Behind the black PR is a huge chain of interests consisting of pushers, gunners, and seamen.
Text | Chinese entrepreneur reporter Zhang Hong
Editing | Lin Wenlong
On the evening of June 20, Ma Huateng made a circle of friends and said, 'If not for this flaw, many people do not realize how rampant Black PR is. In the past two months there has been a sudden outbreak. The. '
This looks more like an article that opens the 'revision mode'. At the time of publishing, the commenter's comments were kept. The phrase in the parentheses was posted intact.
This article aimed at Tencent at the same time, but also brought it to the Communist Youth League Central Committee. 'The Communist Youth League will also be black with it. It's fat enough! Guess who is doing it?' Zhang Jun asked in his Weibo.
In Zhang Wei’s microblogging message posted on the same day, some netizens wrote a message pointing to today’s headline Zhang Yiming, and some netizens thought this might be a bitter play by Tencent’s self-directed and directed performances. @And Xie Ye Yu is commenting bluntly. Tencent madly attacked the headline recently. He thought that Tencent’s “hasty is too ugly” after the last vibrato advertising incident. And Zhang Jun also forwarded this Weibo at 18:27 that night, claiming that “do a good job, don’t delete it.” See how round you go.
"There was no black PR in the world, and companies went much further down the road. Naturally, there was also Black PR. 'A senior person who works in the financial industry for nearly 12 years of public relations work said.
Black PR, according to the definition provided by Baidu Encyclopedia, is actually a kind of internet marketing public relations company. This kind of company acts as a 'receiving people's money for disaster relief' and acts as a 'between websites and parties, individuals,' Hacker's role. And hidden behind it is a huge chain of interests consisting of pushers, gunners, and naval forces.
In recent years, many entrepreneurs openly attacked Black Public Relations. In December of last year, the drop was accused of infringing privacy. Qihoo 360 Chairman Zhou Hongyi’s official WeChat “Lao Zhoukai” publicly responded that the article misled the readers and confused the media. "Black PR" suspected. He said that since the media was suddenly updated 10 months after the suspension, it was instigated by others and secretly stated that 'this time it was hacked, it must have broken other people's money.'
Last month, Pinto said that he has continued to suffer from black PR since the beginning of this year, and he was finally reported to public security agencies for frauds, jumps, and hang-ups. He also offered a reward of 1 million yuan to assist him in the investigation of black PR.
Last week, Pinto was confronted with a large number of merchants to defend their rights. Both parties had a physical conflict once. On June 18th, the CEO of Pinto, Huang Wei, said in an interview with Sina Technology that there were hands behind the scenes and that he had obtained some evidence.
A member of the “Baidu Public Relations” told the “Chinese entrepreneurs” that the verbal battle between the beginning of this year and today’s headline, both of which refer to each other’s public relations, was deeply regrettable.
Ali, JD.com had also been 'suffering with grievances'. The public relations battle between the two companies has long been a long time. From JD.com, he reported that Ali had forced businesses to 'choose one for another'. He went to Alibaba senior executives for data statistics, and then went to last year. At the end of November, the two sides were deeply incarcerated at the Rashomon Gate. Jingdong said that he had never made a bad faith but was stigmatized for a long time. Ali, however, said that the defamation had been brought to justice.
The Internet giants have been making smoke all the time. For Yilan (a pseudonym) who has been engaged in public relations work for a fashion brand company for four years, too frequent mutual tearing is not normal. 'A few people will directly provoke incidents. Most of the time in the industry is in peace with each other. No matter what the status is, there is also something to be ventilated, so that the 'mutual interaction' between the two companies can be highly exposed at a guaranteed lower cost. 'She told this publication that brand and crisis public relations constitute the brand public relations. At the two main levels, most companies as a whole are more inclined to positively communicate brand and influence.
Yilan admits that when he first entered the public relations industry, he was very disgusted when his first encounter was hacked, and that the 'team's hard-hearted to do good, the reputation was directly affected, and there was a kind of impulse to find people's theory'. But over time, Gradually accepted. A number of respondents in the interview stated that 'it seems like a day without talking to you is a bit abnormal'. Some people even describe the status of people who work in the public relations industry. Their busyness depends on the status of another company’s public relations. .
Yilan said that the company she serves has had a lot of dark history. As a 'return', she has also had various cases of confrontation with competing products companies. She believes that 'black' behavior may not always be competitors. The result may be search or other inexplicable reasons. Some are not due to opponents but may be exploited by opponents to ferment.
An anonymous publicist told China Entrepreneur that in the four years, she shuttled between the luxury goods company and the Internet finance company. Relatively speaking, the traditional luxury goods industry was relatively orderly, and brand marketing did not go by itself. Black other home.
In December last year, Qin Wei, a black media reporter who could not tolerate the public relations campaign, made a noise in his circle of friends and called for the relevant departments to intervene. He conducted a special survey on the “black public relations, rumor, and sea forces” issues in the Internet company’s competition and made public the investigation results.
Black, black
The term “black PR”, with the rapid development of the Internet in China, is constantly brushing the sense of presence. At first, online marketers found that they could take advantage of marketing and stimulate public sentiment to bring about a lot of business. Subsequently, the means are constantly escalating and gradually intensifying. , 'Water Army' appeared.
How black?
In corporate competition, the use of business opponents to discredit 'black papers' has been one of the Internet chaos in recent years. More public relations practitioners will deal with negative news and send 'black papers' as daily. Ylang says , Some people on the Internet have specifically summed up some of the black public relations methods, such as using false information, various dark scenes, incitement to contradictions and other steps to engage in cross-competitors. The text slogan battle is only a relatively primitive means.
