239: Beating the Bullies: 5 Expert Tips for How Organizations Can Thwart Online Attacks

In my work in public relations and strategic communication, I work with a lot of clients who are dealing with a special interest group that wants to attack them. They're either a well funded special interest group or a more informal group of people online who all come together for the purpose of bringing someone or some company down. I have a strategy and it's a new strategy and it's inspired by this line. Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Welcome to the indestructible PR podcast where we use current events and well past current events and tested media PR strategies to help prevent or manage a crisis and build an indestructible reputation. A digital intimidation campaign is only as effective as your fear of it. I thought those were brilliant words when I tweeted them last week. And then I realized they were likely inspired by FDR's words. But the idea is the same. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Anyone familiar with their United States history knows that was fdr. Those remarks were made on the steps of the Capitol. It was an inaugural address coming out of the Great Depression. He needed to speak to an audience to bring them back up, to help them look up instead of feeling so down. In a way, I feel similar. Not like a president by any means, but certainly leading people in a way that makes them look at things differently. I have worked in some aspect of public relations crisis communication for, gosh, a couple decades now. But this idea of working exclusively in an area of trying to thwart online attack has been something that I have been doing for the last, geez, five years. I'm spitballing there, but I feel like the last five, six years or so that has been a huge focus of my business is how to manage these, you know, online attacks. There's different versions of it, there's different varying degrees of it. I mean, we have the full out cancel culture where someone wants to, you know, like a group of people, usually unconnected. The only thing that connects them is an idea or ideology together and they want to cancel or bring someone down. But then there are groups, special interest groups formed, special interest groups. Sometimes they're not profits, sometimes they are there specifically to change. Either an election or a board election or policy. They're usually working together around an idea to make change. But if you are a company or an organization on the other side of it, you got a huge problem on your hands. Now for years, I will admit, part of my playbook was, was how can we get through this? How can we manage it? I never had this idea in me that we could ever win it because many times when I was working with clients or teaching them or seeing it or watching it, I noticed that the organizations, varying degrees, they were either at fault or they were falling short. In other words, these groups had a leg to stand on. Okay? They weren't coming out of nowhere, they weren't lying. Completely know they had something to go on and that's why they were able to get this momentum. And also with digital media and social media, it changes the landscape. And a lot of the companies, organizations that I worked with just weren't really prepared to respond to it from a strategic communication point of view. Nor did they have the social media or really the digital architecture to make that happen. They may not even have the staff. So I was creating plans, you know, around it. But you know, something's changed because it just feels since the pandemic and I don't know, I guess that's our watermark now is like everything changed after the pandemic. But there's something about these fights now. They're ramping up. Yes. They're everywhere. Yes. Like now I feel exclusively every single client I have, whether it's a retainer, ongoing or you know, one of these quick hits that I get where I just do hourly consulting, it's always the same. Someone has a concern about an online group of people today. Two hours ago, it was someone reaching out to me because there were a few people talking about them on a social media platform and I had to discern was this a threat or not? I said it was. But then there's other groups that have to work against a well funded group that has Facebook group and they have a website and they connect with other groups and then it becomes this whole campus pain that's waged against them. And in the case of a client, just earlier today they called to tell me how thrilled they were with a plan that they executed that I gave them. And you know, I'm calling it my whatever plan. In other words, your hair's not on fire. It's the pushback plan. It's the outflank plan. This is a plan that says we're going to thwart this attack because it's wrong. Some of these online special interest groups, they're not playing fair. They're running fast with the truth. You know, I tell people it's like they take the truth, but it's wrapped in mistruth. It's wrapped in misrepresentation and misinformation. So they're winning on a campaign of lies. So in this episode, I want to talk about, you know, five powerful strategies that you can use to defend against online attacks and maybe just win this war on your reputation. Now, the outcome of the win could be just reputation. It could be some type of legislation, it could be some type of policy, it could be some type of vote, it could be an election. It could be whether or not someone at the head of your company stays at your company. Maybe the group wants their head. Maybe it's a group that just wants to call someone out and they want to expose them. But more and more of these people in these groups, instead of acting like a special interest group that is working for the interests of the people, for the better of people, or for an idea or for an organization or for a cause, they're more like bullies. Now, this isn't