Category Archives: reputation management

Cubs Player’s Twitter Complaints Cost Him

Published on 19th June 2013 by . Leave a Comment

Personal Crisis Management 101: Don’t trash talk your employer online!

It continues to amaze us how prominent individuals post on social media as if nobody else is watching. News flash: EVERYONE is watching!

Just look at the case of former Chicago Cubs third baseman Ian Stewart, who further reduced his chances of ever returning to the show with a few careless Twitter responses. ESPN.com’s Matt Ehalt has more details:

Stewart was answering questions from fans online late Monday and was asked whether he would return to the Cubs soon. He responded “probably never” before following up with: “I said that be because the cubs are done With me….there (sic) going to let me Rott (sic) in AAA all season and then non tender me after.”

He later added: “I meant they might as Well release since I have no shot of a call up….let me Sign elsewhere.”

Stewart also tweeted that he didn’t expect to return to Chicago because he believes Cubs manager Dale Sveum doesn’t like him and he makes the calls. Sveum disagreed with that notion Tuesday.

Well Stewart, while it’s possible your manager didn’t like you before, he DEFINITELY doesn’t like you now!

According to Mashable, Stewart also made it clear what a waste of money he is when asked by a fan why he doesn’t just drop his Cubs contract and seek a spot with another organization:

“Why would I quit? I’m making 2 mill in AAA like u would give that up by quitting.”

Hm…let’s see…an angry employee, who’s not producing the work he’s being paid for, and is actively trashing his organization in public…do you really need any more evidence to drop this guy like a bad habit?

The Cubs didn’t, immediately suspending Stewart and beginning talks with his agent to work out a way for him to leave the team without having the pay the remainder of his $2m salary.

The old adage, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” is a key tenet of crisis management when it comes to online reputation. Bitch to family and friends all you want, but when you open your mouth up on the record and start spewing negatives, you’re headed for trouble.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

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Crisis Management Tactics: Online Reputation Management

Published on 17th June 2013 by . Leave a Comment

Protecting your good name online is key to success

Welcome to another entry in our Crisis Management Tactics series! Today we’re discussing a tactic that many are familiar with, but few have mastered – online reputation management.

Right now, most organizations are still operating with a serious handicap when it comes to crisis management because of one mistake – they have very little presence online.

Most have put together couple of social media accounts that they keep updated, a great start to be sure, but that alone won’t keep negative news stories or angry blog posts about your organization from dominating search results for your key terms once you’re caught in crisis.

The only way to prevent that is to have plenty of content popping up in those search results already, and that means making use of the wide variety of resources available around the web.

Your own blog is a great place to start. You can create a basic one for free, and if you cover subjects in your area of interest then you’ll naturally be using many of the same search terms your stakeholders would use to find information about your organization, meaning they’re more likely to encounter the positive news you’re sharing when they go searching for information about a negative situation.

Other people’s blogs are another great area to create positive search results for yourself. If you’re producing engaging content it’s not difficult to find others in your niche who will accept guest articles, and every one is plastered with your organization’s name, adding even more positive links to search results.

We said above that a couple of social media accounts won’t keep negative news out of results, but creating a presence on all of the major sites can. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram all rank well for search results and are easy to update regularly with news, information of interest, humor, and of course links to all those blogs you’re publishing.

Local news sites, industry pages, anywhere that covers subjects you’re talking about. Don’t just rehash your blog posts, put together some quality articles that stakeholders will actually find useful and informative, then get started creating relationships with the people who control what’s published.

What do these all have in common? They take content! Infographics, articles, blog posts, even lists like this one, you’ll need to produce a good amount of material. Remember not to skimp on quality, either! Search engine programmers are becoming ever-more adept at spotting weak content written purely for results, and they’re actually scrubbing it from search results altogether, so saving a few bucks up front could render your whole investment worthless.

Obviously the steps we shared today are basic, essentially the tip of the iceberg, but they should get you thinking in the right direction. Remember, you can’t delete negative search results from the web, but you can drown them out with positives. Take advantage of the myriad self-publishing opportunities the internet provides, and get started with online reputation management today.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

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AussieMite’s Social Media Crisis Management Revisited

Published on 11th June 2013 by . Leave a Comment

We revisit the embattled Australian company’s situation after the flames die down

The hallmark of an intelligent business isn’t that it never encounters trouble, but rather how it manages to continue on afterwards.

In a recent blog post, we blasted AussieMite‘s abrasive social media crisis management for stakeholder backlash against an ad campaign. The company was certainly under siege, and although it was largely a result of their own decisions, it’s frankly not a position we enjoy seeing any organization in.

Of course we (and many other bloggers) did our thing, turning the situation into a case study and publishing our opinions. It looks like something clicked for the people at AussieMite, because suddenly tweets to both supporters and detractors contained far less vitriol. The company even reached out to thank us for sharing advice on next steps, and linked to an article where they explained their position in full:

 

 

In the (admittedly, unfortunately titled) Drum article, AussieMite director Elise Ramsey gave the public more of a personal view on her side of the situation, sharing what she’s learned from the situation, and apologizing again to those offended:

“The good thing is, I’ve been amazed that out of the thousand people I have personally emailed and said sincerely sorry for any offence caused, who have emailed me pages of dialogue saying: ‘Why would you do this you have offended our entire religion’, I have taken the time to email them all personally and responded very quickly, and they have really appreciated that, and said: ‘thank you, we support Australian businesses and support smaller companies and acknowledge that you are doing the right thing – we will buy your product and continue to support you’.

