Andy Beal Gives 7 Steps To Avoid An Online Public Relations Nightmare

Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim wrote a guest post on Marketing Sherpa in which he details a seven-step process for avoiding a public relations nightmare and protecting your reputation online.

He mentions that the advantages of a company monitoring its reputation online are many and varied. They include nipping lousy PR in the bud, identifying customer likes and dislikes about your company, determining features to include in your next launch, finding ways to improve customer service, addressing complaints about your competition, and identifying opportunities to move in.

The first step of his seven-step process is, in my opinion, the most important: Perform an honest self-analysis. This means that the current issue you are facing is most likely because of something you or your company did or a weakness in your company’s processes. Once you can figure out why this happened (without blaming the consumer/customer), you can ensure this type of problem with your online reputation does not happen again.

Also, part of step 5, Strategize Responses, is essential and is often not your first instinct: Offer a genuine apology. People who post negatively online are at their wit’s end and feel they have no other way to reach people at the company, and they want to be heard. To be told by a personable company representative that they understand why they are upset and are offered a genuine apology, you can quickly turn a hostile person into an asset to the company. Once they feel understood, they can often suggest ways this type of problem can be avoided since they have the best understanding of being a consumer of the company product. An employee of the company understandably does not have the same views of the company and its products, so the consumer viewpoint is extremely valuable.