How To Deal with Competitors Who Help Bad Press Circulate About Your Brand

Welcome to Q&A Monday, where I answer the social media crisis and online reputation management questions my fabulous readers have asked me!

Today’s question comes from Ashley. Ashley writes:

“How do you deal with competitors who “help” the bad news or negative press about your company be shared across the web?”

This is a great question that I get asked often.

Here’s my advice:

There are always going to be people, competitors included, who prefer to focus on the negative – and in my opinion, lending a hand to make sure that bad news gets spread about someone else, is focusing on the negative.

There are a couple different ways that this scenario can manifest. A competitor can:

1. Tweet or post some sort of bad press about you or your company from their business page, hoping for it to, at best, go viral
2. Tweet or post some sort of bad press about you or your company from their personal page, hoping for it to, at best, go viral
3. Create fake accounts, gain followers and do the same from that/those accounts
4. Pay others with a high influence and online popularity to do the same

It’s just what you want, isn’t it! For some bad press to circulate about your company or organization and for those apposing you in business to see an advantage in helping it circulate the web further.

Well, let me begin by saying that this is a frivolous attempt. Although it may circulate and it may even go viral, depending on the impact of the situation, social media is all about honesty, transparency and relationship building, and such an attempt to hurt someone else, competitor or not, is not, in many people’s opinion, an ethical trait. All this to say that this type of attempt is a low-blow and can easily end up hurting the company or individual attempting it.

Let’s take a look at the above scenarios and respond to each one:

1- A competitor tweets or posts some sort of bad press about you or your company from their business page, hoping for it to, at best, go viral
This is the most obvious attempt and can really backfire on the brand itself. However, if you find yourself in this type of situation, respond as if it were a member of the press and/or media:

• Acknowledge the situation on their page by responding to it in the right tone, and correct any “misinformations” that may exist
• Within this response, refer people back to the appropriate link on your channel for more detailed information on the subject
• Depending on their comment, the situation and if you deem it worth it, politely call a spade a spade and point out what they have to gain by exposing you in this way. However, be careful not to start a battle or dispute since this will only further hurt your own reputation

2- A competitor tweets or posts some sort of bad press about you or your company from their personal page, hoping for it to, at best, go viral
This type of scenario may be a little less obvious for their followers and fans to see the direct link between the two of you. However, the same rules apply as #1:

• Acknowledge what they’ve done
• Respond appropriately and honestly, linking others to correct and detailed information on your platform
• When appropriate, call them out

3- A competitor creates fake accounts, gains followers and shares your misfortune publicly from these accounts
When faced with this type of scenario, keep in mind the following two things:

1. It can be very difficult to prove that a competitor is behind this
2. This type of attempt takes a lot of effort on your competitor’s side

In this case, the same rules apply as above. However, unless you have direct proof that this is the conniving attempt of a competitor, refrain from public accusations. If you can’t completely prove your theory, you’re giving them the upper hand and you will come out looking like the one attempting to ruin their reputation.

4- A competitor pays others with a high influence and online popularity to post your misfortunes online
This as well is extremely difficult to prove. The same rules and responses apply as the above number 3:

• Respond politely
• Correct any untruths
• Link to your own pages containing information
• Do not call them out unless you have physical proof

There are two last pieces of advice I’d like to share with you:

1. These types of attempts always risk coming to light and always risk alienating a big portion of one’s  market, due to the unethical nature of these attempts. For this reason, I do not recommend attempting such frivolous behaviour. It is always best to focus on the positive in life and in business.
2. There is only one sure way that you will give yourself the opportunity to be aware of such scenarios taking place: Monitor! Monitor! Monitor!