Reputation Roadkill: Learning from the Biggest Brands’
“OMG” Moments – Andy Beal Fresh for #CZLNY
Reputation Manager, Andy Beal, took to the stage on Wednesday morning at
Clickz, to share his lessons for Reputation Management for brands.
Beal defines Reputation Management as follows:
“An effort to increase the number of positive internet discussions while limiting
the damage of any negatives ones.”
Reputation Management is set to become a much larger industry in the next five
years, as these statistics reveal:
 83% of businesses in next 5 years will have a reputation management
issue.
 87% of consumers tie reputation of the CEO to the reputation of the
company.
 97% of consumers do online research to determine if they buy a product
or not.
With this in mind, Beal offered 15 simple lessons for brands so you can avoid
becoming a statistic.
You only have one reputation
There is no longer a distinction between your personal and professional life, so
everything you say is now seen as representative of you as an individual and a
professional.
A recent example that made the news in America, involved Phil Robertson from
Duck Dynasty. Robertson’s homophobic comments in a personal interview
reflected badly on the A&E channel that produces his television program. The
show was almost cancelled based on this.
What happens offline makes it online
As our digital and ‘real’ lives become more entwined, it is increasingly likely that
any bad behaviour offline will soon find it’s way online. This is especially true if
you are a person of influence or fame. There are almost too many examples of
this to mention, every other week there is a tabloid rush on the latest stripper
with a connection to a politician. Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark’s recent DM
tweets to Lynsie Lee are just one of many recent examples.
[INSERT BOOKER DMS PIC HERE]
You can’t hide your true character
American chef Paula Deen recently made headlines for all the wrong reasons,
when it came to light that she had used the N-word many years ago. She lost
sponsorship deals and her reputation is almost not irreparably damaged. The
moral of this story is that murky moments and mistakes may well come back to
haunt you – try to avoid causing offense in the first place. Easier said than done.
Don’t brag
A UK driver (from Norfolk – where I’m from. The Shame) managed to get herself
into a lot of trouble, but not for her original crime, that of knocking over a cyclist
with her car, but because she then went on to twitter and bragged about doing it.
[INSERT EMMA WAY TWEET HERE]
The 140 characters above got Emma led to a reply tweet from the police, which
led to a court appearance, points on her license, a fine and a bad reputation. Even
tweets or posts that you send privately have a way of leaking out, particularly in
this instance when the tweet in question is so extremely callous. Any privacy
precautions you are taking are token at this point so it is much wiser to simply
avoid saying anything offensive.
You are always being judged
Mitt Romney? A likeable, successful Presidential candidate running against an
incumbent President weathering the worst financial recession since the 1930s –
the 2012 election was arguably his to lose until a video was released of him
famously dismissing 47% of the American people.
The rule here is part of the blur between private and professional issue
mentioned already, however to recap, you are always, always being watched
and, consequently, judged. It is now incredibly easy to record audio, make videos
and generally get people into trouble.
Kate Moss’s cocaine scandal in 2007 is another example of someone operating in
what they thought was a trusted environment and being left in a rather
compromising position.
Train your staff
It is still incredible just how many companies encourage their staff to share their
work at the company via their social networks, however there is little guidance
or training about just what is and what is not appropriate. These days there is
always the added complication that even offline gaffes can quickly find their way
online and make you notorious for all the wrong reasons.
[INSERT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PICTURE HERE]
Minibar in Austin, TX, did remedy the first error with donations to domestic
violence charities but it is still unfortunate that it was allowed to happen in the first
place.
Examples such as this highlight how important it is to make sure you staff have a
robust sense of their role in representing your brand in their lives at work, offline
and online.
On this theme, the familiar “views are mine and not that of my employer” might be
legally binding however other readers and potential customers might not see it that
way. As previously stated, your views will automatically be tied back to your
company. As Justine Sacco and Pax Dickinson found out the hard way.
[INSERT SCREENGRABS OF JS + PD TWEETS]
Avoid having to make excuses
Family Feud made some waves recently when a recent tweet was claimed to be the
result of hacking.
[INSERT FAMILY FEUD TWEET HERE]
Beal called this into question and thinks it is perhaps more likely than an employee
accidentally tweeted from the wrong account. It does lead to the intriguing notion
that “I was hacked” is the new “ I was drunk”.
