enterprises acquired in the crisis. There are countless examples of this. 4. The public. Other members of society will intentionally or unintentionally play the role of rumors and rumors. Among them, the purpose of stakeholders is to spread rumors and confuse people's hearing and hearing, so as to vent their aggression and repression. For example, the rumor that the president of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province absconded with huge sums of money caused a run on the Bank of Communications in this city. Rumors spread in the crisis will spread from the main body through interpersonal oral communication, mass media, the Internet and other channels. More commonly, the cross combination of the above media will present a complex network structure. 1, interpersonal oral communication. Interpersonal oral communication is the main way for consumers and the public to spread rumors, and it is also the most intangible and lethal way. According to the explanation of mass communication, it is difficult for oral communication between people to keep the integrity and accuracy of information coding and decoding, so it is inevitable that rumors are distorted by Wan Li and even differ from the information of the source. I believe we are no strangers to this. 2. Mass media. Many times the rumors in the crisis come from the mass media. Due to the unique public opinion-oriented function of mass media, their participation will make rumors spread from top to bottom, with fast spread speed and wide range, and the audience has the characteristics of multiple, scattered and hidden. Therefore, rumors spread through mass media are more and more difficult to control, and it is easier to gain public trust. 3. internet 4. A combination of multiple media. In reality, the spread of rumors is not isolated, and it is often the oral communication between people and the combination of mass media and network, so the swirling spread of rumor information has a greater impact on enterprises. For enterprises, rumors spread in many aspects, such as product quality, service, performance, packaging, trademarks, asset restructuring, competitor competition, marketing channels, operating performance, financial situation, personnel changes and so on. The worst rumors tend to publicize the negative information of enterprises, such as the decline of product quality, unsafe use, the resignation of senior executives and the bankruptcy of enterprises. For example, the trademark of Procter & Gamble is rumored to have the symbol of devil worship. Rumor is often a speculation about the enterprise, and its content is not static in the process of communication. In the process of decoding, decoding and decoding information, memory will change with the passage of time, and rumor disseminators play a subjective role in communication. The public at the next level will exaggerate the content itself with the will of the disseminators at the next level, which will also cause extreme rumors. Without timely and effective control, the spread of rumors in crisis public relations can form strong public opinion pressure at a certain stage, thus giving a fatal blow to product image and corporate image. From product backlog to loss of market, to closure or even closure. Nestle, for example, once triggered a worldwide boycott movement because it was not handled in time at the beginning of rumors. Therefore, it is imperative to correctly manage the spread of rumors. Crisis management of rumor spreading Facing the public relations crisis caused by rumor spreading, enterprises must make their own correct choices. The best way to overcome the influence of rumors is to start from yourself, nip in the bud, overcome your weaknesses and make yourself impeccable; If in crisis, enterprises should pay attention to coping with rumors and recovering their reputation through successful crisis public relations communication. 1. Establish rumor early warning mechanism. Be prepared and do everything in advance, which shows the importance of forecasting and planning. Enterprises should comprehensively and clearly predict various possible crises, especially those caused by rumors that are not their own reasons, and formulate specific steps and preventive strategies for crisis public relations. Enterprises can learn from the experience and lessons of other enterprises, predict the links that may go wrong according to their own internal and external environment, and formulate corresponding public relations measures, which should be as specific and perfect as possible. If it may cause consumer problems: Are consumers really satisfied with products or services? If not, do they have a complaint channel? Will the complaint be satisfactorily resolved? Will they spread abroad? What will be the severity of communication? The problems of news media often include: whether the communication between enterprises and the media is normal recently, what is the reporting caliber, and to what extent are negative reports? Social public: Is the relationship between enterprises and the government, communities and the public harmonious, and does the enterprise harm them? This requires enterprises to make corresponding countermeasures: try their best to do their own products and services, and send special personnel to communicate and negotiate with consumers in time when problems arise; Contact the media to prevent the spread of false and unfavorable information; Look for the reason of the problem, the conclusion of the nature of the problem and so on. More importantly, the crisis management team should be good at establishing an enterprise crisis early warning mechanism to monitor the possible rumor crisis in enterprises. When there is a rumor, the enterprise information system will quickly feel it and feed it back to the management in time, so as to be alert, publicize and correct it at any time. Especially with the advent of the information society, the speed of mastering information will become an important factor to determine the development of enterprises, so it is very necessary to strengthen smooth communication within enterprises and grasp market information in time. 2. Establish a crisis management organization. As the saying