三招修复受损声誉

    可以肯定，美国在线公司（AOL）首席执行官蒂姆•阿姆斯特朗对因救助“不幸婴儿”而花费上百万美元一事的高论不胫而走之后，由此造成的喧哗与骚动同样也会让各家公司的高管们脊背发凉。

    公关公司Maslansky & Partners的老板迈克尔•马兰斯基说：“它再次证明，根本没有什么‘天知地知，你知我知’这回事。现在你说的每一个字，地球人全都会知道。”

    马兰斯基称，看来阿姆斯特朗不仅在与美国在线员工召开那场电话会议时忽略了这一点——这个会议现在已经成了一个臭名昭著的会议，而且随后又犯了两个错。这两个错可能和第一个一样，危害不浅。第一个错误是，匆忙重启了季度401（k）匹配计划，致使阿姆斯特朗“显得弱势”。这是马兰斯基的评论。然后，“对公司来说，他立场大逆转。这个做法代价高昂，却又毫无成效。” 马兰斯基预计，阿姆斯特朗明年还会来这么一次裁员行动，“而员工依然准备不足，”因此到时候还是会一片哗然。

    马兰斯基曾是知名律所Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz（纽约著名律所，以并购见长，被称为“华尔街的发动机”——译注）的公司律师，主要为宝洁公司（Procter & Gamble）、联邦快递公司（FedEx）、麦当劳公司（McDonald's）、百事公司（PepsiCo）以及其他许多大公司的高管们出谋划策，就如何避免以及有效应对公关危机提供建议。当然，蒂姆•阿姆斯特朗并不是第一个因为出言不慎而栽在自己嘴上的高管，也不会是最后一个。如何将公关危机造成的危害降低到最小？马兰斯基就这个问题为首席执行官和其他高管提供了如下三条建议。

    1. 尽早使用社交媒体，别等火烧眉毛才用。马兰斯基评论说：“换做十年前，阿姆斯特朗的这番高论也就会成为办公室闲聊的谈资，不会有什么下文。但现在拜互联网所赐，不管什么错误都会被广而告之。”他进一步补充道：“公众的怀疑态度意味着现在所有跟大企业沾边的事都是可疑的，公众就是想看它们出丑，”而这显然只会给高管们帮倒忙。

    最好的解决办法是：在真正需要之前就要打造强大的网上形象，即：能让贵公司（及高管本人）人性化的形象。比如，Twitter的忠实粉丝们可能就会愿意让你享受无罪推定的待遇。马兰斯基称：“要习惯在网上表达自己的理念。阿姆斯特朗当时本来应该马上就上Twitter，不仅要就抚养‘不幸婴儿’一事道歉，还应回到医保成本高企这一话题上，这才是他的出发点。”在他看来，连发五条措辞巧妙的Twitter消息就能让这次谈话重回正轨。

    2. 不要回避争议。 “首席执行官和公司总想让错误尽快过去，把它们甩在身后，所以他们会保持沉默，”马兰斯基说。“但如果采取相反的做法，直接介入，参与舆论，反而会让热议的温度有所下降。”

    美国的银行巨头们给出了一个眼前活生生的例子。马兰斯基指出，他公司近期开展的一项调研表明，只有5%的美国民众了解银行业已经连本带利还掉了他们2008年从联邦政府的“问题资产救助计划”（TARP）中借来的钱。

    马兰斯基称：“这意味着95%的民众还认为银行业‘欠’他们这笔救助资金。”他认为，这些大银行首先需要很好地公布TARP债务的情况，其次，向民众解释金融危机以来他们为了防范类似危机所做的改变。“过去这几年银行的财务表现很不错，但他们太少言寡语了”——而这种沉默只会让公众感到愤怒，产生不信任。

    3. 接受现实，任何事情都不会自动平息。马兰斯基说：“首席执行官和大公司通常都属于非常保守的群体，而且他们担心自己不管说了什么——尤其是在社交媒体上——都会让他们更显得保守。所以他们干脆就保持低调，希望争议能够自己平息下去。”不过，这种风波绝不会这么容易过去。深陷危机的公司需要“表明自己站了出来，正在倾听人们的意见，同时作出回应，”马兰斯基说。英国石油公司（BP）在造成了史上最大规模的石油泄漏事件（随后，时任首席执行官的托尼•海沃德宣布辞职）后的几年里，一直在广泛宣传自己开展的清理行动，同时继续坚持在墨西哥湾作业。这是一个处理公关危机的绝佳例子。

