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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

Today, social media represents the front lines of just about any brand crisis. But don't wait until you see a crisis coming to start planning. For a complete guide on how social listening can help protect your brand, read our ebook on using media intelligence to manage crisis.

Social media lets your business connect with an audience in real time. It can also accelerate negative comments about your business. 

If a digital PR crisis occurs, you need to be ready to give a quick response to help minimize the damage done. Preparation is key to responding to a crisis across all of your business’ channels, and it can ensure a smooth and effective response that helps to restore public trust in and loyalty to your business. The following tips can help you make that happen.

Understand the Importance of a Fast Response Time

When a brand crisis takes place, it’s vital to respond quickly and genuinely, ideally within minutes or hours of the issue occurring. Anger carries quickly on the internet, and a single social media post can rapidly turn into a much larger issue that’s more difficult to manage. Instead, be prepared to get ahead of the issue from the start. 

Pepsi’s response to the controversy surrounding its ad starring Kendall Jenner is a great example of how brands need to move quickly in times of public crisis. The company was accused of trivializing societal issues surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement for marketing purposes. Pepsi promptly responded on social media and released an official statement, apologizing and immediately pulling the controversial ad. 

A quick response along with effective communication can help you rapidly minimize the effects of a crisis, so establish ways for your business to conduct social listening and ensure a prompt response. Be sure to set up social media alerts and monitor all of your business social media accounts for negative comments, tweets and hashtags. Using Google alerts for the company’s name and relevant keywords can also ensure that your communications team will immediately know about brand mentions, so you can effectively manage your brand reputation online. 

Establish a PR and social media crisis management plan so that your business is well-prepared to quickly respond in a potential crisis. Know the appropriate role of social media management in creating and executing your strategy. Map out the steps that you would take, including which of your team members would take the lead in a crisis response. Focus on details, like who will be responsible for strategizing and writing a response, and how those people will come together – whether it’s an in-person meeting, a conference call, or another strategy – to quickly respond. 

Realize that no business can ever anticipate all of the situations or actions that could anger an audience and cause a crisis. Instead, be prepared to be humble and honest with your audience in your crisis response. For instance, when Nike came under fire for not providing its sponsored athletes with paid maternity leave in 2019, the brand’s initial response was on the defensive side. Nike stated that it had changed its policy in 2018 to support female athletes, but didn’t go into detail. 

However, the brand then assumed a more humble tone, admitting that it could and would do better. This prompt response, paired with an honest apology, won over Nike’s audience and turned the crisis into a win for the brand. If a brand as large as Nike can admit that it made some poor choices, this strategy of an honest apology can work for your business, too.

As you develop your crisis plan, you should also create a crisis communication team equipped to deal with these issues. This team should include your social media team or social media managers, your public relations team, and even your CEO. Create a chain of command and identify responsibilities so that all team members know what their role will be during a crisis. 

Work to streamline the crisis response process as much as possible. This means outlining your specific strategy and the channels you would use, such as posting to your website and social channels, and working with press contacts to quickly push your response out. 

Don’t forget the importance of working with your influencers, too. It’s possible that your influencers could receive angry comments on their own social media posts, so plan to communicate with your influencers during a crisis. Reach out to them initially to let them know of the issue and explain that your business is preparing a response. Once your response is ready, send it to influencers along with guidelines on how they should handle negative social media comments on their posts. 

Establishing your response team is an important step, but it’s equally important to hold regular team check-ins. These meetings let team members share their insights with one another, strengthening the team’s knowledge and preparation on the whole. 

You won’t always be able to anticipate threats or missteps, but if there are hot-button issues or conversations circulating, it’s important that your whole team is aware of their potential to experience a crisis. You can also gain awareness by studying the crises or challenges that your competitors are facing. Consider having your team draft or outline a response to some of these challenges so that there’s some initial preparation if one of these situations does arise. 

All of these exercises help in mastering crisis management, but hopefully your business will never need to put an actual plan into effect. Regardless, when you’re prepared with a great plan, it can help you tackle risk management, or handle any issues that do arise.

