The term fake news, or #fakenews, has become ubiquitous.That ubiquity has brought increasing concern by corporate executives that their brand may someday become a target.
News articles on several sites in mid-November 2016 reported PepsiCoCEO Indra Nooyi urged supporters of then-newly elected President Donald Trump to “take their business elsewhere.” The stories mentioned that Trump supporters were calling for a boycott of PepsiCo products.
The problem is Nooyi never uttered that quote and the call for a boycott was fabricated, too. Nooyi actually congratulated the president-elect on his win, although in an interfview with the NY Times she mentioned how the campaign’s vindicative tone was upsetting. Regardless, PepsiCo’s stock fell 5.5% that month. Pepsi is not alone; fake or false news touched brands like New Balance, Facebook and even the Pope.
It’s clear brands must have a plan to combat a fake news attack. This plan should be, at least, four-fold and encompass digital media, PR, influencer marketing and social media—employees in each discipline should be ready to engage at a moment’s notice.
The faster a brand can combat the fake news, the better the results will be for mitigating its impact.
Detect: Find the News Before the Rest
The first step in a brand plan for fake news is to find the news before your competitors or others can spin it. This means you needto have an always-on monitoring approach for mentions of your brand. This approach should include:
- Software that is constantly monitoring for brand mentions. A simple tool is GoogleAlerts. Other tools for this task include IFTTT (for advanced monitoring) or TalkWalker.An influencer network that is working on your behalf constantly. You’ll want to retain influencer talent that monitors media outlets, blogs and social media channels for your brand name. When an influencer finds something that seems inflammatory or otherwise harmful to your brand, the influencer should have a process to flag the content to a team that monitors for such an attack.
- Social media page monitoring that works continuously, 24/7, and flags a relevant manager when a piece of false, unsubstantiated or otherwise unknown piece of news content arises.
Direct: Respond as Quickly as Possible
Once someone has flagged a piece of content as particularly malicious or damaging, a brand will want to substantiate the claim. To substantiate, review the link. Determine if it has been picked up on more websites, shared or otherwise seems to be gaining traction. At this point, the social media, digital marketing and PR teams should meet to discuss the potential response pattern. Once the decision to respond has been made, a brand should:
- Post responses across all relevant social networks and owned channels, sharing that the information is false.
- Reach out to local and national media to refute the claims.
- Engage deeply with influencers to share that the information is false, thank those who flagged it and prepare a statement or request for influencers who wish to help
Deflect: Grow Your Voices
Once a brand has responded to the fake news, it must then amplify the response in a counterattack. This means pulling all possible levers to share the truth. At this point, you don’t need to mention or reference the fake news but you want to share information that would make the fake news look even more fake. To do this:
- Position digital advertising spend to pro- mote your social media post.
- Consider the use of advertisements on social and web properties to offset the news cycle.
- Activate your army of social media influencers. If a brand has used fake news and trolls to spread news, you similarly can use your cadre of social media influencers to combat the other brand or organization’s news. It is important, however, that these are influencers you have spent time with, have confidence in and developed loyalty with. They should be the same influencers you employ to monitor for your brand. These influencers then help you suck the air out of the fire of fake news—they post your positive news spin, call out those who shared the story, engage in a dialogue and point interested people to your official statement.
Using the above approach of detect, direct and deflect will position brands well in the event of a fake news attack. The most important thing to remember is to share the truth in a way that reduces the ability for the fake news to breath. Your messaging must be simple, straightforward, and easy to share.
Note:Fake news is deliberately fabricated information made up with the intent of changing public opinion regarding a specific target. False news is news that started with a kernel of truth and, like happens in the children’s game of Telephone, became twisted after numerous retellings across various media platforms. It is less malicious than fake news, but not less impactful.
CONTACT: @KristinaLibby