Getting Ahead of Bad PR: What To Do When You Drop the Ball
Originally posted on Linkedin 04/11/2022
Whether you’ve been in PR for years or have no idea what PR even stands for, we can all agree that no one’s a stranger to bad headlines. Maybe you read about a certain A-list actor getting reprimanded for slapping the host of a widely televised awards ceremony recently, or perhaps your favorite mayoral candidate was caught on videotape doing drugs in his office.
Truth be told, the aforementioned public relations nightmares tend to be quite rare. By virtue of their rarity, however, they also tend to be the most talked about and unfortunately, remembered.
The good news is that when you’re dealing with high-profile clients and their occasional ability to bungle a bowl of cereal, consequences are generally minimal. The myth that there’s no such thing as bad publicity is reinforced by the nonchalance of rich celebrities and careless politicians who fail upwards, but the reality is much worse for niche markets and small businesses. Bad press can bring a company to its knees in a matter of seconds thanks to social media and the chain reactions that can follow a single incident, bad review, or misspoken word. You probably never had much to worry about if you ever had clients like Will Smith or Rob Ford; in fact Ford was able to win back his former City Council seat even after his infamous recreational drug use was caught on camera and released to the public. But this is of course the exception, not the rule.
Most press agents do not have the luxury of representing clients who couldn’t get arrested even if they tried, and in the age of social media and the subsequent disinformation it propagates, staying ahead of bad PR is more important and more difficult than it ever was.
Contrary to what the movies tell you, public relations most of the time involves very little damage control at all. The majority of press releases today deal with new product lines, company mergers, quarterly earnings, and other mundane bits of information that trade journalists just might be interested in if their editor tells them they have the page space to run it. While bad news might be routinely anticipated from the likes of rock stars and wingnut talk-show hosts, many PR professionals are put through the wringer when bad news falls out of the sky unexpectedly, especially in niche markets. In the old days, time was on your side and negative publicity could be contained. Now, a Yelp review or a Twitter rant can torpedo a business or a person’s reputation even before your alarm clock wakes the neighbors on the other side of your bedroom wall. So unless you’ve figured out some magic way to convince hordes of unhinged keyboard warriors to give up the Internet altogether, you have to find ways to work within the unforgiving system that’s currently in place, rather than work against it.
Every situation involving bad press requires nuance, and every situation will require a different mode of action. A bad review or unfounded personal attacks against a restaurant owner oftentimes can be brushed off or ignored. But how do you deal with repeated criticisms of a political campaign that snowball overnight? How do you come across as being sincere in your response without sounding like you used a template to write a statement or, when necessary, an apology?
First and foremost, you need to figure out an angle. Whether you’re writing a press release on a small construction company ordering new cement mixers or drafting an explanation as to why an up-and-coming candidate for public office keeled over during a debate, you need to know your audience and estimate how receptive they will be to certain tones and phrases. It’s less about what you say and more about how you say it. Emotions will matter more than facts in the latter case, and vice versa in the former.
I can’t stress this point enough, but time is no longer on your side. Tweets and Facebook rants can be sent out to the world in much less time than news can be printed or even posted online to legitimate websites. It’s unfortunate that so much these days hinges on 140 characters or less, but that’s what this industry has to work with, as much as most of us hate it. While it’s better to use social media sparingly—or sometimes not at all—doing so isn’t always convenient or practical. Brevity and speed should be prioritized, but that doesn’t mean you should throw it off into the ether before you proof it. Apply the same standards to social media posts as you would to a normal press release and your clients will have fewer reasons to chew you out if things ever do go south, for whatever reason.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you have to be willing to think outside the box. Even if you’ve been in PR for years and have stacks of boilerplate templates for those more delicate situations that can arise, they might not work so well anymore. The angry mobs can see through the lack of sincerity, and although I don’t like to admit it, they’re occasionally more intelligent than we’d like to give them credit for. Insulting a client’s critics can make things worse, even if you let everything roll off your tongue in private.
The key is to stay professional and on your feet at all times, no matter the circumstances. Not dropping the ball is much easier than chasing it once it slips out of your hands.