Crisis Response Across Channels—Best Practices for Social Media

Online feedback is great. It helps provide validation for the work we do, it helps us to course correct in areas where we can improve, and it gives us a general idea of how we are doing in the market. It’s direct feedback from the client base that has valuable applications as we run and grow our businesses.

The problem is that sometimes online feedback isn’t great. Negative feedback, while helpful in the right context, can damage a business’s reputation, it can harm relationships that the business has cultivated with the public, and sometimes, it is just unpleasant in general. According to ZenDesk, 90% of consumers’ buying decisions are influenced by online reviews. Fortunately, there are several ways businesses can take negative online reviews, social media comments, or negative articles and mitigate the damage. It’s even possible to turn the situation into a net positive.

Not all types of negative feedback are equal. Some negative comments are genuine and well-deserved, while others are intentionally destructive. Learn to distinguish between the types before you move forward:

1 – Actual Problems and Constructive Criticism

Some feedback addresses an actual problem that a customer, patient, or user has found with your product or service, and often meant merely to bring it to your attention. While a public comment exposing a weakness in your organization does not paint you in an ideal light, these reviews and comments can be genuine opportunities for your organization to improve and to engage with the public. Some users may even include potential solutions to the problems themselves. Take these suggestions with a grain of salt, because often, the public is missing key information about the industry. Still, listen to each suggestion and consider whether or not in can work. Often, this kind of feedback can provide effective solutions.

Sometimes, if a customer’s experience is not ideal, they will respond in anger, actively attacking the organization. While the attack itself may not be merited, the issue that upset them in the first place could be very real. If there is a problem that can be solved, take the message to heart without taking the criticism personally. Situations of this sort can go very poorly, but if handled properly, they can also do a lot to build goodwill.

As the saying goes, “Some people just want to watch the world burn.” Some people have no valid reason to be upset, but they will attack an organization just because they get a kick out of stirring the pot. In fact, 28% of Americans have admitted to trolling. In a similar category, some unethical companies will post negative feedback about a competitor, even if it’s untrue, as an opportunity to build public opinion on their own product or service as a competitor.

After determining what sort of negative feedback you’re dealing with, it’s easier to determine the best course of action. If the negative comment or review was merited, always make sure to respond—but be careful how you do. Make sure that you respond in a positive, constructive fashion, and never in anger. Keep the conversation polite, and if the situation warrants it, offer to take the conversation offline. This way, you can delve deeper into the issue without allowing things to escalate online, as well as preserving the customer’s privacy.

When you respond, keep your response brief but personal. In the case of a negative review, acknowledge any mistakes you have made, and if there is a reasonable way to make things right with the customer, attempt to do so. While a business shouldn’t feel obligated to apologize, a polite response and a willingness to go the extra mile can turn an upset customer into a loyal one who may even become an advocate for your organization. Once the situation has been resolved, indicate so on the site where the review was made in a comment.

In the case of trolling, on the other hand, the situation changes. Usually, a troll is trying to bait you into a conflict, which never helps your image. They generally don’t care about fighting fair or even being honest. One more time, do not engage with a troll. Ignore this sort of feedback and, if necessary and possible, simply remove this sort of comment as soon as possible. If the comment or review is on a third-party site, contact the site owners and present your case. Just know that sometimes, sites will refuse to remove content, in which circumstance, the best option is to just ignore it and move on.

Whatever the reason for the feedback, keep one thing in mind: the Internet is fairly permanent. Make sure that your responses are rational, polite, and diplomatic. If you keep your interactions with the public as positive as possible, you can turn the negative reviews around and build strong relationships and a loyal customer base.

This article was written by Robert Cordray from Business2Community and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.

How to Appropriately Respond to Negative Reviews Online

A PR team has insights into the trends that face their company's brand, this is no more evident when faced with a crisis. Suddenly, the daily work of brand monitoring and social listening becomes indispensable.

Your PR team will spend much of its time on social media monitoring your image and brand name. The average business will spend 11% of their budget on social media marketing alone this year. The power of PR has the potential to completely reinvent your brand image.

