Responding to Negative Publicity Online - Using Your Resources and Contacts
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If the negative publicity is serious enough and/or persistent enough, by all means you should address it on your own site. For many years, when the rumor was circulating that Procter and Gamble was giving a percentage of their profits to satanic organizations, P&G maintained a rebuttal on their web site. Today, with more recent rumors circulating around the company's Iams pet food and the care given the dogs and cats they use for pet food testing, Procter and Gamble maintains a site dedicated to explaining how they care for their animals. The site is a good example of transparency in reporting; it even shows videos taken at the facilities and recommendations made as the result of unannounced visits to improve the animals' well-being.
A smaller company can take matters into their own hands by posting a rebuttal of the original story on its own blog. You will need to give an honest, fair, and complete description of the situation. Think of it from a visitor's point of view. If you already have a decent reputation and a web surfer stumbles upon the negative item, he's going to wonder about your side of the story. That will lead him to your site. If it seems like a serious accusation, saying nothing at all about it is worse than not addressing it.
If the situation is serious enough, you might also look at getting some real press coverage. In an article for Search Engine Guide, Jennifer Laycock used the way that a small grocery store responded to a negative situation to illustrate some aspects of online reputation management. The local union was picketing the store because it wasn't a union shop. The store, in turn, contacted local media - newspapers and TV stations - so they could tell their side of the story. "By properly working the news angle (we're being picketed by people who have never worked for us) they managed to get favorable coverage in several local media outlets," Laycock explained.
This kind of coverage gives you more credibility. Any company can buy an ad, but mainstream media is (usually) considered to be a little less biased. While you can contact many online news sites, you'll also need to contact key bloggers that cover your industry, as well as related social media sites. Indeed, if you've made yourself a part of the online community already, those contacts and any goodwill you've built up will start to pay off now. "You'll have a much easier time getting bloggers to cover your side of the story or having your response spread through social media sites if you are already viewed as a trusted member of the community," Laycock notes.
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