April 21, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Domino’s pizza chain recently got in trouble when employees posted a “prank” video on YouTube showing workers doing all kinds of disgusting things with pizza ingredients. The clip spread fast, becoming a public-relations nightmare for the pizza chain.
What if something like this happened to your organization? Some past or present employee or volunteer places something on the Web that casts your charity in a bad light?
Katya Andresen, vice president of marketing for Network for Good, provides advice on how to head off or heal potentially damaging exposure on the Web on her Getting to the Point
blog.
First, she advices to “be listening for it” through tools like Google alerts, which can track your group’s name as it appears on the Internet, and Tweetbeep which does a similar function on Twitter.
If something troubling does surface, figure out who’s behind it. “Is this one crazy person with no audience?” Ms. Andresen writes. “You may want to wait and watch. Or is it someone who talks to people in your audience? Even one noisy person can be a problem if they have or can rapidly build a following with people who matter to you.”
Other advice she offers is to respond act fast and in the same venue where the problem started. If the issue is a troubling YouTube video, respond back with a video of your own.
“Be honest, transparent, friendly, and nondefensive,” Ms Andresen writes “If there is misinformation out there, correct it in a helpful, non-combative way.” She adds that her own group has a “crisis communications” plan spelling out principals to follow.
What do you think? Have you ever had to respond to rumors, malicious gossip, or ugly “pranks” on the Internet?