It can help you win back unhappy customers and repair your company image when it’s in the doldrums. This guide is going to show you five of the reasons why you should be listening to your PR team.

Tip: Check out these massive PR trends you should be aware of in 2022!

Making ill-timed remarks can back you into a corner, leaving you on the defense. Businesses are never going to feel comfortable in this position, and your PR strategies are not going to cater to it. The PR professional will help you to get out of this corner and stop you from being on the defensive.

You have to work with them if you’re going to get through a crisis relatively unscathed. They’ll also act to stop them from happening in the first place. The fewer controversies associated with your name the stronger your reputation is going to become going forward.

Your public relations team will help you to eliminate any inconsistencies within your messaging. Once you say something your PR team is going to act to make sure your meaning isn’t obscured anywhere along the way. A misinterpreted comment can do a lot to deflate your company. Boost team morale by making sure your PR team is ensuring the right message is getting across.

The danger with the Internet these days is your words can be misinterpreted. Even perfectly innocuous comments can be taken the wrong way, whether unintentionally or maliciously. Getting your message across with the help of your PR team will stop this from happening.

Don’t Let Negative Momentum Wash You Away

Take a look at Donald Trump for a master class in how to stop negative momentum from washing you away. Negative press can build and build until the pressure becomes too much and your company’s reputation is left in tatters. Donald Trump might be able to get away with it, but it’s far from an ideal situation to be placed in to begin with.

A solid PR team can make sure the news coverage you’re getting is leaving the right impression on the audience. They’ll make sure your name is being built based on substance, as opposed to a PR stunt that left you with a few minutes of fame. PR specialists will hold you to a higher standard that will preserve your reputation in the long term. These are the best reputation management companies to help you with that.

The biggest misconception marketers have is that all press is good press. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Even the greatest marketer can’t spin absolutely everything into something positive. There are many figures in the business world that have said the wrong things at the wrong time and found themselves unable to cope.

Believe it or not, the best press is the inane press you find in the business pages. Controversy can work for you, but you never can tell which way it’s going to go until it actually happens.

Your PR team will stage manage exactly what you’re saying to make sure you’re not making any big mistake. They’ll allow you to present the vision and goals of your company without burning bridges.

A lot of figures outline their views and get in the news all the time. Not all of this coverage is necessarily contusive to achieving an end goal. The fact is the press time you do get should be used to contribute to your long-term future. There’s little point in wasting your marketing content on something that isn’t going to lead to a better company in the long-term.

The goal of any PR team is to make sure your marketing material is consistent with your views. The last thing you want is to have lots of content that says entirely different things. Mixed messages are an easy way to confuse your customers, and it’s unlikely to lead to any sales.

Your PR team doesn’t have to be a huge team that eats up most of the company’s budget. A single PR specialist can help you to fine-tune your marketing strategy so you know you’re hitting the right people. Getting this right will ultimately be a boon for your company in the long-term.

A big part of managing your reputation is in the case of possible crisis management. Hopefully, you’ll never need it, but the time to prepare for crisis, is before it hits. To always be prepared, download our free ebook, Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications.

We originally published this post to our site on August 19, 2016. On Saturdays, we republish content, in case our readers missed them the first time around. This article was written by David Wither from Business2Community and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.

5 Reasons Why Your PR Team Could Save Your Company’s Image

In Joaquin Phoenix’s 2020 Academy Award acceptance speech, he noted that even though we may be advocating for different things, “we are all talking about the fight against injustice.” More specifically, the fight against injustice toward our planet, which has been a momentous topic for the past couple of decades. After increasing the amount of pressure on corporations to recognize their role in fighting climate change in recent years, several of the world’s largest corporations have updated their corporate sustainability policies in the past few months. 

Going green also appears to be good for business, not just the planet. The world has been favoring those who are making moves towards sustainability and a promise of a greener future. Consumers are committing their loyalty with eco-friendly brands, voters are putting more weight on environmental implications from political leaders, and we see stock prices go up when corporations showcase sustainable business practices. 

Given the increased attention around climate change and CSR policies, we wanted to find out who is driving the conversations around a greener future. Our research revealed that public figures like Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were influencing the conversation and those engaged in the online conversation, unsurprisingly.