goes, a bird flies headless, and the best way to deal with rumors is for enterprises to be well prepared and prepared. British public relations expert Michael? In Crisis Public Relations, Rui Gist put forward the common characteristics of crisis management team members, including: concept orientation, accumulating creative professionals, constantly putting forward new suggestions and ideas, and constantly enriching and perfecting crisis public relations programs; Communication plays the role of communication and coordination between the preceding and the following, and works in harmony with the news media to make all parties communicate smoothly; Bad luck banker type, constantly using reverse thinking to put forward amendments from the opposite side and try to consider perfection; Documentary, good at summarizing and perfecting, forming a written plan; Humanism, fully people-oriented, tends to put the interests of customers first and really consider the interests of the public, which is the most basic condition for the success of crisis public relations. Nowadays, the trend of customer-oriented management is popular, and the concept of CS is popular. Corporate public relations activities attach importance to catering to consumers' psychological needs. Crisis public relations can truly win the trust and support of customers only by earnestly thinking about consumers and creating value for the public, which is the foundation for enterprises to remain invincible in the fierce market competition. This is also the business philosophy that China entrepreneurs lack and need to strengthen urgently. The author believes that the members of the crisis management team in practical operation should include: business leaders, who are the final decision makers of important issues and are conducive to making authoritative decisions as soon as possible. The reason why senior management should participate in crisis management is to ensure the authority and decision-making of crisis management; Public relations professionals are the theoretical staff and concrete executors of crisis public relations, and are responsible for the optimization and implementation of crisis public relations procedures; Production and quality assurance personnel are familiar with the production process, easy to master the problematic links in the production process, and easy to answer questions from consumers and the media; Sales staff, familiar with circulation procedures, easy to grasp the problematic links in the circulation process; Lawyers, as legal affairs consultants of enterprises, are familiar with the legal problems that may arise in the daily operation of enterprises, so as to ensure the correctness of enterprise behavior in legal procedures. Especially in recent years, disputes between enterprises and consumers have become more and more frequent, and the amount of claims has become increasingly bullish. Lawyers have come forward to help solve disputes through legal channels as soon as possible. Consumer hotline receptionist is an important link to accept consumer complaints, communicate information and establish an image, and it is the first pass of crisis public relations. If handled properly, they will often nip the rumor crisis caused by complaints in the bud. As we all know, the PPA storm has left many people at a loss, and there are many rumors in the society. Well-trained full-time operators have become a bridge between China and the United States, between customers and consumers, and an extremely effective communication channel. In Contac crisis public relations, the role of the operator can not be underestimated, as can be seen from the fact that the sales hotline was almost blown up. The crisis management team emphasizes that people are involved in every key link of the enterprise, that is, it is easier to find problems at the beginning of the rumor outbreak and avoid procrastination and wrangling, so as to take timely measures to suit the remedy to the case and take the initiative. It is very important to appoint a spokesman for corporate crisis public relations in the crisis management team. In times of crisis, it is easy for enterprises to fall into a chaotic state of mixed information, which is not conducive to the formation of effective crisis communication, thus forming a unified voice of external communication is the inevitable result of the situation. The spokesman is responsible for communicating with the outside world, especially the news media, and releasing public relations information in a timely, accurate and consistent manner according to the needs of enterprise's external publicity, thus forming an effective external communication channel. This can avoid the disorder and confusion of external publicity and possible public suspicion when the crisis comes, and facilitate enterprises to control the spread of crisis public relations information. 3. Control information and respond to rumors. In the initial stage of rumor spreading, enterprises generally tend to ignore or ignore their honesty because they think that they are not afraid of shadows. Changde incident of Zhu San Company is a typical example. In fact, enterprises should be vigilant when the wind wrinkles the spring water, looking for the source, influence scope and intention background of rumors, so as to control different types of rumors in a targeted manner. In the classic works of crisis management, taking the first 24 hours of the crisis as the focus of the enterprise's work, providing the relevant information of their concerns to the public as much as possible, and eliminating their mystery about the enterprise-related problems by expanding the amount of information, thus preventing ambiguity, which is one of the important methods to reduce the further spread of rumors. After rumors appear, enterprises should quickly make their own judgments and determine the principled position, scheme and procedure of corporate public relations; As soon as possible, briefly explain to the news media the crisis situation and enterprise crisis management measures, clarify the position and attitude of the enterprise, win the trust and support of the media, and avoid the deterioration of the situation. After