everyone. Now, this is not a plan. How to go against a well meaning group that has a leg to stand on. Okay, if you're wrong and you need to change, this is not your podcast episode. You can just hit pause and go to another episode or go to another podcast altogether. But this is for the person or the organization or the brand that is being unfairly attacked. Maybe there's a little bit of truth here and there, but it's too much and it's unfair. And they're starting to feel more and more like bullies. Like, talk about the five steps and these are some of the things that you can do to, I don't know, you can either completely thwart it or you can start working towards a goal, you know, of really putting up the good fight and exposing something that needs to be exposed. Okay, here we go. One, this is a strategy that many are able to fulfill anyway, and that is having a strong online presence. Every company that I deal with has a website, which is good. You want a website, you want to own your own media, you want to have your own home where you can place any type of content on there. It's also good to have social media, clearly. But the best defense against an online attack is that strong offense and that comes in. Your online presence needs to be strong. And it also can help you establish yourself as trustworthy, as authoritative, because that's where all your information is. The more information that you put on that website in the form of videos and content, people can go to it. People can't call you out for doing the wrong thing if the right thing is on the website and you follow it. So the website needs to Be professional. It needs to be maintained and it needs to be active. It needs to be updated like I like, updated news releases, updated articles. If you have sliders of current events, make sure that they're current. The same goes with social media accounts. Social media accounts weigh heavily in these campaigns. If someone's going to come at you in a campaign going to be on digital, it's going to be on social media. And if you don't have anything on social media to combat that, it's not going to work. Someone reached out to me a couple weeks ago. They wanted me to throw all this money at this campaign, this privacy of it, but it was kind of a personal campaign. It was like, felt like more like a vendetta. But the person who wanted to hire me didn't have any social media. Like none. And I said, I just told them I didn't take the job, I didn't take the work. But I said, you don't have a campaign until you have social media. But I also said, or you can just pair with another group that has social media, but you can't do it. And they understood it and they saw the value in it, but not enough to get on board and do that. So we'll see. But you know, that was one strategy, but I don't think it's going to work for them. I really, really don't think it's going to work for them. So if you want to position yourself as a winner, you have to have credible sources of information. You have to build a following, and you want to build a loyal following. The, the credible information can be found on your website and then can be shared on social media. And you build that following, a loyal following, and then they're going to help defend you in that attack. Number two, this strategy is very, very important. You don't want to hire outside people to do this. The more that you know this on your own, the better. And that's monitoring online conversations. It's one of the most effective ways to prevent an online attack, is to monitor an online conversation. Bigger companies will use social media monitoring tools to track mentions and they'll track Sentimen and they'll see if there's issues happening with your company or with your decisions. And even if things are going fine, if you have social media monitoring, you can quickly identify any negative comments or complaints and you can respond quickly and in a timely but also a professional manner. Someone on your staff has to be monitoring and monitor all of them. If you're a company that's only on Facebook, for instance. But if there's a community on Reddit talking about you, you want to have someone on Reddit watching, watching out for you. Okay. Reddit has now come up in two clients recently. No, three. Three. I forgot one today. Reddit, we have a Reddit problem. Three times this came up and none of those organizations had any visibility on Reddit. So you want to monitor that. A third strategy always is responding quickly and professionally. Any negative comments or complaints that are posted online, it's important to respond to them quickly. You want to have, you know that professional statement when someone says something negative. Now, if it is trollish, you don't need to. And you can delete or you can hide those if you want, but only the extreme trollish. I mean, if people are, you know, criticizing, it's better to respond and respond online than to get rid of it. But it's a way to, you know, if you come closer to offering a solution or a resolution. The people who are going to complain online nowadays are really the ones who are in these groups. They love to complain. You can respond, but you don't want to let them go. And you might look at them and say, oh, that's a part of that group. We're not going to respond to them. Well, but not everybody else knows they're a part of that group. So all you do is you just respond in kind with the truth. You know who they are and they know that you know who they are. So respond to it. If they're wrong, say it's wrong. Tell them they're wrong. If it's misinformation, tell them. That's spreading misinformation. Let other people know. I promise you, just because a special interest group wants to run roughshod on you doesn't mean that everyone in your audience or stakeholder group wants to do the same. So if they say something about you, respond and defend yourself. Another strategy is just engaging