First, make yourself strong and invulnerable to begin with. It's cheap insurance and perhaps the most important (and easiest) step. This means making sure your Internet site comes up first in any Google or other search. Search "bots" especially look for links to your site from other sites, so start there by creating links from others. Links from Facebook and LinkedIn are also a good start. Having your site come up first means any negative comments are further down in the search results.
Conduct an internal audit of where you might be most vulnerable. Be relentless in looking at your firm from a neutral perspective. Or hire a crisis firm or someone else to do this for you.
When a crisis hits, actions speak louder than words. Don't bury your head in the sand. And DO NOT let your attorney talk you out of taking immediate action, ideally in the same news cycle as the crisis is being reported. Be sincere. People have a pretty good BS radar.
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The recent W hotel incident in Austin provides a good example of good crisis communications -- the company CEO immediately stepped up and apologized, enacted measures to protect pedestrians, closed the hotel, and layed out specifically what they were going to do about it even though the cause was still unknown. He made the evening news cycle as well as print media and provided a focus on solutions and responsibility. He didn't wait days or weeks to find the cause before responding, or for his attorneys to advise against talking. By then it would have been too late to take charge and show that they are sincerely addessing the situation; and by then great reputation damage would have been done. As it is people appreciated the forthright and responsible manner in which is was handled.
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After a crisis, monitor what is being said on-line through Google Alerts and Blog alerts. Don't get into "he said - she said" battles with bloggers; it will only make them write more and they have more time on their hands than you do. Then anonymity of the Internet lets people say the most awful things and get away with it. Don't encourage them more.
Instead, start having your response statements placed on other sites and link them to your site, thereby driving the negative comments down even further.
If negative comments are on a private website, go to www.Whois.com and see who owns the site and contact them, explain the facts, and ask that they take it down. Most will do so. However asking search sites like Google and Yahoo will not work -- only the person who wrote the item can have it taken down.
Sometimes the person who has posted a negative comment is a disgruntled employee or former employee. If you can find out who it is -- and it's usually pretty obvious -- have your lawyer confront them with some mean looking legal documents.
Copyright Donald G. Martin 2011