Tip: Take a look at the top sustainability influencers and the top sustainable fashion influencers.

These change-makers advocating for Mother Earth on social media are analytical, social, and philosophical individuals. They are motivated by challenging the status quo, which it appears they are doing quite successfully. Keep it up! 

The domino effect that enabled corporate sustainability has practically forged a new way of business operations. In the first few weeks of 2020 alone, we have already heard bold declarations from top tier US corporations in their pledge to combat climate change: 

Delta Airlines says they will be the first airline to become carbon-neutral (offset their carbon emissions)

Amazon says that 50% of all their deliveries will be carbon-neutral by 2030

Ambitious Microsoft says they will actually become carbon-negative by 2050, accounting for all of their carbon emissions since 1975. 

The infographic below gives us insight into the conversations around corporate social responsibility and how sustainability is taking up space in social media. What surprises you the most? 

Corporate Sustainability: What’s Trending?

Last month Meltwater Canada hosted a client event in Montreal, during which communication professionals had the opportunity to hear from industry experts on the topic of managing brand reputation in an online world. Quebec has quickly become Meltwater Canada’s fastest-growing market, due in part to the fact that Meltwater is the only locally available solution to offer social listening, engagement, influencer marketing, and audience segmentation on one platform. 

The roomful of professionals braving Montreal’s cold pondered what to make of this and other insights that emerged over the course of the hour-long panel discussion. The panel discussion consisted of many insights and tried and true strategies from Brand Strategist, Kathy Acimovic, and Head of Communications at Essilor Canada, Lina Betancourt. 

Several of the evening’s insights follow:

Here’s why you should care about your followers 

Unlike earlier technologies, social media is unique in unlocking valuable insights into your most dedicated followers, who often double as your most engaged customers. There’s great value in learning about their behaviors and seeing where these correlate with your brand values.  Think about your ideal consumer and compare this with other insights available to you, and correct your course as needed.

People are talking about your brand and influencing your reputation

One of the evening’s panellists spoke about wanting to understand what makes people care about a brand, and concluded the common thread is reputation. People engaging in conversations about a brand online, and endorsing that brand, play a large role in conditioning whether others care about that brand as well. 

Before the advent of the internet and social media, consumers didn’t directly approach companies to learn more about them. Today, in contrast, companies have been given an incredible opportunity to engage these consumers in a direct conversation.  

The need for audience segmentation: reality meets expectations

Your top customer segment is typically fewer in number but higher in value and influence. You might begin by focusing on the needs of this high-value segment, before proceeding to look at others. A second approach is to value the people you see reflecting your personality. For example, if you’re a wellness brand, you’d prioritize people whose lifestyle is wellness-focused.

Audience segmentation is critical — regardless of your priorities, consumers expect you to tailor your efforts to a variety of audiences. With so much data and intelligence available at your fingertips, they consider this a given. If your brand is unable or unwilling to cater to different audience segments, they’ll waste no time finding another brand to connect with. 

Know where you want to go and how to chart your progress. 

What are the measures that will help you get your brand to reach its goals? Let’s say you’re a small brand and you want to increase your awareness and reach. Now imagine you’re an accessibly priced brand with aspirations of becoming more upscale. The measures you track will be marketed differently. The one thing they both have in common is the need for tracking your progress. 

Don’t discount the value of intuition—or vendor support 

Where data, metrics, and machines leave off, instincts step in. Trust yourself to know what’s relevant and what’s not. If you still feel lost, ask your vendor for help. When using data tools or platforms, one panellist said she leans heavily on the people behind it to help her decide what’s noise and what isn’t. 

Approaches that used to capitalize on customers unfamiliarity with foreign places and fashions are no longer nearly as effective. Quebec consumers are no different than consumers in the rest of the world in terms of their ability to access the world on their phones and through all of the various digital channels. 

Social media has made the visual properties of brand messaging so much richer than before. Understanding that visual literacy and just how far brands can take things presents a huge opportunity for Quebec businesses. Social shows no signs of slowing. 

