The case of the stolen necklace: what Urban Outfitters should have done in a crisis

My good friend and social media consulting colleague, Amber Karnes, was checking her Facebook feeds yesterday morning when she came across a Tumblr post by an independent jewelry artist who claimed Urban Outfitters stole her designs. The artist, Stevie Keorner, made a very compelling case. Outraged, Amber simply tweeted a link to the blog post:

Her tweet instantly received hundreds of retweets. Hours later, blogs like the Huffington Post and Boing Boing were reporting the news and celebrities like Miley Cyrus were bashing Urban Outfitters on Twitter. Urban Outfitters became an international trending topic on Twitter, and Amber's tweet was the top tweet about the topic! Amber wrote about how the entire sequence of events unfolded and how this story went viral, including her own PR perspective. It's definitely worth the read to see how someone with only about 1,000 twitter followers can create quite a stir for a large corporation: Anatomy of a trending topic: How Twitter & the crafting community put the smackdown on Urban Outfitters. 

Working in PR, the interesting part in all of this is that Urban Outfitters has done nothing substantial to respond. Within hours of Twitter breaking the news, the company sent one tweet relevant to the topic:

Beyond that, there has been no public response to this crisis. It appears Urban Outfitters removed the product from its stores (online and offline), but the company has not made any public announcements. This lack of response when their brand is virally getting slammed by people supporting a boycott is baffling. If I were consulting Urban Outfitters, here are some recommendations I would have given them:

1. Engage the influencers. There are several people, such as Amber, who were directly involved in spreading this story to the masses. These influencers should have been contacted immediately--via Twitter, via e-mail, via phone--to assure them their voices are important to the company and that Urban Outfitters cares and is looking into the matter.

2. Apologize. When a company does wrong, it's crucial to apologize and take responsibility. In the age of social media, this has to happen FAST. Every organization should have a playbook for handling crisis responses so it can react with timeliness to a crisis erupting virally online. Granted there are probably legal implications to be considered when announcing an apology, but the legal department should not keep the PR department from doing what's right. Urban Outfitters should publicly apologize for the gaff and explain the company has taken the products off the shelf while it continues to look further into the allegations. Using the company's website, Facebook, Twitter and blogger relations, Urban Outfitters should explain this gaff and explain how they are making it right.

3. Make it right. First off, you have to attack this problem at the source. That means looking internally at the organization and determining, "how did this happen?" What in Urban Outfitter's corporate culture allowed for this kind of bad corporate behavior? Urban Outfitters should be putting the appropriate measures in place internally to ensure this practice of stealing ideas from independent artists discontinues immediately. Perhaps even, heads should hit the chopping block.

Externally, a lot more goes into making it right publicly. Sometimes, you have to pay the Pied Piper. Urban Outfitters should come to an agreement with the designer they ripped off and should be investigating other instances within the company where this has happened (this is not the only allegation). Settling with these designers may involve the legal process, but it's PR's responsibility to get the message out that Urban Outfitters is committed to supporting independent designers and is actively working to resolve this problem.

4. Create goodwill. Urban Outfitters has outraged its customers, who value indie design and artistic expression. It's going to take a lot of work to repair that reputation damage. Urban Outfitters needs to launch a campaign celebrating independent designers. Perhaps they need a new product line where the designers are showcased and receive credit (similar to how Tiffany celebrates their designers, such as Paloma Picasso and Elsa Peretti). Beyond that, Urban Outfitters needs a longterm strategy for engaging the crafters and designers online who launched this attack on its brand. The damage is repairable if Urban Outfitters is willing to do the right thing.

While the delayed response to this crisis has already occurred, I still think Urban Outfitters could make this right. I hope they do because I used to love shopping there. 

What do you think? Was one tweet from Urban Outfitters enough to weather the social media storm? What would you have recommended if you were on their PR team? And if you, too, support this boycott, did the company do enough to win you back? What would have to happen to make you shop at Urban Outfitters again?

Tips for responding to a negative blog post

Is all publicity good publicity when it comes to social media? Well if your goal is simply to generate buzz for your brand, certainly any attention from blogs could be considered good publicity. However, in public relations, the goal is to communicate accurate information and manage reputation. So if you discover a negative blog post about your organization, you might want to take action.

This assumes that you have already taken the first very big step in social media PR, which is monitoring the blogosphere. Half the battle is simply being aware of what's being said about you. From there, every situation will be different. However, here are some general tips when considering your response.

Do you even want to respond? The first option of response in any public relations problem is to do nothing. Obviously many times, this is not the best approach. However, consider the audience of the blog in question. Do you need to engage with this audience or will posting a response just give a blog with little credibility unnecessary attention and validation? If you decide to respond, time is of the essence. The Internet news cycle moves very quickly. Depending on the blog, you may have days or even hours before the post you need to address is archived news.

How do you respond? If you decide you do need to engage with the blogger and his/her readers, your plan of action should depend on if the blog post contains erroneous information or simply casts your organization in a negative light. In the former instance, clearing up the misinformation should be your primary goal. Post a respectful response in the blog comments explaining what was misstated and provide evidence to back up your claim. If the blog comments are not open, e-mail the blogger with the information. Do not ask the blogger to take specific action (e.g., take down the post, correct the post), simply explain that the information posted is defamatory and provide information to correct the misstatements. If the blogger does nothing to rectify the defamatory statement, you may want to consider the long-term resolution of legal action. However, in the short-term, do not threaten the blogger with legal action.

If the negative information is true, take a similar approach that you would to traditional media in formulating a message for response. Create a message that respectfully acknowledges what the blogger wrote and thank them for covering your organization. Consider offering an apology (if necessary) and point out everything positive your organization is doing to remedy the situation. Post your response in the comments section (or e-mail the blogger if comments are closed) and continue to monitor the conversation and participate as needed.

In all cases, a non-confrontational, professional approach is your best bet when relating to bloggers.

Who should respond? Some of the big PR firms who provide blog monitoring offer the full-service solution of responding to blogs on your behalf. I do not recommend this approach. If you have a PR agency, use it to monitor blogs and help formulate your message, but be sure an internal spokesperson actually posts the response and engages in the conversation. Social media is all about genuine, transparent participation in the community.