with influencers. There's a special interest group, either well formed or an informal group, going against you. We'll get your influencers, get them in the mix, get them to stand up for you, get them to say something. Molly, are you telling me that I need to get a ringer to say things on my behalf? Yes, I am. If you have to pick up a phone, yes, absolutely. If you want to bring people in and encourage people to say things online, absolutely, you can do it. Don't force your employees to do that. But I mean, ideally is you want these allies to be organic, you want them to fight for you. Organically. And when they see an attack, they want to protect you. So you can start engaging with influencers in your industry. You know, start building relationships with them. They will want to jump in, leverage their influence, leverage their audience to spread positive, you know, messages about you. Then hopefully that will spread back. You know, sometimes when we're being attacked, we just kind of crouch and we just, you know, we want to prepare ourselves, you know, and take, to take the hit. Sometimes you have to stand up and take the hit and look in the distance for the people who will support you. There are plenty of people out there. You just need to find them. And when you find them, ask them for their support. And then, of course, a really important strategy is just being transparent and being authentic. Special interest groups are going to call you out for the things that you've done wrong. And chances are if there is a group there, you have done something wrong or something that you've done isn't maybe updated or you need to look at something a different way. The point is, it's not about right or wrong. It's about maybe fault, maybe it's about they have a point. Look, take the feedback. See if you do need to make some changes. I know people hate to capitulate to groups. Sometimes they refuse to give in, but sometimes I notice they give in too much because they think, oh, if we give in a little here, the group will go away. Many times that's not the case. The group isn't just about making change. The group is about making their change for themselves. They're not going to let go of that. There's nothing you can do or say to change it. They want what they want and they're not going to let anything get in the way of that unless it comes in the form of transparent, authentic information that happens to be truthful. So if you have this trust, or if you need to build it, you can do it with your audience by just establishing yourself as someone who is trustworthy and someone who is reliable. We have the information, you want the information, you come to me, I'm going to give you that information. Okay? But if you hide or if you don't say anything or you don't want to put out emails, you don't want to talk to your stakeholders, well, they're not going to listen to you the one time that you do decide to talk to them. So build that transparency. You know what? Beat them at their own game. Whatever they're doing to you, you can do it right back with your own information. Online attacks can Be devastating, not just for companies, but for people. It's hard to get hit. And I tell people in work all the time, like, I know it feels personal. You can't help but taking it personally. But remember, it's business. It's just business. Strip the hurt, strip the personal attack away. Think of it as a business. Go in it with a clear head. What is the easiest way to defend yourself against an attack is to tell the truth. What is the easiest way to make that truth amplify so more people see it and believe it is building a following. What is the best way to make an online mob retract and step back and stand down is if you build some other loyalty with that as well. And they know that other people are going to call them out. Now, in every episode, I include one indestructible PR tip. It's like an easy to remember takeaway to help you build that indestructible reputation. And it is this. And it goes back to that first line. Whether it's mine or FDR's, it all revolves around fear. The campaigns that are lost by special interest groups at the hands of a special interest group are the ones that are led in fear. We don't want to say anything. We don't want to do anything. I'm so worried about what these people think, that I can't do anything else. You become immobilized because of one special interest group. You don't want to fear them. Fear what happens if you don't do anything, if you don't tell your truth, if you don't speak up, the truth will always, always, always get you out. It will now. If that truth is a little blemished, if mistakes were made, if decisions are wrong, if decisions are dated, admit it. Just come right out and admit it. You're taking all the wind out of the sails. That is the quickest way to deflate that bully, to make the bully go away. That's how I did it. In my plan. I first told the client, don't be afraid of them. It's personal. Don't be afraid. Take the fear out. And then we made the adjustments and the changes of where they were being called out rightfully, because there are some parts of this campaign that was waged against them that had some accuracy to it, but not enough that it deserved what was happening to this company. And then I said, let's just take it to the people, take it to your stakeholders and tell them exactly what's going on. And that's what we did. And it was just another way of this person sticking up for themselves against bullies. And when you do it in the same place where they are, an amazing thing happens. It makes bullies reflect. Because bullies don't want to look like bullies. Bullies don't want to look like jerks. But if you start speaking the truth and you start talking about misrepresentation or, I don't know, what's another word for it, lies, the bullies will retreat. That's all for this week on the podcast. Thanks so much for listening. Bye for.