The perils of throwing stones in public.

One of the most common challenges facing professional communicators is how - and when - to respond to short-term criticism of our company or brand in the media.

Sometimes we face pressure from internal stakeholders that we need to provide an immediate – and highly public - response to negative coverage that we may be experiencing on a particular issue.

I believe there are three factors that communicators should consider before doing this.

Firstly, what is the genuine, long-term impact of the coverage to our business. Often times, this can be subconsciously inflated by internal stakeholders. In the cold light of day, it turns out that our house is not on fire, our world is not about to implode. This is a natural human response, supported by empirical evidence, caused by the fact that we seek more (and read more) of our own brand coverage than external stakeholders do. Again, a natural thing, but an "unconscious bias" that we should all be aware of and carefully factor into our decision-making.

Secondly, we need to consider the nature of our response, specifically whether we should execute a point-solution or a scale-solution. A point solution is engaging face-to-face, off-the-record with the specific journalist in a managed, controlled environment to explain our perspective; a scale solution is issuing a public response. With the latter, we will typically have less control over the subsequent coverage.

The third factor to consider is the media’s response to our public statement. This is called scenario planning i.e. thinking through how this “movie” will likely play out, sometimes in the full glare of the public eye. It’s a skill in itself and comes from a combination of knowledge, experience, insight and judgement. Responding publicly, rather than privately, can backfire as one global brand found out last year, when it took issue with some coverage it received in the FT.

So, in conclusion,

• As communicators, we – and our stakeholders - should never interpret silence as in-action. Sometimes silence is the logical outcome of very careful thought and consideration; and is, often times, our best option.
• And, in the words of Mark Twain, we should all think very carefully before picking a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.