Defend Your Brand Without Being A Jerk

Let’s say you’re a best-selling novelist whose latest novel didn’t get the critical praise you think it should have. You want to respond to your critics in the most effective, most visible way possible, so you use the Internet.

What do you do?

If you’re Alice Hoffman, you use Twitter to bash the reviewer , the paper the review appeared in and the paper’s readers, and even posted the critic’s email address and phone number online.

If you’re Brad Meltzer, you do this:

So, what do you do?  The answer is clearly the video.  At least I hope it is.  Meltzer is able to poke a bit of fun at himself and promote the book at the same time, while all Hoffman is doing is being nasty. Yes, it took a bit more time to put together, but lazy PR is very rarely the best kind. Remember that the next time you have to deal with your critics online.