 This blog piece covers key takeaways based off a recorded transcript from the event. Please note this is a summary of the discussion and not the speaker's actual verbiage.

Managing Brand Reputation in an Online World

An Inside Look at Top Communicators’ Playbooks 

Top communicators opened their playbooks on mastering brand crisis and reputation at an exclusive event Meltwater hosted in collaboration with PRWeek last month. Over breakfast in San Francisco, they discussed today’s 24/7/365 world, where external entities control the narrative as much if not more than the brands themselves, and even the basics of crisis and reputation management continue to evolve daily.

Showing us their best methods in the midst of madness were panellists Julie Miller, CCO at Ancestry; Al D’Agostino, SVP, Crisis and Risk Management at Edelman; Emily Horn, Director of Corporate Communications at HP; and Nina Beizai, VP of Communications at Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants. Moderating was Cole Weil, Director of Global Enterprise Solutions at Meltwater. A summary of discussion points and recommended actions follows.

At the first sign of crisis, deploy a tiger team to control the message

Gathering the right people quickly is the key to nimble decision-making, the panellists easily agreed. Emily Horn of HP recommended assembling a small team drawn from your stakeholder community, investor relations, and both employee and corporate communications and setting them to work performing risk analysis and determining the worst-case scenario. “Use the tiger team to control the message, and the fewer news cycles the better.”

Edelman’s Al D’Agostino added that the situation may warrant the communications lead assembling a cross-functional group that includes HR, legal, finance, and operations. “Side-by-side with that tiger team, use these people to figure out what’s going on and when is the earliest you can say something that actually means something.”

Multiple panelists confirmed the importance of having that foundation built in advance and ready to be mobilized in times of emergency.

Take the pulse of leadership early to reduce communication cycles

Ancestry’s Julie Miller says, “If my gut is telling me something’s happening, I try to get my CEO or the GM of the business and my general counsel in a room with me before everything hits. Sometimes the CFO is in there too if there’s a financial impact on the business. Getting a sense of where they’re at can save the team multiple cycles in thinking through the company’s response.” That early meeting often also helps determine what should remain confidential and what the threshold is for disclosure of information.

Come to the table with suggestions that will move the needle

“Strong analytics will get you far, and accurate analytics will get you farther,” says Nina Beizai. She adds that Kimpton has always viewed the communications team as having a seat at the table, in part because Communications is responsible for sharing the data on coverage, sentiment, and share of voice coming in from media monitoring and social and internal engagement. 

“Synthesize that data and come to the table with suggestions that will actually move the needle from a business perspective, not just a communications perspective,” Beizai advises. She says her role includes serving as a fact- and reality-checker of any proposals being floated. “I think that encourages everybody to put on their thinking caps and removes the hair-on-fire aspect of the drill.” 

Julie Miller says she welcomes the passion people bring to managing a crisis because, “If you can harness the emotion, it drives a sense of urgency and feeds the sense we’re going to roll up our sleeves and figure things out.” Her first priority remains to back everyone off the ledge and facilitate a conversation that moves them closer to finding a solution.

Maintaining a sense of perspective throughout is invaluable, says Al D’Agostino. “Oftentimes a client acts as if their whole world is going crazy. You might want to ask them how big is that world, actually. Is everyone really talking about this?” Context and a sense of proportion help keep emotions in check. Metrics can be applied here also.

Focus on being an effective two-way communicator  

The communication team’s responsibility is not only to offer advice and counsel on the wording of any pronouncements but to be the eyes and ears of the company also, says Kimpton’s Nina Beizai. “It really is a two-way street. Communicators are not just pushing out content. They’re also bringing a lot of objective reality into a situation.”

Emily Horn spoke of being at Hewlett Packard Company when hardware recycling became an issue for the tech industry and Greenpeace was protesting outside. “We brought coffee out to the protestors and sat down with them to talk and connect as humans. That helped because it calmed everybody down. Focusing on the human element of how you communicate is fundamental.”

