How To Work With Clients Who Wont Change Web Sites

Planning an online reputation management campaign for an elite client often entails reviewing their online assets — including personal websites, corporate umbrella sites, and sub-brand sites.

Social Media Accounts are Important Assets

Every point of contact with the online world is a potential resource that can be leveraged to improve online reputations.

Even clients who only want to build reputations from the ground up – as in branding campaigns – may bring more to the process than they realize.

But it often happens that a reputation management specialist requests changes to websites that don’t happen. Client technical or development teams may have competing priorities. In some cases there may be internal reservations among team members, leading to delays in making changes.

Every reputation management campaign must be handled according to the needs of the client and available resources.

When the specialist learns that recommended or requested changes have not or won’t be made, they must change their strategies.

It’s a good idea to assume that your PR strategies won’t always be enacted as envisioned. A corporation’s legal department may restrict what can be said for any reason. A startup about to launch an IPO will go into a silent period, and executives may be forbidden to make certain kinds of public statements.

Here are several ways to think about how to anticipate potential roadblocks in the reputation management strategy:

The More Activity a Client Has, the More Complex Their Situation

Although this is especially true for large corporations, even a small business person who works in several industries may have a complicated schedule and conflicting business priorities.

When the reputation management specialist asks if the client has more than one line of business, more than one brand, or anything similar, attorneys and PR specialists often claim those other areas don’t have anything to do with the situation being addressed.

The desire to keep things separated may be based on solid reasoning, but those other activities can be leveraged to promote the client’s story. They can also be attacked by hostile entities who want to create as negative a situation as possible.

The reputation strategist should at least have an inventory of potential resources, strengths, and vulnerabilities.

The more aware of a client’s broader visibility and activity a reputation management campaign is the easier it is to coordinate plans with communications teams, PR agencies, advertising agencies, legal teams, and everyone who is involved in creating and promoting the client’s public image.

Waiting too long to bring up what else the client does compromises the effectiveness of a campaign when something new goes wrong.

The Reputation Strategist Is Always in a Reactive Mode

An ethical reputation management campaign works with verifiable facts.

That means the strategist must wait for the facts rather than make them.

Clients may have committed considerable resources to change their websites, adding new content, launching new brands, etc.

The reputation strategist often has no choice but to wait for these things to happen before incorporating them into a campaign. It’s best to decide in advance what needs to be changed in terms of social media profiles, website content, articles, links, and more when the client sites are updated.

Some clients may request that certain resources not be used in reputation management campaigns. While this decision is ultimately the client’s prerogative, a strategist may gently suggest bringing other assets into play over time.

It’s helpful to discuss the pros and cons of these ideas rather than to shut them down completely. Over time something may change that makes the inclusion of previously unavailable assets a more acceptable decision.

Even in campaigns where the strategist is given free rein to create content as needed, the content should be accurate, honest, and insightful. It’s only possible to create that kind of content for what the client has done. Disclosing new projects and products falls under the purview of marketing, corporate communications, and legal.

Planning an online reputation management campaign for an elite client often entails reviewing their online assets including personal websites, corporate umbrella sites, and sub-brand sites. Social media accounts are also important assets.

Every point of contact with the online world is a potential resource that can be leveraged to improve online reputations. Even clients who only want to build reputations from the ground up – as in branding campaigns – may bring more to the process than they realize.

But it often happens that a reputation management specialist requests changes to websites that don’t happen. Client technical or development teams may have competing priorities. In some cases there may be internal reservations among team members, leading to delays in making changes.

Every reputation management campaign must be handled according to the needs of the client and available resources. When the specialist learns that recommended or requested changes have not or won’t be made, they must change their strategies.

It’s a good idea to assume that your PR strategies won’t always be enacted as envisioned. A corporation’s legal department may restrict what can be said for any reason. A startup about to launch an IPO will go into a silent period, and executives may be forbidden to make certain kinds of public statements.

Here are several ways to think about how to anticipate potential roadblocks in the reputation management strategy:

Some Requested Changes May Only Be Tweaks

If the client is willing to leverage existing social media profiles and websites but doesn’t want to change them or cannot, then the strategist can go forward.

Things may be slightly more challenging but adding or modifying content on sites and profiles is only one tool in the arsenal. A creative strategy compensates for the lack of desired wording on a page.

When plan A isn’t available, plan B should be ready to roll. The fallback plan is less desirable because it may require more time to achieve goals.

But there may also be room for negotiation on the substance of the changes. A specific wording may not be acceptable while alternative wording may work.

The strategist and the asset managers should always look for new possibilities. Any refusal or inability to make requested changes is part of the normal process.

Adding Pages to a Website May Be Simpler Than Changing Pages

If a client’s reputation campaign prioritizes different queries from the main business model, the reputation campaign may work better with new content. Website developers and marketing specialists may be more flexible about adding new pages to websites.

Social media account managers may be in a better position to promote new content, which is easily published and requires less detailed work. Although the reputation management campaign may have to wait for approval of special social media content, the execution will be faster and far less complicated.

One question that must be answered is whether social media shares should combine the social media message with the reputation message. If there is hostile activity on social media the best solution may be to leverage other assets.

Reputation Strategists May Require Their Own Resources

Clients may restrict how much content reputation managers can create on their own websites and social media profiles. If the client is unable to leverage their own assets then the reputation manager must propose alternatives.

PR specialists and attorneys who facilitate these strategies should review what has been helpful in the past. Interviews, product or service reviews, biographies, and other types of content normally found on external websites may be good alternatives to client-owned assets.

Nonetheless, the conversation may have to return to the question of whether custom-made assets work better. Keep an open mind and look for ways to be flexible while laying down some guidelines.

It is best for attorneys and PR specialists to consider in advance what would be acceptable. By anticipating what the reputation specialist may ask for, the client’s representatives are in a better position to manage expectations on both sides of the discussion.

A Strategist May Suggest Media Engagement

Although no journalist wants to be labeled as biased, some media organizations have no interest in pursuing controversial stories. If there are neutral media who have an interest in reporting on client projects or activity, the reputation strategist may propose working with those organizations.

Who handles the relationship is determined by the contract but usually the reputation specialist only acts in an advisory capacity. It’s better for a client’s team to leverage their existing media relationships on their own terms than to introduce a new voice into the conversation.

On the other hand, if the strategist has existing relationships with other media contacts then an introduction can be arranged.

Publicists and reputation strategists can work together to create effective, vital messaging campaigns that meet the needs of both the client and media organizations.

Conclusion

Creativity is an important part of the reputation management process. The need to weigh risks against benefits should be part of the conversation rather than an obstacle to progress.

A reputation strategist may have a preferred way of doing things but when the situation demands alternative approaches it behooves everyone to keep an open mind and to think about what else can be brought to the campaign.

The more information a reputation management specialist has to work with, the easier it is to propose alternatives to modifying a client site. A campaign may require several phases of development and early lack of access to client resources is not necessarily a bad thing.

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