9 tips on how Singapore firms should ride the negative PR storm

2am - After a long day in the office followed by responding to emails from different times zones at home, one last email pops into your mailbox.

Instinctively you open it to maintain email zero and it is a mini bombshell – a journalist tells you that someone is criticising you in their prominent news outlet. The journalist goes on to say that it is a piece that questions your industry in the whole and your company is mentioned – so you have to respond to this.

You get a rough summary of the criticisms beforehand and you vaguely know how to respond. You thank the journalist for giving you a heads up secure a delay of the release till 12 noon the next day. You have no idea where to start but you draft something up to counter

4am – Not making much progress. Eventually, you collapse due to exhaustion.

8am - Meet up with the CTO for technical assistance and hastily review the response extensively. After that, revise it over and over again.

11.59am - The response is sent to the journalist. Crisis averted.

12:01pm - The article is out. It is a major bombshell. The article is not about the industry but a directed attack on your company with your company name in the headline stated with apparent failings.

What do you do?

When the proverbial hits the fan, it is next to impossible to predict what will happen next. More importantly, how you handle the impending fallout will shape your company and personal reputation.

The scenario described above may not be exactly the same for everyone and your bombshells may be a random search on Google or a co-worker spotting a forum post. The bottom line is you and your company are getting a public flogging.

Is all press good press? Similar to the glass is half full or half empty argument; there is no definite answer. What is certain though is that you have to respond.

Since that is unavoidable, you have to make the best of this situation. If you play it smart enough or lucky enough, this situation may even turn out in your favor. Here are a few tips on adding fuel to the fire and fanning the flames to your advantage.

i. Pause and think.

As you know from court dramas and cop shows, “Anything you say - can and will be used against you”. A measured response is required so do not jump at the chance to thrash talk back.

ii. Ask for more time

Responsible journalists will concede that you need time to look into the claim. After all, they would want the best facts otherwise an embarrassing retraction is needed.

This can be usually seen in political press conferences when the spokesperson is questioned on something unprepared – the typical spiel: “the facts aren't yet clear and we pledge to get to the truth as quickly as possible.”

This buys much needed time to research for a better response. 

iii. Do not pay the trolls

Find out the source of the criticism. There are instances, where you have “haters” who wants a platform to get at you. These aren’t credible or constructive criticisms.

Any response, no matter how valid, will not matter. They will pick on punctuations errors or call you names, as these “trolls” just want the attention.

A quick glance at IE’s latest “IE sucks less” video ad targeting trolls, there is endless vitriol poured out over the smallest imperfections. Nothing you can say or do will shut them up. The internet is open and uncensored – perfect for anonymous mud slinging.

The only response is to ignore. Sensible readers will see through this shortly.

iv. Answer legitimate claims accordingly

If the negative coverage is legitimate, evaluate who is the target audience / stakeholders. The media is not your immediate concern – your shareholders and customers are. It is best that they hear from you than from the media.

If it affects your shareholders, you need to answer in a reassuring manner that calms them down and promise a satisfactory answer. A personal email / letter drafted by you to be sent to all will go a long way.

If it is technical issue affecting consumers, you will have to answer analytically with your product manager consulting. A message on your website to explain the situation. Direct them to contact your sales service team for further enquiries.

v. Use the right channels

With an infinite amount of outlets to make yourself heard on the Internet, choose the right ones. The best way to get out there is to answer on your own terms.

Respond through journalists of prominent publications or websites, ideally those you know will not sandbag you. Following that, post your answers on your website or other Internet properties (blogs / FB / etc).

This is for clarity in case there is any discrepancy.

vi. Let your brand evangelists speak up for you

When you have done exceptional work or delivered a great product – you will have your own brand converts or brand evangelists. Sometimes these can be your users, clients, partners, suppliers and more.

If you have built a good relationship with them, it is time to mobilise this resource. These 3^rd party accounts in defending you, giving rave reviews or providing customer testimonials will do much better than you blowing your own trumpet.

Case in point, just try saying something bad about Apple on Facebook – there will be an army of Mac evangelists waiting to shoot you down.

vii. When in the wrong, say sorry

If you are wrong, admit it. It is better than dancing around the issues, as media-savvy individuals will know you are avoiding the question. There would likely be inquiries done by muck-racking vigilantes to further cause embarrassment. Coming clean and proposing solutions will turn out better in the long run. 

Tim Cook’s apology over the iOS 6 maps fiasco is refreshing and softened the image of Apple despite the major errors. This in turn has not dampened the worldwide craze for iPhone 5.

viii. Turn the tables

Recognise that being in the public eye means you are getting noticed. There will be increased traffic to your stores/sites to find out what this hulabaloo is all about.

With legitimate complaints, comes the chance to improve. This crowd-sourced problem could be something that you missed. Work on it to make it better.

Then, use this newfound attention and market your new, better and improve product/service version 2.0. Perhaps even give free upgrades to existing clients or free trials to new ones. Also, put out other stories about your product/service that will generate positive press. Use this to balance out the bad things there were said.

Journalists love a good comeback story and will jump at giving you coverage to redeem yourself. You may be able to ride this storm instead of getting washed out by it.

ix. Shoot off a warning

Sometimes it comes down to having to make your legal department work for their paycheck. Libel and slander are serious offences that can levied against fraudulent claims.

This is the last on this list as it is a last resort telling journalists to get their facts right, critics to do sufficient homework and trolls to back off. The effect of a damaged reputation is not always reversible though others will think twice before defaming you or your company.

So what happened after the article came out?

The response answered the major flaws pointed out but the damage has been done. Without reading in detail or to our response at the end, readers may have already drawn negative conclusions from the headline.

A call was made to the editor to discuss that the way the headline of the original post was positioned. A small punctuation change (changing a fullstop to a question mark) altered the headline from a statement to that of one’s opinion of us. The comments thread was closed to avoid further contentious additions.

Stakeholders were informed of the situation and reassured that it is under control. Improvements to the product were implemented and this information was disseminated to all existing and new users.

A follow up article by another journalist on another major site continued the negative sentiments echoed in the original post but was more subjective. In fact, he indirectly implied to give us a break and compared us to the big boys in the industry.

While detractors tried to peg the company back with this downside buzz, loyalists emerged to defend our honor with similar vigor.

After 2 weeks, the commotion died down. Coupled with positive stories that were seeded in the media, the link to the original and subsequent post fell off the first few pages of Google search of the company name. Finally, much later, 2 international media outlets conducted overwhelming reviews of the product and put to rest the doubts anyone had.