How To Respond to Bad Press In Blogs

Within an Investor’s Business Daily editorial last week was a great example of how to respond to negative information in blogs about your company. Reputation Management is an area of concern to many corporate executives, unfortunately many of them do not have plans in place to respond when negative news breaks.

Luckily microwave popcorn maker Pop Weaver did have a plan.

Back in September the Lighter Footstep blog wrote an article about the harmful effects of diacetyl, an additive in microwave popcorn that provides a buttery taste, the story started snowballing. The post was quickly picked up by pumphandle.wordpress.com, a blog that fashions itself as a water cooler for public health, and youarewhatyoueat.tv, which covers healthy lifestyles.

Though the article never mentioned Pop Weaver, Cathy Yingling, managing director of Young & Laramore, a public relations firm that represents Pop Weaver knew that the article was potentially damaging to her client.

Within hours after the story broke, Yingling wrote a note to the editor of Lighter Footstep’s. Since Pop Weaver has removed diacetyl, Yingling was able to argue that it was just as healthy as organic popcorn.

The PR efforts did not stop there. Within days of the story first appearing, Yingling and her team wrote comments or letters to about 100 blogs that had republished the story or wrote follow-up articles.

Cathy Yingling explained her approach this way:

“We wanted to correct any misinformation.  Someone who is interested enough in the chemical makeup of their microwave popcorn would want to know they have an option out there.” In fact, Yingling considered Pop Weaver’s removal of the harmful additive a competitive edge that she wanted to capitalize on.

Chris Baskind, publisher of Lighter Footstep, reviewed Yingling’s note and added it to the article, which triggered several reader responses. He liked that Yingling identified herself; many PR agents write anonymously, a practice Baskind finds dishonest.

Baskind said that Yingling:

“didn’t argue the substance of the article and didn’t attack our integrity. Her company had a case to make.”

Why put such an effort into responding to something that never made it into the mainstream media?

“We see blogs as equal to mainstream media. It could be argued that some blogs aren’t as credible as the New York Times,” Yingling said. But most consumers don’t differentiate between mainstream writers and bloggers, she says.

So did the efforts work? Its sales have stayed constant while overall microwave popcorn sales are down, Yingling says. “I’d link it to how we handled issues and were proactive about how Pop Weaver didn’t use these chemicals,” she said.

Pop Weaver had a good plan to respond to negative news. In this case, the negative news was not about them, but involved their industry. As a result of the execution of the reputation management plan, Pop Weaver has been able to grab market share away from its less nimble competitors.