Julie Miller says it’s important to know what your stakeholders expect from you and suggests weighing your response against a set of decision principles. “They don’t have to be absolute. You can use them merely as aids to judgment, but it’s much easier to explain what you’re doing if you have a principle-based approach.”

Understand the power of your employees to influence events

Employees should learn of a crisis first, followed by your customers. The focus should be on answering the questions you’re able to and confessing that you’re still gathering information, says HP’s Emily Horn. Tell them you’ll inform them as soon as you know more. She cautioned against a knee-jerk reaction to volunteer too much information. “I am often the first to say less is more.”

“It’s tricky,” says Julie Miller of Ancestry’s. “But I do believe there’s a role for key employees to play. An engineer or product manager may be the best person to speak to a product defect. Oftentimes it’s specific to the use case. This is where the company’s social media policy comes in. This feels like a more authentic place to have certain conversations.”

Kimpton’s Nina Beizai questioned whether we do enough to set employees up to be successful. What content can they be given that feels organic and can be shared during a crisis? Understand the power your employee base has to affect change. A crisis handled poorly with employees will not only impact reputations, Beizai says, but also morale. “This, in turn, will impact the business again, so you’re creating a vicious cycle where the crisis impacts morale, which impacts business results, which then impacts reputation again.” You devolve from talking about employees being ambassadors and advocates to worrying about their impact on the bottom line.

Edelman’s Al D’Agostino mentioned his company’s Trust Barometer, whose latest findings reveal that more than 75% of people globally view their employer as their most trusted institution. This adds to the imperative for the company to act responsibly in the eyes of employees.

Deploy a coalition of people willing to defend you in public

Julie Miller said she’d been with a leading tax software provider when scammers began filing fraudulent tax returns and receiving other people’s tax refunds. “Somebody already has your refund. Unwinding that is very, very hard.” She says her company hadn’t prepared a coalition of people willing to speak on their behalf, and that was a hard lesson to learn. “Sometimes it’s not enough for the company to defend itself. Gather a group of people who will partner with you in battle, as either public defenders or private advisors.”

Emily Horn agreed that third-party validation has never been more important. “Pick the right partners, have them act as your brand halo, and push them forward to tell the story.”

Even though the media environment is changing and the media mix is much different today, Nina Beizai cautions against neglecting or minimizing the importance of existing media relationships. “Old-school media relationships help in a crisis more than we tend to give credit. Where you want to balance stories with your quotes and who you trust to do this are both key.”

Timing is everything, and might offer you a chance to benefit from a crisis

Kimpton’s Nina Beizai says, “There’s this pivotal moment where you have an opportunity to build reputation and loyalty to a brand. Spotting that moment and shifting the paradigm is key. Oftentimes you’ll have a situation where an organization apologizes and it’s too little, too late. So look for that window of opportunity for your spokesperson to come forth.” She says the initial approach must be human, authentic, and as transparent as possible for there to be any chance of success.

It helps when what you value is also important to others. HP’s Emily Horn says, “One of our reputation pillars is diversity and inclusion. It’s extremely important to the company.” She says diversity and inclusion’s impact on reputation is often hard to measure, but that reputation itself can be measured by an increased intent to buy. Seeing an increase in this metric is one way of knowing that others share your values and appreciate your responses.

Don’t dwell on mistakes, and never shy away from bold solutions 

Crises happen in every industry, says Edelman’s Al D’Agostino. No matter what brand organization you’re part of, something unfortunate will happen. “You’re going to be judged on your response operationally and from a communication standpoint. So how prepared and willing are you to be a transparent and direct communicator?” 

Asked by an audience member for solutions that go beyond forming tiger teams and other tried-and-true methods of damage control, several panel members referenced Starbucks’ 2018 closure of 8000 stores to conduct racial-bias training. Something positive and unexpected that has an impact on revenue often captures people’s attention. Al D’Agostino’s takeaway from that incident was that Starbucks was truly committed to making amends.

Panellists agreed that a cross-functional “tiger team” should be assembled the moment a crisis hits. Have a list of participants prepared and include the key functions. Gathering the right people together in the very beginning is the key to making decisions quickly.

