A Company’s Virtual Voice
Thursday, April 12, 2007
“Google bombing” is personal online defamation, but can companies fall victim? This week’s BusinessWeek explores the topic in an article by Michelle Conlin titled, “Web Attack”. The article cites various examples of big name corporations that have fallen victim to online badgering. Home Depot, for example, took the brunt of MSN Money columnist, Scott Burns. In his column, Burns accused Home Depot of wasting its costumers’ time with poor service in the stores. The response he received from his column was unprecedented! Thousands upon thousands of angry Home Depot costumers concurred with his accusations and demanded change. Instead of pretending it’s 1985 and there is no Internet, Home Depot CEO Francis S. Blake decided to respond timely and meaningfully. He posted an apology on the MSN message board stating that he is sorry for the inconveniences and promises to fix the problem by hiring more staff and training them properly. He also thanked Scott Burns for brining the problem to his attention and asked for costumers to voice their concerns “like Scott Burns did.” For this, Blake received a thumbs up from customers and even Home Depot employees, on whose blog his letter received approval. This story, amongst many others, teaches us that sometimes an admission of guilt and promise to change is all that is necessary to break the fall of a corporate giant. The lesson learned hits the point home: Don’t hide behind your computer screen; use it as your megaphone! When describing the birth of the Web, Conlin jokes that it was perceived as “the new public-relations nirvana!” She then goes on to make the argument that now, after the negative potential of the message boards, blogs, and online news has been unleashed, the Internet has turned into a public relations nightmare. We, the PR people, beg to differ. Hasn’t negative press, in its varying shapes and forms, been around since the beginning of time? The online world gives everyone a voice and it is up to companies to recognize theirs and implement public relations teams to deal with the space. In some cases, perhaps exclusively.
Dell, for example, has a blogger-in-chief, Lionel Menchaca, who gives Dell a voice in the industry and overall online community. When that inevitable crisis hits Dell, Lionel will be the front lines of defense. And people will listen, because he has established a relationship with the community (AKA his blog is not an ever-changing commercial for Dell).
A few years ago, companies were wondering whether they really needed a website. Now the question becomes, do we really need a blog? The answer is clear. Labels: blog, MSN, pr
posted by Gina Bolotinsky
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