Publicity is the uncontrolled news story that companies like or dislike depending on the type, if it’s good publicity, it reflects positively on the business but if it’s bad publicity it has the opposite effect.
Good publicity energizes and motivates the staff of the company to do more because they like being associated with a business that’s seen to be acting in a positive manner.
Good publicity also helps the business to attract new business partners for the same reason.
Bad publicity has the opposite effect, it can lead to employees becoming disheartened and cause them to look at events that have occurred with a different mindset. Stories that may have previously been ignored are now highlighted, and not in a good way.
Bad publicity can stop a business from getting new contracts from existing customers and stop attracting new business because of the negative aspects of bad publicity.
Ignoring bad publicity is never a good idea because the old adage of, “there’s never smoke without fire,” and “a lie will spread half way round the world before the truth walks across the road,” is true.
Confronting bad publicity head on is not going to be effective either; Mark Twain put it nicely when he coined the phrase, “do not argue with a fool because onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.”
The only way to confront bad publicity is to use good PR. This will refute bad publicity indirectly instead of directly. Of course, the reason behind the bad publicity should be investigated internally to determine if a process needs to be put in place to prevent bad publicity in the future.
The saying, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” can be true because it invariably highlights a weakness that may have not been fixed only for the bad publicity.