“If anything, that has been the best thing that could have happened. I am grateful that the people who were hurt and offended were open to us, saying to us ‘you have done the wrong thing, we acknowledge that’.”

Another feather in the company’s cap is its refusal to drop blame on the ad company behind the controversial video. This tactic has been used countless times by big name brands, and it always leaves a foul taste in our mouths. You approved the ad, you take the responsibility, and that’s exactly what AussieMite did.

Did this crisis hurt AussieMite’s reputation? Sure did. Is the company on the road to recovery? You bet!

In the end, a whole lot of people heard of the brand who never had before, and as long as the folks in charge cement their commitment to not making such a mistake again, they should be just fine.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

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NSA Snooping Creates Reputation Crisis

Published on 8th June 2013 by . Leave a Comment

New revelations create negative backlash for organizations involved

At first, you might think the revelation, oh, sorry, “allegations” that the National Security Agency and the FBI have been tracking info on everything from phone use habits to e-mails and social media messaging would be a major crisis for the organization. Thing is, what reputation do they have to worry about? The NSA and FBI directors do not hold elected office, their true measure of worth to the people in charge is the quality of information they deliver, and like it or not they’ve been delivering a heck of a lot of it.

The nine

How about these tech companies, though? You know, the nine accused of allowing the government to tap into their servers? Among their ranks are the biggest names in the business; Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, YouTube, Skype, AOL and Apple all stand accused, and the Washinton Post has proof in the form of a slide, reportedly direct from the NSA:

Unlike the NSA and FBI, these companies do rely on the public for their livelihood, and a quick search through any social media site will show that consumers are pissed.

Rock and a hard place?

One ABC News article, by Joanna Stern, posed the highly-believable theory that these companies are caught between a rock and a hard place, using the similarities of each organization’s statement on the issue to launch into a discussion of their position:

The similarity in all the statements is clear. All mention that they would only comply with orders for requests about access to information if forced to do so under the law and that they do not provide “back door” or “direct” access to their servers and to user account information.

Experts believe that commonality in statements could mean a few things. The first is that the companies simply can’t talk about this to begin with.

“If these companies received an order under the FISA amendments act, they are forbidden by law from disclosing having received the order and disclosing any information about the order at all,” Mark Rumold, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told ABC News.

The fact is, regardless of what you feel is right — if you’re a U.S. company that receives a direct court order to comply with the FBI and NSA, and to keep mum about it at all costs — then that’s what you have to do.

What to do when you can’t speak out

The only crisis management for this one may be from the inside, with the companies involved working alongside government agencies to hammer out a solution that will work best for all involved. Looking on the bright side, at least for most companies on the list (sorry AOL and PalTalk), they are industry leaders, and provide some of the most-used services on the planet.

No matter how upset some users may be, at the end of the day they aren’t getting a better search than Google, their next virtual meeting will use Skype, and they’ll be posting pictures of their cat on Facebook before the night is over, giving these companies a far bigger cushion to fall back on than most can even imagine.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

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AussieMite’s Social Media Crisis Management #Fail

Published on 5th June 2013 by . 1 Comment. Click to add yours.

Horrible handling of Twitter comments leads to further reputation damage

It seems like we just discussed one big marketing blunder down under, but unlike that example, in this case the organization involved turned what was already a reputation ding into a full-blown mess.

Drawing negative attention

The makers of AussieMite stirred up a hornet’s nest when they commandeered an ad depicting a Communion wafer being dipped in their savory spread in the midst of a church ceremony. Predictably, offended Catholics took to social media to voice their displeasure, which is where the company should have realized it was in trouble. Instead, whoever runs the @Aussiemite Twitter account went on the defensive, breaking just about every rule of social media crisis management in the process with both original posts and replies.

Here’s a small sampling of the implosion in progress:

No, you don’t need your eyes checked

Yes, the people at AussieMite really were not only completely unapologetic and rude to already-angry stakeholders, but also brought up the issue of child abuse by Catholic priests as some sort of hackneyed, backwards defense. Compounding the situation, AussieMite as a brand is barely a year old, and has only the most minimal of fan support to lean back on.

We initially thought that whoever was running the account would be sacked and blame laid at their feet, but the company was apparently just fine with what’s been going on because @Aussiemite continued to post in similar tones for days, and continues to publicly demand news sites pull embedded video of the ad.

Our advice?

Get in control of all of your social media accounts and rein in whoever’s been posting. In fact, right now not posting at all is probably the right call. If AussieMite stops adding fuel to the fire, this story could be all but blown over by the end of the week. Of course there will be holdouts, especially from offended religious groups, but the amount of negative public attention the brand is attracting would be vastly decreased, and given time (and a lack of further rage-inducing ads) it just won’t matter to most consumers.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

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