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| Paging Dr. Spin |
May 1, 2001 |
By Derek Moscato
THANKS TO THE ADVENT OF THE INTERNET, THE PUBLIC RELATIONS (PR) industry is grappling with enormous change. Amidst a digital anarchy, countless voices clamour to be heard online, transmitting a potpourri of truth, lies, opinion and scandal.
Raw information from around the world can be found on Web sites, discussion boards, chat groups and via e-mail. And this means a monster headache for PR practitioners who are scrambling to provide information about their clients that is timely, fair, and most importantly, accurate.
“When an issue arises, the first place people go to find information is online,” says Henry Stevens, director of new media services at FWJ Communications in Calgary. “It has placed a greater onus on the need to know what’s going on, and where. And to develop an appropriate response.”
Determining their response to a PR crisis is where companies often run into trouble. A classic example is Tommy Hilfiger. The clothing company was accused of racism on Usenet newsgroups several years ago. While Tommy Hilfiger watched almost passively, the cyberspace stories quickly spread to e-mailboxes around the globe, resulting in boycotts and protests against the trendy clothier.
Shel Holtz, a PR consultant and author of the book Public Relations on the Net, ranks the episode as one of the ugliest online public relations fiascoes yet. “This viral capacity [of] the Internet makes it easy for untruths to be spread,” he says. Referring to the fallout from the Tommy rumours, he adds, “It wasn’t true, but it sounded true and so people were outraged.”
Where Tommy went wrong, says Holtz, is that its PR officials failed to jump into the Usenet newsgroups immediately to quash the rumors before they spread. According to Holtz, the company still loses money as a result of the boycotts.
A spokeswoman for Tommy Hilfiger is adamant that rumours about alleged racist comments made by the company are “completely false.” “There is no evidence that this has hurt our business at all,” adds the spokeswoman. “Our company has more than doubled in size since then .”
Work the Web site
Regardless, it’s now clear that a defensive stance is insufficient, and that PR firms have more success with a pro-active approach, one that embraces the advantages of the Web and e-mail.
So where should PR people start with their Internet strategy? Most experts conclude that the corporate Web site is key. More and more companies have transformed their Web sites into communications hubs—complete with press clippings, news releases, late-breaking news and contact information.
“The expectation of the audience is that if they hear about something, they should be able to type in the Web address of the organization, and find the answers to their questions,” says FWJ’s Stevens.
The Web site has also taken the art of investor relations to a new level— allowing public companies to keep their shareholders abreast of all the important news and numbers. Investors can quickly check out stock quotes, charts, analyst reports and media stories. Some companies also allow investors to access webcasts of quarterly conference calls or archived television interviews. E-mail is another tool that can be a flack’s best friend. While the appearance of chain letters and anti-corporate rants can be a headache for PR practitioners, many PR firms are exploiting e-mail to reach prospective audiences in a timely and efficient manner.
Act fast
E-mail delivery has also enhanced the value of news releases. PR professionals often sprinkle releases with value-added features, such as links to more in-depth news and information on the Web.
Toronto PR agency Argyle Rowland Worldwide uses opt-in e-mail lists to deliver company-specific news to targeted parties. “We have to very carefully tailor those lists and ensure we’re targeting appropriate editors,” says president Ray Argyle. “It’s important to avoid the temptation to dredge up every e-mail address you can find and just send e-mails out.”
Use the e-mail
As for those wild Internet message boards—which attract a mix of activists, disgruntled customers, ex-employees, touts and rabble-rousers—most practitioners agree that the arena requires some skillful manoeuvering. Communicators have to determine what action to take when a public relations crisis is born online: should they address the originator of the rumour or respond to a larger media audience?
The latter strategy can be more effective, but it also risks fanning the flames of controversy instead of extinguishing them. “If a lie is being told, you don’t want to broadcast that lie to yet broader audiences,” says Argyle. “That’s one of the contradictions of the Internet.”
All experts agree that action has to be swift and aggressive. Holtz cites the example of Mrs. Fields Cookies, which several years ago went online quickly to attack ugly rumours born on the Internet. Unlike the Tommy Hilfiger rumours, which eventually spread from the Net to water cooler and cocktail party conversations, the Mrs. Fields gossip was addressed—and terminated—at the source.
“Get into those newsgroups and shut [the rumour] down before it spreads,” says Holtz, who also urges PR professionals to keep the tone of their online communications breezy, and more importantly, down-to-earth. “If you go out there and talk like a corporation, people are going to tune you out really fast. They want to hear the human side of the organization, not the filtered, sanitized, legally approved side.”
Despite—or perhaps because of—the wave of online PR crises, the outcome for the public relations industry is a happy one. The Internet, as the birthplace of new communications strategies and countless new companies, has created exploding demand for PR services. Canadian-based agencies are working with clients from across North America and around the world.
“The Internet really has changed the public relations universe,” says Argyle. “It’s created new opportunities for us, and has enabled us to bemore cost-effective for clients as well.” True to its nature, the industry has found a way to put a positive spin on its greatest challenge to date.
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