Set acceptance criteria for handling online criticism before work begins rather than after.
Designing Strategies for Handling Public Criticism Online
Move handling online criticism from general awareness to a repeatable, reviewable practice.
📍 Tunis🗓️ 5 training days📚 4 modules🎓 Accredited certificate
5intensive training days
4scientific modules
8training sessions
32detailed points
Course Overview
The first version of a story about handling online criticism tends to become the reference version. Journalists covering the wider communications and media practice agenda are working to a deadline you do not control. The difficulty is not agreeing that the practice within communications and media practice matters — it is deciding what to stop doing to make room for it. The professional literature on handling online criticism converges on a small set of controls that reliably work. Work is grounded in real cases drawn from this part of communications and media practice, which each participant adapts to conditions in their own organisation. The programme suits teams tackling this area of communications and media practice together as readily as individuals attending alone. Participants gain a clear basis for measuring what handling online criticism has actually achieved. The programme converts this part of communications and media practice from an area of general awareness into a set of repeatable practices. It closes by agreeing the smallest change to the wider communications and media practice agenda that would make a visible difference.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Handle the trade-offs in handling online criticism between speed, cost and assurance explicitly rather than implicitly.
Protect the personal reputation of leaders associated with handling online criticism.
Select indicators that show whether handling online criticism is improving, and reject those that only look useful.
Define the key messages for handling online criticism and hold to them under pressure.
Build relationships with media covering handling online criticism before you need them.
Design the crisis response plan for handling online criticism with named roles and pre-agreed authority.
Who Should Attend
Agency and consultancy advisers supporting clients on handling online criticism.
Marketing staff coordinating with communications on handling online criticism.
Spokespeople and executives who speak publicly about handling online criticism.
Members of committees that take decisions affecting handling online criticism.
Government relations and public affairs officers covering handling online criticism.
Planning staff whose forecasts and budgets are affected by handling online criticism.
Course Modules
Handling online criticism: materials a journalist can actually use
2 sessions · 8 pointsSession 1Coordinating handling online criticism across markets and languages
- Set the response time target for enquiries about handling online criticism.
- Plan the recovery sequence after a reputational event involving handling online criticism.
- Record the rationale for each significant choice made about handling online criticism.
- Establish what evidence demonstrates handling online criticism is under control.
Session 2Closing out handling online criticism and capturing what was learned
- Agree what will be standardised in handling online criticism and what will not.
- Identify where judgement in handling online criticism is legitimate and where it is not.
- Define the trigger that would require handling online criticism to be redesigned.
- Prepare the holding statement for handling online criticism in advance.
Handling online criticism: crisis preparation, roles and authority
2 sessions · 8 pointsSession 1Correcting a false story about handling online criticism without amplifying it
- Build the competence framework that supports handling online criticism.
- Draft materials on handling online criticism that need no rewriting to be published.
- Check communication on handling online criticism against legal and regulatory constraint.
- Anticipate the objections handling online criticism will raise and prepare the answers.
Session 2Rebuilding trust after handling online criticism
- Review whether coverage of handling online criticism changed anything that matters.
- Build a stakeholder map for handling online criticism and the message each needs.
- Define what success in communicating handling online criticism looks like, numerically.
- Archive every statement issued on handling online criticism with date and approver.
Handling online criticism: media relations and the working journalist
2 sessions · 8 pointsSession 1Who answers for handling online criticism, and to whom
- Name the crisis roles for handling online criticism and confirm authority to speak.
- Draft the minimum viable communications plan for handling online criticism.
- Decide in advance when to correct misinformation about handling online criticism and when not to.
- Localise messaging on handling online criticism without fragmenting it.
Session 2Building media relationships on handling online criticism before you need them
- Prepare the acknowledgement for handling online criticism that does not evade responsibility.
- Confirm that those complying with handling online criticism understand why it exists.
- Rank the weaknesses in handling online criticism by consequence rather than by ease of fixing.
- Agree the indicators that will show whether handling online criticism is improving.
Handling online criticism: monitoring, sentiment and early warning
2 sessions · 8 pointsSession 1Writing on handling online criticism so a journalist can publish it
- Prepare the response for the most likely failure in handling online criticism.
- Write the three key messages on handling online criticism and test them against hard questions.
- Debrief after each significant episode involving handling online criticism.
- Agree who signs off statements on handling online criticism outside working hours.
Session 2Comparing handling online criticism with recognised practice
- Record what was learned when handling online criticism did not go as planned.
- Review whether handling online criticism is aligned with the objectives of the communications function.
- Check that records of handling online criticism answer the questions likely to be asked.
- Reduce the variation in how handling online criticism is carried out between teams.
Choose the package that suits you
Silver Package
At least 3 people
USD1,250
- Workshop or Program Participation
- Airport Transfers
- Customized Badge
- Expert Mentorship (Private Sessions)
- Supervision & Secretarial Services
- Accredited Certificate of Participation
- Complete Training Kit
- Coffee Break
- Closing Ceremony
Gold Package
At least 3 people
USD1,850
- 5-night stay in a 5-star hotel
- Workshop or Program Participation
- Airport Transfers
- Customized Badge
- Expert Mentorship (Private Sessions)
- Supervision & Secretarial Services
- Accredited Certificate of Participation
- Complete Training Kit
- Coffee Break
- Closing Ceremony
Complete your registration
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