the rumor, the people who are most concerned about the enterprise's countermeasures are nothing more than the news media, competitors and the public. News media is an inevitable phenomenon in the information society, and its position and role in society are becoming more and more important. Their judgment on enterprises often affects public opinion, and their public opinion will be related to the reputation and brand image of enterprises. Now, the power of news media is unprecedented, they will pay more attention to the crisis process than enterprises, and there will be more self-righteous corresponding measures to remind enterprises; At the same time, it tends to protect the weak, which secretly and invisibly increases the difficulty of enterprise crisis management. Avoid a misunderstanding: try to avoid meeting the media before the truth comes out. In fact, even if you don't contact the media, the media will make up various reasons to speculate. Isn't the escalation of many domestic crises the result of not controlling the spread of unfavorable information in time? Don't try to hide it, it will only make things worse. It is better to contact the media in time and strive for their objective and true reports. Never forget, an important principle of crisis public relations: openness. At this time, we should also pay attention to the fact that before the incident is clarified, it is often difficult for enterprises to justify themselves and fall into a dilemma. Corporate crisis public relations will be carried out with all kinds of suspicions. Enterprises should pay attention to inform the media of the latest situation and progress in time, and also set up special information communication channels to facilitate the inquiry of news media and the public, so as to pave the way for the day when the truth comes out. A big problem here is that their keen reaction and excessive attention to the enterprise crisis will inevitably lead to the distortion or irrationality of the report, so whether they can win the true and objective report of the news media is the first difficult problem of crisis public relations. Dealing with the relationship with the news media is by no means a one-off event. It is very necessary to strengthen the daily emotional connection, which is also conducive to enterprises to find the signs of complaints as soon as possible and put an end to the spread of unfavorable information in the news media. Don't think of him when rumors are everywhere. For competitors, the emergence of rumors gives them a rare opportunity to attack the market, and they may use every opportunity to improve their influence and slander their opponents. Enterprises can give their peers a hint through various channels not to use rumors to do anything, which is not good for both sides. As the external public of the enterprise, the public is the existing or potential production, sales and public relations object of the enterprise, which will exert invisible pressure on the enterprise. Rumors will potentially affect all consumers-they will re-judge the value of enterprise products or services accordingly. Enterprises should pay attention to win the understanding, support and trust of the public and prevent the loss of social trust, which means that enterprises should actively make some statements or explanations to save their reputation. Among them, we should pay special attention to the role of government agencies, especially some industry management departments, whose evaluation of enterprises often has the power to revive the life. In fact, a key to saving the crisis is to win the support of authoritative organizations, and their conclusions are often the ultimate basis for fair judgment. With the development of public relations, it is necessary to ensure the smooth flow of internal information in enterprises and let the outside world know as much as possible the position and attitude of enterprises concerned about public interests. In terms of specific communication content, we should start from two aspects: one is to set things right, that is, to take out the truth as soon as possible and give it to the rumor disseminator-rumors are most afraid of the truth. At this time, it is necessary to play the role of public opinion leaders, such as government agencies and industry associations, and use their authority to eliminate the influence of rumors; The second is to tell the truth in a positive way and make the necessary commitment to the public at the right time when necessary. We should try our best to avoid repeating the rumor itself, avoid the public only getting the rumor fragments in the information, and strengthen the trust in the rumor. In order to cooperate with the effective implementation of public relations measures, enterprises should appropriately adopt the form of public relations advertisements focusing on expounding facts, adopt solemn statements when necessary, produce scientific evidence and facts, and widely put them in the main dense areas of rumors before the climax of rumors, so as to win the public with correct information. At the same time, pay attention to timely judicial intervention. Judicial intervention is mainly used to investigate the legal responsibility of rumors, thoroughly expose the truth of rumors, and at the same time play a warning and deterrent role to other public to prevent rumors from spreading unscrupulously. 4. Summarize experiences and lessons to improve the level of corporate public relations. After the rumor crisis, enterprises need to use public relations to deal with the negative impact of rumors and repair the damage caused by rumors to the corporate image. At the same time, we can use the opportunity created by the rumor crisis to publicize the positive image of the enterprise in order to rebuild the mutual trust relationship with the public. Crisis management should pay attention to smoke without fire, examine the deep-seated causes of the crisis, find out the loopholes in enterprise management, truly learn from the past, improve their management level from the lessons, let the public relations consciousness penetrate into the hearts of every employee, truly prevent the work in place and leave no soil for rumors.