Negative Public Relations Trends 2020

Negative Public Relations and crisis communications will rise as even more important strategic components for online reputation, as opposed to strategies of only ignoring-or-displacing of negative items online. Negative Public Relations has been a solid discipline since before the internet, of course, but companies and individuals are again recognizing its value now after many modern companies attempted to skate by without professional staff or external support for public communications. Many have tried a do-it-yourself approach to this, and most fail miserably when trying to position themselves and to respond to public relations crises. Responding with integrity and conveying genuine concern can make all the difference between rapid or eventual reputation recovery in the public’s consciousness, or continuing with a damaged and tarnished Google reputation that hampers one’s performance in nearly any arena.

As the internet became the go-to source for information about everything, one’s internet reputation became more important than ever. That trend has only increased over time, and one can declare 2020 as truly the moment when one’s internet reputation now outweighs nearly every other information source. As such, proactive Google reputation management is now vital, and a core piece of best practices for marketing — with a weak and vulnerable online reputation, one is a sitting duck for any crisis, any bad review, and any crank with an ax to grind. Financial analysts are paying more attention to Negative public relations, and will increasingly check out whether companies are making efforts to manage their identities online in order to proactively protect themselves from any negative event. Do we even need to mention that HR departments check one’s reputation online before making hiring decisions, and people look up individuals for social reasons as well — including for dating, as well as for other social interactions?

Here are some questions to ask as you define your goals for improving your online reputation:

1) Is the business receiving a healthy volume of online reviews? Are they stale or fresh?

2) What is the average star rating for the overall business? For individual locations?

3) How do we raise visibility in local search to attract customers?

4) How do we raise brand awareness at the local level?

5) Are all business listings associated with my organization up to date and accurate?

6) Do we actively capture feedback from customers through online reviews and surveys?

How can we capture and apply that feedback to optimize the customer experience?

7) Are we actively engaging buyers to build community on social media? What sites are our

customers using, and are we posting regularly to those sites?

8) Do I need help to synthesize and reporting on the data and text from reviews

and comments?

9) Would it make sense to outsource this, or can we manage it in-house?

Reputation Management is aimed to boost online visibility and drive visitors to a website by assisting the reputation of a business within search engines. It helps foster a debate by enhancing conversation and “influencing the influencer”. Online Reputation Management can be used either for increasing positive brand and keyword content is driven search results or dissipating negative content that appears within search engines through brand searches, keyword searches, or both.

We offer a complete managing of your online reputation and provide a wide range of services such as social monitoring, online PR, negative content filtering and removal, engagement, as well as social media content promotion. Our large network of media contacts allows us to know the time and place for everything that you create as a brand in the online world. This way, every opportunity is utilized and all content is created with a discernible target audience in mind.

We provide a Reputation Management report that captures the feedbacks related to your company, product or service that occurs on the Internet, we also segment the report in positive and negative press. It is important for tracking negative comments or reviews that appear on search engine result pages (SERPs) creating a negative reputation for your brand and could have a significant impact on your online sales and inquiries. Our team can run and manage the entire Reputation Management as we have all of the software and technologies necessary to collect the feeds are store them in our database.

What do you think was the biggest negative public relations crisis of 2019?

Varsity Blues because of its wide-ranging impact on individuals, institutions, and higher ed as a whole.
Two deadly plane crashes of Boeing 737s and the company’s resulting response, which was widely perceived as severely lacking. Boeing was too slow to act in the wake of the disasters, which allowed a perception to develop that the company was putting profits above passengers’ lives. Media coverage subsequently stretched on for months and included multiple exposés detailing the company’s pattern of shunning regulation in favor of improving its bottom line.
Nike did not have a great 2019. Starting off with the infamous shoe fail – basketball star Zion Williamson’s sneaker fell apart during one of the biggest games of the season causing an injury, propelled by social media acknowledgment from former President Obama. Then, the company, which tends to be socially progressive in its advertising and marketing strategy, decided to cut endorsement compensation during maternity leave for some of its athletes. Both incidents resulted in Nike boycotts, complaints and loss of revenue.
Among all the PR crises we saw this year, Prince Andrew’s disastrous, fascinating interview on his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein takes the crown

Fake News - an excellent tool in 2020 for negative public relations

Companies will need Greater Vigilance Against Fake News that leads to negative public relations.

Negative Communications professionals will take a more vigilant attitude toward fake news and other forms of misinformation. Two out of 10 communications professionals in the U.S and Canada say their organizations have been affected by fake news, some more than once.

Nearly 60% of the respondents call fake news, also sometimes called false news, a “serious threat,” yet few have systems or tools in place to spot or respond to fake news stories.

That will change next year. More businesses, nonprofits and other types of organizations will adopt policies, technical systems and processes to detect and manage fake news and misinformation. More Negative Online PR teams will use media monitoring services to monitor social media, online media outlets, and known fake news sites for mentions of their brands and products, and more will add fake news to their PR crisis management plans.

Deepfake Videos are the next tool to be used in 2020 for Negative Online Public Relations

Deepfake videos will pose new threats to corporate online reputations. Advances in video editing enable fraudsters, pranksters or criminals to create videos that portray people doing things they never did or saying words they never said. Free or low-cost video-editing tools for producing the fakes are now becoming widely available.

“If they’re so inclined, these mischief-makers could create a massive public relations nightmare for brands,”

“People are currently talking about deepfakes within a political context but the business landscape isn’t immune.”

Although results are not guaranteed, social media platforms and technology companies will try to develop tools to detect deepfakes, and lawmakers and regulators will consider solutions. Prudent organizations will monitor all media and devise plans to respond to deepfakes.

“As professional communicators, we also have the responsibility to protect the organizations and executives we serve from the potential risks associated with deepfakes—and any fake news, for that matter—or at the very least be better prepared to quickly respond to it,”