When it comes to direct contests on text kung-fu, the public is more familiar with the 'double 12' preheating in 2014, and the major e-commerce giants have shown up their text skills. They are 'really cheap from Taobao, or it is a dog' to Jingdong.' Reject fakes, not play tricks, and then go to Suning's 'real than the cats and dogs' province, Gome's 'real price is low, cats and dogs flash' and so on.
The above-mentioned senior members of the Internet financial circles introduced some common operating techniques, looking for some negative news, changing the time and place of the characters, putting on the names of competitors, and then sending a circle of manuscripts. Or naval forces will be negative to their opponents. The news zoomed in, or put their own problems on competing products. There are also companies staring at their peers' websites every day, paying attention to the timing of their competitors' mistakes, and actively looking for media reports.
In any industry, it seems that everyone has reached a consensus: to discredit others, it is also to pull themselves into the water. Therefore, in the public relations circle, 'If there is no certainty of winning, generally not dare to brazenly create a shit,' said Ylang.
It is worth noting that the 'military force' is common in the entertainment industry. Today, the competition between Internet companies is nothing new. There are a number of Internet companies who have been interviewed by the magazine and have been involved in assisting companies to promote relevant communication work. The staff all stated that the existence of 'water army' is the norm. This is a feature of current PR.
According to Yi Lan, the water army is also relatively easy to operate. For public opinion guidance, public relations companies will do control assessments, such as preparing dozens of messages, and if they encounter discordant voices, they will be able to delete and delete. The principle, if it can't be deleted, will make the highest praise and ensure that the large area is a nice sound. However, in order to ensure the brand's relative reality, the negative evaluation of the brand will be moderately retained.
Reliance on Black PR has begun to take shape
The frequent occurrences of mutual tearing, mutual framing, and other bridges are merely acting. 'Because the people or senior managers of the various companies’ marketing departments know that they are doing (referring to the 'mutual tearing' and 'mutual abuse' behavior). There is agitation'. The above unnamed person told "Chinese entrepreneur" that 'because everyone is in a circle and have a common WeChat group with common interests'.
According to industry sources, such prior communication has formed unspoken rules in many industries. If a company wants to take a leading position, it does not rely on a word of mouth to guarantee it. It also requires companies to weigh the relationship between different companies and users.
At the same time, routines that do not depend on PR have also begun to take shape in some industries.
The above-mentioned veteran said that many companies already have a complete monitoring system. Two years is enough to form a complete public relations team. When there are crisis public relations, there are standard and standard documents. For example, the spokesperson and data are the only ones, and there is consistency internally and externally. 'Even if the company’s CEO has all the expressions in public, which ones should be said, which ones cannot be said, it will begin to train and cultivate slowly.'
In many companies, they have also started to set up personnel who have continued to pay attention to public opinions and do briefings to monitor the situation within the company and its competitors, and not only rely on outside public relations companies. The former is responsible for briefings and programs, and the latter will be necessary. Provide creativity.
According to Ylang, the company she serves has set up a dedicated team within her company to study strategies of opponents and monitoring of public sentiments in a timely manner so that they can react in time to prevent problems from becoming smaller. Focus on whether anyone maliciously enlarges them and discredits them. Sometimes also ask the PR company for help.
Guardianship
It is undeniable that black people's public relations routines are in fact unfair competition. This unfair competition means is forming an industrial chain. A person familiar with the industry's black PR transactions revealed that the demand for the tear-off industry is now more. The price of the press release was as high as tens of thousands, and it was relatively expensive to write black papers. 'Now the Navy’s bombing is no longer a price of 5 cents. Now it's all 2'.
The employed naval forces are distributed throughout the country. You don't know who is opposite, where he (she) is. This is a sense of embarrassment brought about by the current navy. And one's strength is always limited. Most people are in the interview. They all expressed their desire to face each other’s competitors in an open manner, but everything must be based on facts.
In front of the facts, it seems that no one can tell you clearly who is right. As time goes by, some of the “black drafts” have been deleted and communicated, and some have left traces, but the two competing companies have gone from war to the end. No one has been able to tell who originally picked up. Yilan told “Chinese Entrepreneurs,” and later all kinds of mutual attacks also copied each other and used each other. 'They call each other black. PR'.
In the face of fission in the industry, Yilan, who has been immersed in the public relations industry for many years, has his own understanding. 'The role of public relations is not to fight against others, but to be right.' But she thinks black PR is a special means when the other party does not According to common sense cards, even breaking the lower limit, this is also a way to protect themselves. 'To tear, it is also fair and square to tear each other, it's normal to see each other, and Black PR is a very low practice. These weapons must have, But not necessary. '
And the public relations of the above-mentioned Internet finance companies believe that it is generally the case that the company has a public relations crisis and will choose black opponents. This is a means of choosing to shift the public’s line of sight. However, she is not personally admired, either personally or The main body of the company should focus on doing its own product.
An Internet observer told “Chinese Entrepreneur” that in the Internet age, 'the evil comes from the mouth'. To put an end to the rumors about your own company, individuals in the business should first take the interests of the company as their priority, do not spread rumors, and try their best to Colleagues in the company play a role of appeasement and lead. A customer's complaint or the like may cause minor rumors or negative news. The key point is to find this person, understand the situation, give solutions and eliminate the influence of public opinion.