Stephan Spencer has taken a look at the Kryptonite-Bic pen debacle a few months down the line—Aftermath of the Kryptonite Blogstorm @ Stephan Spencer's Scatterings.  The fact that Kryptonite's corporate site isn't high on Google search results and the majority of site are anti-Kryptonite pages months later should serve as a warning to all of us.  Getting blogstormed can  be a major PR nightmare, I think having good relationships with bloggers and close monitoring of your brand (and people associated with your brand) is absolutely critical.

 

Unfortunately I think it's too late for Kryptonite.  They are frankly, toast.  I'm thinking of getting a bike, would I even consider buying one of their locks?  No way.  I have to honestly ask, how could that have not known about the Bic pen trick?  Those locks have been on the market for years!  Either their product testers absolutely suck at their jobs or they've been hiding something.  I'm guessing the latter.

 

Returning to the subject of blogstorming and such ... The first step in making sure you are using PubSub, Feedster, Technorati, BlogPulse, IceRocket (and soon to be BlogScour) to track your brand, your URL, and key people associated with your company (we're pretty lucky @ Qumana, we all have pretty unique names).  I have these "ego" or "brand knowledge" feeds at the top of my aggregator.  I read them first.  Religiously.  Sure checking out my favourite Flickr feeds and my friends' posts is important, but sometimes the job has to come first.

 

Second part of preventing a PR conflagration or firestorm is to have existing relationships with the key bloggers in your topic or niche vertical.  Yes, Scoble is tremendously influential, so is Steve Rubel, but they might not be perfect for your industry.  Would I turn to them in the midst of a firestorm?  You bet.  I know and like them both and they blog about my vertical.  For other industries, pharma for example, they might not be your best choice.  I'd suggest John Mack or, well, me as two folks to contact.

 

So just how do you work with this sometimes fickle bunch of writers called bloggers?  Carefully.  Don't expect anyone to accept your corporate line unchallenged.  Frankly, don't even both giving bloggers your corporate line.  I'd start with commenting on the key posts in the storm.  The ones that keep coming up in searches and that other people are linking to the most.  Leave your real name, e-mail, and URL.  Be honest and truthful, and invite more feedback (yeah it might hurt, but it's important).  Then start privately e-mailing blog owners.  Don't ask right away for them to post your side of the story.  Work up to it.  Start a conversation.  We're not stupid, we know why you're contacting us (frankly I'm always flattered when this happens).  It's like being on a first date with someone and before you've even started out the date saying "hey, let's skip dinner and just jump in the sack ..." not cool.  What are bloggers looking for?  The inside story, the scoop.  Offer to do an interview.  Even a podcast.  Bloggers are all about relationships and social networking.  So work on building a good rapport with bloggers.  It takes time, but in the end they can be the best folks to help you out of a jam.

 

And if you're still a skeptic ... just think about Kryptonite.

 

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