Radically Transparent

Your Seven Step Online Reputation Crisis Plan

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When you first discover an attack on your online reputation, it can be an unnerving event. If you’ve previously conducted your business oblivious to the online discussions about your brand, it can feel like a kick to the ribs to see someone wage an attack on your good name. When it happens, it’s important not to hit the panic button. If great companies such as Target and Jet Blue can come under fire, then it can happen to anyone.

What’s important is how you react. For an example of how not to react, you need look no further than Target–which was recently criticized by a blogger over one of its ad campaigns. When approached by this new media journalist, Target had no plan in place for responding, so instead provided the following canned response:

“Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets”

That attitude backfired for Target–with the blogosphere reacting so negatively that the New York Times ended-up writing about the incident. So much for deciding not to “participate.”

Instead, you should ensure that you have a plan in place–an online crisis communication plan–that you can quickly follow when the inevitable reputation attack occurs.

In Radically Transparent, Dr. Judy Strauss and I offer constructive steps you can take to identify, respond to, and repair an online attack. Here’s the abridged version in just seven steps.

1. Check the facts

Quite often there are two sides to any story. Before you start responding to accusations made online, take the time–but no more than an hour or so–to assess the situation, gather the facts, and evaluate the appropriate response.

2. Determine the impact

Decide if the attack on your reputation warrants a response from you. Is the attack coming from someone influential? Is the attack spreading quickly? Are many new voices joining the attack? Answer “yes” to any of these questions, and you’ll likely need to respond.

3. Bring together trusted counsel

Any response to a reputation attack should not be left to your attorney or public relations team. It needs to come from someone authoritative and accountable within your company. That said, you should absolutely seek the advice of those around you. Your legal and PR teams will help you to avoid making the issue worse, and can help you avoid further problems. Listen to them, just don’t send them out to do your work.

4. Understand your detractor

Not everyone that complains about your company falls into the same camp. Your detractors range from a first time customer that perhaps didn’t follow your product’s instruction manual correctly. Alternatively, you detractor might be an ex-employee who’s determined to make your life a misery by spreading malicious rumors. Or, your detractor might be a respected blogger who has a legitimate reason to question your integrity. What’s important is to identify your detractor, so that you know who you are dealing with and what is their motivation.

5. Decide on the appropriate response

If you find yourself the victim of a false report or defamatory blog post, you have every right to approach the detractor and request a retraction. When you’re being unfairly attacked, you need to act swiftly to point out the inaccuracies and have the offending content removed.

However, what if you’ve screwed-up? If like Jet Blue, you left your customers on the runway for hours, or like Apple, you reduced the price of your latest phone by $200–just weeks after your loyal customers stood in line to buy one–then you need to remember just three words.

Sincerity, Transparency, and Consistency.

Be sincere in your response. Don’t just apologize, but show your detractors that you’ve learned your lesson and are making changes. Be transparent in your dealings with them. Spell out what went wrong, how you screwed-up, but also how you plan to fix it. Be consistent in your future actions. Prove that you’ve learned the error of your ways and don’t let it happen again.

6. Host the conversation

When Apple angered customers with its quick $200 price drop, it quickly felt that anger in the form of hundreds of emails and dozens of blog posts. There was no way the company could respond to each email, or blog post. Instead, Apple did the smart thing. It hosted the conversation by publishing an open letter from Steve Jobs on the Apple.com site. While there will be many incidents that warrant you leaving a comment on a blog post, or responding to a forum thread, you should always look for a way to host the conversation. By inviting customers to call your 1-800 number, publishing a post to your company blog, or broadcasting your own YouTube apology, you’ll ensure that your sincerity, transparency, and consistency, are not lost in the noise of someone else’s publishing platform.

7. After the dust has settled.

No doubt Target has learned its lesson from its recent blog-relations fiasco. Hopefully the company is working to ensure bloggers, forums, and other social media are now an integral part of its PR efforts. The company should continue to monitor the fall-out from the crisis–who else is discussing the story, has it spread to TV or radio, is Target’s side of the debate being fairly presented?

In this radically transparent age of the internet-empowered citizen-journalist, your online reputation is just as important as any other component of your marketing efforts. You can spend many years, and millions of dollars building your good name. Without care, attention, and the appropriate response, a single blogger can bring it crashing down. Make plans now and you won’t feel the need to hit the panic button when it happens to you.