Keeping tabs on what people say …

Last weekend, a famous athlete was involved in a car accident that has many weird aspects. While all that ultimately matters is whether he or anyone else was seriously injured, the media has been buzzing about the lack of solid information about why he was out in the middle of the night, how he happened to hit the tree/hydrant/whatever and how the athlete came to be found, lying next to the car.

While the human being who is the athlete owes no one an explanation (perhaps excepting the police), the brand has to do some damage control.

No matter how intrusive, annoying, ridiculous or outrageous, hoping the comments go away simply won’t work. Not responding at all simply fuels the situation and allows people to come up with their own explanations, which are far too likely to be worse than the truth, no matter how ridiculous or embarrassing it may be. It is true that people will ultimately forget but in the interim the brand will suffer, key relationships with customers (or, in the athlete’s case, sponsors) may degrade and it will take serious work to get back to the original level.

So avoid this before it starts. Listen to what is being said about you, Google your brand, participate where appropriate. Do what you can to short-circuit the speculation — having customers guess what’s wrong won’t do you any good.