Lead

It’s important to understand that not responding to what people are saying about you, good or bad, is equivalent to not giving a rat's @$$ about what your customers say. And what they say is everything to some degree. What may be a small website today could be the next IGN 5 years from now. You don’t want to hurt that online relationship. As I mentioned last time, people want to be treated with the same respect they would show you.

So if a blog has the wrong idea or there was a misunderstanding, simply reply in the comment section or send them a note and let them know where there might have been a misunderstanding. You can’t be every where online as there are just to many websites, podcasts, videos and blogs to make that even possible.

However, if you try and cover as much as possible and show that you are listening, then your community will see that and know you care. You have to do even more when you try something new in terms of online public relations. Being the leaders and stepping outside the box is going to yield some negative comments and reactions from the community and you need to be prepared for that. Keep your head up and learn from your mistakes and you’ll be fine.

To use an example from outside the industry, last year Facebook added a new feature called “news feeds”, which didn’t go over well with the community. There was simply a misunderstanding about what “news feeds” is, how it worked and how you can control it. When the backlash occurred, Facebook responded on their development blog and let everyone know they were sorry and would work overtime to solve any issues people had.

Part of that overtime was spent educating people about how “news feeds” actually worked and the other part was spent adding more controls into the feature and setting up a special focus group that would see new changes to Facebook before they go live to the entire community.

I think how Facebook reacted and worked with the community is a good example of the online world. It’s about relationships and much like the one you have with your girlfriend/boyfriend or other half. Sometimes you have to walk a mile in their shoe and work things out, compromise or talk until you are blue in the face to make sure you communicated correctly. Leading an online assault isn’t easy and protecting your brand is even harder these days, and it’s only going to get harder as more of the world goes online and diversifies into micro-communities. You might as well start now because there truly is no going back now.

Conclusion

Over the last few months we’ve covered what online public relations is, how to use it to your advantage, what compelling content can and should be. We also tackled how to practice safe and ethical public relations and making sure to treat your customer with respect. Today, we looked at bridging the gap between online and offline public relations and how to monitor, analyze, interact and lead your online efforts. This is just the tip of a very large iceberg and knowing that the rules are changing and, in some cases, being made up as we go is important, especially, if you are thinking outside the box.

In the end, I want to leave you with one final thought. We are all consumers at some point, and if you remember why and how your favorite brand used online public relations in some funky way to leave a lasting impression on you then you’ll remember why you should make a lasting impression on your community. Until next time, please practice safe, ethical and smart public relations.