Influencer-related PR issues could escalate rapidly and brands need to be prepared with prudent communication plans. Here’s how it’s usually done.

1. Proactive Measures: Brands formulate proactive protocols to anticipate PR crises before they happen. They carefully select influencers who align with their values and establish appropriate behavior guidelines. Using influencer marketing platforms like Flinque, brands can discover and vet influencers based on their content, industry, and audience demographics.

2. Crisis Team & Plan: Brands usually have a crisis management team and a well-planned strategy in place. This team is cross-functional and includes PR, marketing, and legal professionals. Their job is to respond quickly and effectively should a crisis arise.

3. Communication Guidelines: These guidelines detail how to communicate and what to say during a crisis. It includes pre-approved messages for various potential crises, ensuring the team is not delayed by the need to create responses from scratch during a crisis.

4. Media Handling: Brands often maintain a strong relationship with the media and know how to leverage this relationship in a crisis. Having official spokespersons ensures consistent messaging.

5. Monitoring & Responding: Brands continuously monitor their influencer partnerships for potential issues, using platforms that offer analytics and performance tracking tools, like Flinque. If an issue arises, a quick response based on the crisis communication plan is initiated.

6. Post-Crisis Analysis: After a crisis, brands usually conduct an in-depth analysis to understand what went wrong and how to better prepare for the future.

Each brand would have a different approach to influencer-related PR issues, depending on their corporate culture, past experiences, resources, and the influencers they partner with.

In summary, brands prepare for PR issues in influencer marketing by taking proactive measures, having a dedicated crisis team, setting communication guidelines, having a robust media strategy, and monitoring and quickly responding to arising issues. Post-crisis analysis aids future preparedness. Having the right set of tools such as Flinque can significantly help brands in crisis management.