by Jonathan Dedmon, Principal of The Dilenschneider Group and contributor to “The Public Relations Handbook“
Invariably, an organization or group will expertise dangerous information, leading to unfavourable publicity. Attainable causes can embody:
- Poor income or earnings
- Product recollects
- Shopper well being and questions of safety
- Strikes
- Plant closures or layoffs
- Assaults by politicians and NGOs
- Accidents inflicting worker deaths or critical accidents
- Assaults by activist buyers questioning the general firm technique and its administration
- Environmental points
- Employee situations and sourcing, notably within the creating world
You will need to acknowledge the details of the scenario versus attempting to “spin” them for short-term achieve; as soon as once more, credibility and belief are your most essential property. And keep in mind that relations with the media have to be considered as a long-term sport. In case you spin the details, then when there may be excellent news, will you be believed or trusted?
A number of different tips about coping with a unfavourable media scenario:
Determine how a lot traction the story is getting.
Don’t make extra of your denial than is warranted, because it creates the equal of being hit by a truck after which having the truck again up over you. To the extent doable, make it a one-day story and reply with equivalency—what is required however no more than the story deserves.
Articulate daring, optimistic steps you take to repair the issue.
Don’t be argumentative.
As longtime Republican political operative Invoice Greener aptly put it, quoting others: “By no means argue with somebody who buys ink by the barrel.”
Don’t repeat unfavourable or inflammatory language from the reporter. Even a denial utilizing such language may be repeated as from you within the story.
A corollary to that’s to take the excessive highway. As former first girl Michelle Obama put it: “Once they go low, we go excessive.”
Shield the file.
In case you make a mistake, right it. If the reporter makes a mistake, ask for a correction. Whereas few folks learn the small corrections in newspapers, by getting one launched, you’ll guarantee it’s recorded in digital house, ceaselessly even within the on-line model of the story.
Final, acknowledge that information tales want a villain and that firms are hardly ever considered as being on the aspect of the angels. Internationally famend political scientist and administration scholar and chancellor of Vanderbilt College Daniel Diermeier notes in his wonderful e-book, “Fame Guidelines”, “Executives function underneath the mistaken perception that the general public trusts them. However CEOs are among the many least trusted professions, simply barely forward of used-car sellers and politicians.”
*excerpted from “The Public Relations Handbook” copyright © 2022 by Robert L. Dilenschneider. Reprinted with permission from Matt Holt Books, an imprint of BenBella Books, Inc. All rights reserved.
Jonathan Dedmon is a Principal of The Dilenschneider Group with greater than forty-five years’ expertise within the media and company public relations and advertising and marketing communications, together with twenty-eight years with The Dilenschneider Group in Chicago. Throughout his public relations and advertising and marketing communications profession, Dedmon has labored throughout a wide range of industries, together with actual property, structure and development, authorized affairs, monetary providers, schooling, power, manufacturing, transportation, amongst others.
