As reported on The Guardian here, Finsbury has found itself becoming part of the story – in this case, involving their involvement with mining firm Vedanta and land involving one of India’s most isolated tribes – the Dongria Kondh. Basically, a group of protestors from Survivor International turned up outside the Finsbury London office.
Now, the article is balanced and it’ll be interesting to see how it develops. No doubt Finsbury will be their usual excellent and professional operation, but here’s how I would have played this, once the protestors had turned up:
0) Pre-plan from the moment you know this is controversial.
1) See what happens, but have documents backing up the claims in The Guardian article ready. Realise that now the firm is involved in the story, it’s about the PR firm and the client.
2) Get a release out there, place it on the company blog and website, back this up with other documents and interviews with key client personnel. For PR press have someone ready with comment in text, audio and video. Be available for podcasts with key press.
3) Take control of the story. Don’t be seen to be reacting to the protest. Put out a statement on the facts and ensure it goes to all the social media outlets that Survival are using.
4) Move on, using a positive news element. Continue monitoring websites and press.
That way, the story is totally balanced and you are seen to be handling it. All of that can be done before a news cycle is complete. In fact, that should all be done for lunchtime if the protest happened at 9am.
And that’s just the basics of what firms should be doing in terms of PR in these web2.0 times.
(and yes, the same tips could be applied for a counter-offensive by Survival)
(anyone wondering why I don’t post the indepth tips – well, that’s what the dayjob and rates are for 🙂 )