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Andy’s Answers: How do I get ahead of the bad news?

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Marketing Strategy

It seems like every company is dealing with some sort of bad news these days. What’s new is the speed with which everyone online is going to start blogging, spinning, and spreading your news. If you’re still counting on traditional PR methods to get the word out, it’s going to be too late. Within 5 to 10 minutes of your formal announcement, someone will be spreading it on Twitter and bloggers will be writing it up. You need to prepare in advance.

What To Do:

  • Be first. You need to be the first to blog and tweet the story. It’s the only way you get to frame the message. Subsequent posts will link to you, instead of critics’ posts.
  • Provide source material. Use a social media press release to give bloggers videos, text, quotes, and facts. Bloggers are more likely to write if they have more to write about.
  • Use video. Video is the only media where your original message will stay intact. Text gets re-written, but your CEO talking on screen gets embedded instead of edited.

– Andy Sernovitz, Editor at Large