    现在，和批评自己的人打交道，同时让大家了解自己的观点，“比以前更困难了”，马兰斯基补充说。“你说了什么并不重要，重要的是你的听众听到了什么。”就像蒂姆•阿姆斯特朗这次吃了一番苦头才懂得的，这是完全不同的两码事。（财富中文网）

    译者：清远

    It's a safe bet that when AOL chief Tim Armstrong's comment about the million-dollar price tag for saving "distressed babies" went viral, the resulting sound and fury sent a shiver through C-suites everywhere.

    "This really proves that there is no such thing as talking to just one audience anymore," says Michael Maslansky, head of communications firm Maslansky & Partners. "Everything you say is public now."

    Not only did Armstrong seem to overlook that fact during his now-infamous conference call with AOL (AOL) employees, but he then proceeded to make two other mistakes, Maslansky says, that could turn out to be just as damaging as the first one.

    First, hastily restoring quarterly 401(k) matching made Armstrong "look weak," Maslansky notes. Then too, "his about-face was expensive for the company and accomplished nothing." Maslansky predicts that Armstrong will have to make the same cutbacks next year, "and employees will not be ready," so the uproar will be just as loud.

    A former corporate lawyer at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Maslansky advises the top brass at Procter & Gamble (PG), FedEx (FDX), McDonald's (MCD), PepsiCo (PEP), and many other big companies on how to avoid, or survive, public relations debacles. Tim Armstrong isn't the first executive to get his foot stuck firmly in his mouth, of course, and he won't be the last. Maslansky suggests three ways for CEOs and other executives to minimize the damage.

    1. Engage with social media before you're forced to."Ten years ago, Armstrong's comment would have been water cooler chat, period. But thanks to the Internet, every screw-up gets broadcast," notes Maslansky. It doesn't help, he adds, that "public skepticism means that everything about Big Business is suspect now. The public expects the worst."

    The best antidote to that: Build a strong online presence, one that humanizes your company (and yourself), before you need it. Loyal Twitter followers, for instance, may be willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. "Get comfortable communicating your ideas online," Maslansky says. "Armstrong should have started tweeting immediately, apologizing for bringing up 'distressed babies' but also putting the focus back on soaring health care costs, which was his original point." Maslansky thinks a series of five well-worded tweets would have helped get the conversation back on track.

    2. Don't hide from controversy."CEOs, and companies, tend to want to get past a mistake as soon as possible and put it behind them, so they stop talking," Maslansky observes. "But if you do the opposite by wading in and participating, it tends to lower the temperature of the discussion."

    One current case in point: the biggest U.S. banks. Maslansky points to a recent survey by his firm showing that only 5% of the American public knows the banking industry has repaid, with interest, every nickel of the TARP money they borrowed from the federal government in 2008.

    "That means 95% of the public still believes the banking industry 'owes' them that bailout money," notes Maslansky. He thinks the big banks need to do a far better job of, first, getting the word out about the TARP debt and, second, explaining the changes since the Crash, aimed at preventing another one. "Banks have done well financially in the past couple of years, but they've been way too quiet" -- and that silence has fed public anger and distrust.

    3. Accept the fact that nothing goes away by itself."CEOs and big companies tend to be a very conservative group, and they worry that anything they say -- especially on social media -- will make them look even more conservative," Maslansky says. "So they hunker down and hope the controversy will just go away."

    The bad news: It won't. A company with a crisis on its hands needs to "show that you're out there listening to people and responding," Maslansky says. BP's (BP) well-publicized cleanup and continuing presence in the Gulf of Mexico, years after the biggest oil spill in history (and then-CEO Tony Hayward's resignation), is one example of how to do it right.

    Engaging with your critics and getting your point of view out there is "harder than it used to be," Maslansky adds. "It's not what you say that matters. It's what your audience hears." As Tim Armstrong found out the hard way, those can be quite different things.