184: Protest PR: The One Thing to Watch Out For When Someone Targets Your Business

There is a common thread in my work. It usually involves a company that is being targeted. A person within the organization is under attack by a group led by one person. And there is always something to be on the lookout for. With this one person, it's only one ping only. Okay, not one ping only. As uttered by Captain Ramius. One of my favorite lines from one of my favorite films. It's the one thing that causes these people, your customers, to strike. What is it? Well, keep listening. Welcome to the Indestructible PR podcast where we use current events and tested media and PR strategies to help prevent or manage a crisis and build an indestructible reputation and how to do that by knowing who is out to get you and why. In this episode I'll share with you the one thing only that I see in these attacks. So the purpose of this episode is to share the primary reason why I believe customers dissent. When you encounter these people in a crisis, how do you counter businesses and the leaders who run these businesses and companies, they're often left confused by these attacks when they attack your brand or people within the brand or your business relationships and the impact of that problem results in lost time and revenue. When, when you're trying to manage this campaign waged against you, when someone has an axe to grind, what you want to do, what you need to do is identify and respond to the underlying cause of the dissent. What is the root cause? I'm going to tell you what I think it is, what I see. And it all comes down to one word. People have been free to express their dissent in the form of online attacks or commentary in the past few years if they disagree with a cause or a business. And the reason why this has been on the uptick over the past few years, it's the increased use of social media for people to voice their complaints. People have found it useful to target a company for any wrongdoing or or target a person who they feel is wrong or feel that they are spreading misinformation because they now have digital platforms within reach. The effectiveness of this advocacy, this activism, this protest or dissent, whatever you want to call it, it's amplified by their use of technology and by social media to connect with other like minded people to gain support for their cause. The public relations strategies can be powerful, especially if they are executed by excellent communicators. So I've seen leaders, I have worked with leaders firsthand as clients and I have seen their frustration by these people and buy the this strategy. Now many of you know I'M sure that activism is now a practice where you see people getting under the skin of those who are targeted, magnified by a thousand. So these are the activist groups that are tied to big causes. So, for example, in the past week, there was an animal rights activist who attempted to glue herself to the court during a Timberwolves Clippers NBA game. My son told me about it when we were driving back from the Red Sox and we were listening to the Celtics. And he knows his mom, he knows the type of story that I like, and he had mentioned the use of activism. You can check that story out on my TikTok link is in the show notes. But that type of activism is a little different than the type that I'm talking about today. Those activists exist in your stakeholder base. You know, those are the activists that are directly against a cause or something involved in your organization. In the case of the Glue Girl, she was protesting the conditions at an egg farm by the owner of the Timberwolves, Glenn Taylor, who I thought was no longer the owner, or I think he was thinking of selling the Timberwolves to a rod. But anyway, the activists that I'm talking about, these are the customers, the consumers, the members, the people. If you run a business or own a business, these are the people that you deal with. When they are upset, when they focus their ire on you, they are often fueled by one ping. One ping only. I'm sorry, I'm recording when I'm a little punchy. I'm in an 80s frame of mind at the moment. But they're fueled by one thing. And I see this over and over and over and again. In fact, the last onboarding call that I did with a client, it was a discovery call. This word just emerged. We were doing stakeholder mapping, and it, like, descended in the middle of our meeting and just went boop and plopped right in front to the client. They could see it. They could see exactly what I was talking about. So here is that one word. But before I mention it, let's go back. Remember I mentioned pop culture? My head was stuck in the 80s. Let's go back to this time. Some of you listening may have never heard of this. Others, it will come back to you.

This is a story about control. My control, control of what I say and control of what I do. And this time, I'm gonna do it my way. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. Are we ready? I am. Cause it's all about control, and I've got lots of it.

Remember the Album by Janet Jackson. It was released in 1986 with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis produced it in my neck of the woods in Minneapolis. What did Janet Jackson want? She wanted control. Now I've got a lot. I don't have rights to the song, but you can go ahead and listen on Spotify, Generation X. You can thank me later. So why do these people, these activist stakeholders, create Facebook groups along with other consumers? Why do they create online petitions? Why do they partner with activist groups and create alliances? Why do they collect like minded people for their cause? It's for control. It's not for power. It's not for greed. It's not even for ego. It's for control. They want to be in control. They want to own the issue and they want to be in control of you. So next time when you find yourself dealing with someone like this in your organization, remember, this is not about the end game. This is not about working things over on you. They don't want to talk to you. They don't want to settle with you. They want to mess with you. They want to be in control of what you do. They may want you out of your job, they may want your board of directors out of their seats, but what we know they want is to be in control. Now give me a beat. Oh, you nasty boys. Okay, it is late, but I have one more thing to add. My indestructible tip. So remember, this is the one leave behind tip that will help you build an indestructible reputation. I'm gonna have to tip back a few more years into the pop culture category. I'd mentioned this in a previous podcast. Just over the holidays in January, if you remember, if you're a listener, I mentioned a client who was dealing with. Ta da. A stakeholder. And what was one of the things that I said was going to happen? Something that I encouraged him to do. And I quoted a movie, Michael Corleone, when he was telling his brother that he wanted to enter the family. So now we're going back to the 70s. What did Michael Corleone say? It's not personal, Sunny. It's strictly business. When you are dealing with this type of activist who wants to be in control, don't take it personally. It's difficult to do. I know that. Because they are going to push every single button to make you crazy. Just remember what they want is control. And also remember, you don't have to give it to them. That's all for this week on the podcast. I'll see you here again next week. Bye for now.