The rise of the new media (blogs, social networks etc.), has led to a new line of work for the PR departments of most big brands. The question is how do you defend your brand against people crtiscising it online where it can be read by anyone? Worse still is when the bad PR goes viral and within days hundreds of thousands of people are talking about it (as happened with Kryptonite locks).
The first step in defending your brand online is to find out quickly what people are saying. Time is of the essence and a weekly Google search for your brand name just won’t cut the mustard. Use a company like Agent 25 that trawls the internet and notifies you whenever your brand is mentioned in relation to a particular topic you are sensitive about.
The next step is to act immediately!
If what the person is saying is an untrue claim, then try to send them evidence that it is untrue and ask them to remove it from the Internet before it does any damage.
If what they are saying is true, then it is best to try and be civil, send the author an email outlining your side of the story, tell them you are working on solving the problem and ask them to remove the article while you get things sorted out.
If it is an opinion which is different from yours and could damage the brand, the best thing to do is to get involved in the conversation as soon as possible. For example, if you own ShineyShampoo Ltd and somebody wrote that using ShineyShampoo made them feel greasy, get on their blog and leave a comment saying “I think that ShineyShampoo is not greasy and always smells of roses”. Remember to make it look as if you don’t work for the PR of the brand though.
Using this technique PR agencies can monitor what people are saying about your brand online and start to put your side of the story online within an hour or two of publication.
Okie dokie… You tell me what your product is called and I’ll do the rest.