A fellow b5 Biz Channel blogger Sean Kelly has been following the saga of Cuppy’s and the blogosphere. I blogged about it as well on Business Blog Consulting and Sean’s latest post (link above) uses a good Star Trek metaphor for how companies must feel wading into the blogosphere.
I think many companies come into the blogosphere in this way. Something happens (bad for this example), and it gets blogged. And it gets picked up. Then suddenly they don’t know what to do. Some companies have tried the heavy-handed approach of threatening to sue, etc. Which backfires because the blogger blogs this and makes it worse.
What’s the solution? I seem to write about this every few months, but it’s good to revisit it just for the sake of forcing me to make sure I’m still on target. As always my first piece, of advice is don’t panic. Panic makes you make bad decisions. These bad decisions might become worse than the public gaff in the first place.
The next thing is to get a handle on the scope of the problem. You need to find the original source and then the links to that blog. Might seem daunting, but using Technorati and Google searches will help a lot. As will checking out Techmeme (if it’s a tech thing). If you’re not into RSS, this is a great time to start.
Then you read. And read. And read. Comments, posts, links. Sometimes there might be real wrongdoing there. Maybe there really is a case for libel. Frankly, be careful with this. For me then next logical step is to leave a comment on the original source and send a personal e-mail to the author. Maybe set up a time to chat. If you are close together, take the blogger out for coffee. What you want to do is to start a dialogue. Try to understand the problem from their point of view. Also remember what you say might be blogged. If you want it off the record, say so.
Is that it? Well, maybe yes, maybe no.
The whole issue with Cuppy’s was that they started to (allegedly) force bloggers to change their tune to get money back, etc. This is a dangerous game to play. I don’t think they are going to end up winning in the end.
If there is any secret to dealing with bloggers and PR it’s to take it slow. Open a dialogue and if you’re wrong, for Pete’s sake just own up to it and move on!
Tags: blogosphere, PR
This is one of the reasons I love the blogosphere so much. Not for flaming companies, but in keeping companies and politicians and everyone else honest. It’s one of the ways that we, the people, still have power.
We should also be fair in understanding that companies make mistakes. So if they take steps to right their wrongs, we should spread that around the blogosphere as well.
Excellent point Dawud. My company has also made mistakes and we used the blog to apologize and tell people what we would do not to make the mistake again. I found the blogosphere to be very understanding as long as they know your are leveling with them.
Yeah. It seems that honesty really is the best policy. Great post.