PR 101

The online classified advertising service Craigslist has been in the news a lot lately. None of those stories are the kinds of clippings that will be posted on the company bulletin board as morale builders. Accusations that people are using Craigslist as a high tech brothel, stories of a murderer who found his victims via the service, and the latest story: a woman raped because her husband solicited the assault on Craigslist.

If there were ever a situation that cried for a proactive crisis communications strategy, this would be the one. Yet, I have yet to see any evidence that Craigslist has one. Rather, the company seems to be responding on an ad hoc basis. That’s not a good idea and in the long run, it could hurt the company.

As a note, I use Craigslist sometimes. It is a very handy site for finding all kinds of things. I like it.

That being said, the way Craigslist reacts to stories of people committing murders by placing ads on their site or scammers finding victims through the site, is in my opinion, just plain wrong. All it does is attract grand standing politicians who want to make a name for themselves. What it could do is eventually attract some bulldog of a trial lawyer who sees deep pockets. Yeah, that lawyer might eventually lose the case, but think of the negative publicity, and the money Craigslist will spend defending itself.

Now obviously any site that has over 50 million unique visitors each month is going to attract some strange people. No question about that. Remember, until 2008 pornographic sites dominated the Internet. It took social media usages to knock porn off of the mountaintop.

It’s not Craigslist’s fault these people show up at their doorstep. However, the San Francisco-based website could be a whole lot more proactive when that fringe element uses the website to pull off a crime.

‘What makes Craigslist susceptible to crime is the perceived anonymity of the site; Trench Reynolds told the North Carolina-based News & Observer. Reynolds runs CraigsCrimeList, a site dedicated to tracking crime believed to be spawned by Craigslist

Reynolds said the most common crime connected to Craigslist is fraud or scams, with robbery second. Rapes have been connected to Craigslist solicitations, he said.

Craigslist does cooperate with authorities when it is alerted that someone has used the service to commit a crime.

Craigslist is also just coming off a battle where were several state attorneys general forced the company the curtail its erotic ad section. I suspect it is feeling more than a little bruised and battered.

Still, I cringed when I read the following statement from Craigslist spokesperson Susan MacTavish Best in the Columbus Dispatch: “she questioned whether it is standard practice for reporters to call, for instance, General Motors every time someone is injured in connection with a GM vehicle.”

Well, yeah they do when it shown that some action by General Motors or another auto company contributed to the accident. Any company that manufactures a product can tell you that.

Making a statement like that is not the way to handle a crisis. For that’s what this is from Craigslist – a crisis. So, I think rather than react every time some idiot uses the service for criminal purposes, the service should come up with a plan to prevent such things from happening.

What would I do is:

• No anonymous ads, period. If you read this blog regularly, you know I worked for newspapers for over two decades. No one could ever place an anonymous ad in a newspaper. The paper might agree not to use a name, but it always knew everything about the person placing the ad: name, address, phone number, bank information, etc. True papers got fooled sometimes, but it was rare. All it takes right now to post on Craigslist and reply to ads is an e-mail address.
• No personals period. Leave those to the alternative press and the dating sites. It seems people placing personal ads commit a lot of the crimes. To me, Craigslist is on-line sales forum, not a lonely-hearts site.
• Develop someway to review the ads. According to Craigslist’s website, it has 28 employees. I cannot imagine another web company, say Google, running with only 28 employees. Yeah, I know the whole privacy argument and most times I agree with it. But, there has to be some way to screen for the wackos and the weirdoes. I cannot believe there isn’t a search algorithm that could flag potentially dangerous ads for review by a staff member.
• Have a much better response when something does happen. A flack such Best should never be making a comment about a company. And I say that as a flack myself. Good public relations should leave no fingerprints. Either CEO Jim Buckmaster or founder Craig Newmark should be doing the talking.
• As I wrote in an earlier blog about crisis communications, just saying “our heart goes out to the victim” isn’t enough. If I were Newmark or Buckmaster,  I would sent up a fund to pay for the bills of victim’s who were the victims of a criminal using Craigslist. I know Craiglist’s attorneys will argue that is essentially admitting liability. I don’t think it is, and besides, it protects the brand platform. Or make contributions to victim’s rights funds, or over rewards for catching people who use Craigslist to commit crimes. Do something to show some empathy.

Now, I want to know what you think. I struggled with this blog. I am usually a First Amendment absolutist. I think nothing should be censored. However, the marketplace doesn’t agree. Companies have gone out of business for less. So again, let me know what you think.

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My background: I worked as a reporter for 25 years in central Illinois, upstate New York, suburban Detroit and Milwaukee. I now help clients with marketing communications through my company – JJC Communications LLC. If you want to know more about my company, and myself, click the link. It’s a cliché, but it’s true for me: no job is too big, no job is too small. I have worked with companies on the Fortune 500 list and I have worked with companies that have one employee. The service I provide is the same for all.

Email me at jjcole54@gmail.com