Use the right account
Based on the tip above, it can be all too easy to switch between accounts and then
accidentally post something to the wrong account. Tools such as HootSuite, whilst
very valuable, make this sort of mistake more likely than ever. As an employer,
accept that these mistakes happen however factor in the ‘rant-proclivity’ ™ factor
into it when you are allocating social media responsibilities. For whilst you
definitely don’t want inappropriate content appearing on your social channels, even
your employee’s personal social channels can be tied back to your brand. With this
in mind, any public ranters, whilst completely entitled to their own opinions, might
not be the best fit for your social media efforts.
Know your audience
As with content marketing and production, in terms of Reputation Management it is
vitally important to understand your customers and their interests. This print ad for
Pearl Izumi upset a lot of their animal-loving customers. The uproar was such that it
attracted criticism from animal rights groups, an entirely new community, who now
have a negative impression of the company.
[INSERT PEARL IZUMI HERE]
Be present
Brands often make the mistake of monitoring their accounts during the business
hours of their country, but fail to take into account that social channels are never
closed for business. This can lead to the proverbial storm developing overnight or,
worse still, over a weekend, when the accounts are not managed. The trick to getting
around this, not by having 24 hour support staff, that is not realistic, but there has to
be a system in place to monitor alerts and mentions, on rotation so any issues that
do come to light can be addressed quickly before it gets out of hand.
British Airways learnt this the hard way - they didn’t respond to tweet from
@HVSVN who then, in a clever moment of revenge, decided to promote the tweet.
His tweet went viral, the mainstream media picked it up and when BA finally
responded as follows, it only fanned the flames.
[INSERT BA Tweet HERE]
Be Careful with Automated Posts
Along the same lines, automated tweets or scheduled posts are a reality for most
companies planning their social content however it can backfire and when it does,
the results tend to be spectacular. The golden rule in this instance is to cancel any
automated tweets the moment you find out about any potential PR issues.
Tesco discovered this at their cost when this tweet was posted at the same time as
the company was under fire for the horsemeat scandal.
[INSERT TWITTER HIT THE HAY]
Greed is ugly
It is important to show some restraint with anniversaries of historical events. The
pressure to produce timely, topical content that also ties in with your brand is
immense as the rewards can be great, as Oreo found out during the superbowl of
2012 with this clever, fun, simple little gem.
[INSERT OREO DUNK IN DARK IMAGE]
However, for success stories such as this, there are too many examples of brands
trying to seemingly cash in on more somber events.
[INSERT SPAG PEARL HARBOUR]
This image, whilst sincere, just comes across as a little crass. If you are in any
confusion about how to commemorate a historical event, the best answer might be
to say nothing at all, or, if you feel strongly, avoid images and keep it simple, along
the lines of ‘our thoughts are with the families’. Sincerity rings out in these instances
and you want to make sure anything you express is honest and appropriate.
Don’t trash talk
Learn from Samsung’s recent PR fail, when it came to light that they were hiring
people to write fake positive reviews of their products and, more damningly-still,
fake negative reviews of HTC products. There is no need for tactics like this and
invariably the truth will come out at some point, as in the case for Samsung who
ended up with a fine for their troubles.
You can’t cover up nasty
Flying counter-trend from the message of The Lean Startup, it is important to do
your utmost to release a finished, working product that can cope with the demand.
The recent debacle over the Healthcare.gov website is a good example of the
damage caused by an imperfect product. Unfortunately you only have one chance to
create a positive first impression and if that is not positive, your potential customers
are likely to go elsewhere to find what they need.
Things that get covered up will eventually get found out
Look at Lance Armstrong.
Who is handling it well?
Amongst all of this negativity, there are a number of brands who understand the
importance of their reputation and are willing to defend it. Take United Airlines,
formerly notorious for crushing a musician’s guitar, recently did the right thing with
a ticket price glitch. Users to the site realized that flights to Hawaii were selling for
~$ 10 each. Rather than cancel those tickets, United tackled the issue on Twitter
with the following tweet.
[INSERT UNITED TWEET HERE]
United had clearly learnt from their previous mistakes and also had a sense that the
financial implications of this error was lower than the cost of angering customers
over their own internal error and potentially turning those people into detractors.
The TL;DR of Beal’s keynote is that whilst the mistakes listed above are largely
obvious, it is worth going over them and making sure everyone in your company
understands their importance.
Prevention is better than cure.
The task of reputation management is largely thankless and invisible, until it’s too
late so take the time to review your social media policies now, to make sure there is
a system in place to limit the damage.
If all else fails, avoid twitter, as that seems to be the source of the majority of these
errors.