A crisis can enhance your reputation if your approach is human, authentic, and reasonably transparent. Never be afraid to apologize if the situation warrants it, but don’t overdo it.

Crises happen. No matter what industry you’re in, you’re going to be judged on your response from an operational and communication standpoint. How willing are you to be a transparent and direct communicator? How prepared are you? 

For further insight into mastering brand crisis and reputation, read more here, or contact our Enterprise Team.

For additional reading, check out the findings of a similar panel discussion on risk and reputation management hosted by Meltwater in New York this past May.

Mastering Brand Crisis and Reputation

More companies are evaluating their focus on environmental practices and corporate social responsibility. However, asserting a commitment to the environment and actually adhering to “green” practices are two different things. 

In recent years, many consumers have called out companies for what’s known as “greenwashing.” This refers to making unsubstantiated or misleading claims about the environmental benefits of a particular company practice or decision. In doing so, companies create the illusion they’re more environmentally friendly than they really are. 

Here are some examples of greenwashing and how companies and their communications teams can avoid it while recommitting to green practices.

1. Contributing to nonprofits for a certain disease—and then selling unhealthy products known to cause those diseases

What do you make of a company that contributes to the American Heart Association yet sells fast food to customers? Or a business that makes candy, yet donates to charities dedicated to diabetes awareness?  

To avoid this type of corporate greenwashing, make sure your product lines include healthy products that contain natural ingredients. If a wholesale healthy menu makeover isn’t possible, then focus on ensuring your messaging around product features is both accurate and transparent. Once you’ve aligned your business practices with the marketing message you’d like to share, look at top healthcare brands who got it right for inspiration.

2. Encouraging recycling—but selling products harmful to the environment or providing plastic bags for customers to take recycled items home

Even if a retailer means well and shares messages about the value of recycling, they may not have completely thought through just how green their actual business practices are.

Also, to be meaningful in your approach to environmentalism, help your customers adhere to “green” principles. Consider the following tactics:

Align your environmental values with your product portfolio and purchase processes

Review your product mix and see if you can work with more eco-friendly vendors

Collect items for recycling through a dedicated area in your store or by collecting items upon delivery of other goods

Offer your own branded reusable bags and hand them out to customers

If you’re primarily an online business, reduce packaging and shipping materials

3. Making environmental claims the company is already legally required to provide

Boasting about how you’re helping the environment is considerably less impressive when you are only doing it because it’s the law. Having a green mindset should mean more than simply doing what you’re already obligated to do. 

Stay away from this type of dishonest marketing message. Focus on how you go “above and beyond” for the environment. If you aren’t making an extra effort, then silence is the better option—at least until you develop a truly green operation or process. 

Reputation Management

Crisis Response Across Channels—Best Practices for Social Media

How to Appropriately Respond to Negative Reviews Online

5 Reasons Why Your PR Team Could Save Your Company’s Image

Corporate Sustainability: What’s Trending?

Managing Brand Reputation in an Online World

Mastering Brand Crisis and Reputation

5 Signs of Greenwashing—And How to Avoid Doing It Yourself

5 Things to Do When Your Business Gets a Bad Review

Risk and Reputation Management the Hot Topic at Press Lounge Gathering

How to Measure the Impact of a Crisis on Your Brand Image

Craft A Crisis Management Plan For The F&B Industry With These 5 Steps

Crisis Management: How 3 Brands Recovered Right Away

Reputation Management

Crisis Response Across Channels—Best Practices for Social Media

How to Appropriately Respond to Negative Reviews Online

5 Reasons Why Your PR Team Could Save Your Company’s Image

Corporate Sustainability: What’s Trending?

Managing Brand Reputation in an Online World

Mastering Brand Crisis and Reputation

5 Signs of Greenwashing—And How to Avoid Doing It Yourself

5 Things to Do When Your Business Gets a Bad Review

Risk and Reputation Management the Hot Topic at Press Lounge Gathering

How to Measure the Impact of a Crisis on Your Brand Image

Craft A Crisis Management Plan For The F&B Industry With These 5 Steps

Crisis Management: How 3 Brands Recovered Right Away

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