Temporary workers cannot take the blame for Pinduoduo's public relations

On the first working day of 2021, Pinduoduo once again became a hot topic due to the sudden death of an employee.

The screenshots of workplace gossip platforms such as Maimai were quickly replaced by a screenshot of a Zhihu reply and went viral.

In this screenshot, Pinduoduo’s official account “responded” to the matter and mentioned “capital”.

Why is this screenshot so harmful to Pinduoduo?

First, this can be considered as the official attitude. Second, although this response did not actually say anything, the three key words together just reflect the company's value issues, namely "lower-class people" + "trading lives for money" + "capital issues."

This screenshot caused a sensation.

Around 4 p.m., Pinduoduo issued its own response statement through traditional media, citing two screenshots, one from the deceased's father's circle of friends, and the other from Zhihu's response, conveying two core messages: the employee's family had reached an understanding, and that screenshot was a rumor.

My first feeling after reading this statement was that Pinduoduo has grasped the crux of the problem - have the family members of the deceased forgiven? If the family members have forgiven and hope that the matter will be settled as soon as possible, there will be little need for the outside world to continue to follow up.

Of course, in terms of specific operations, netizens found out this detail problem in the screenshot of the circle of friends that was posted "2 minutes ago" and had the word "delete":

The word "delete" indicates that the screenshot was taken by the deceased's father himself; "2 minutes ago" indicates that the family took a screenshot after posting it on WeChat Moments, and then gave it to Pinduoduo, which is believed to be the case that the public relations department was in charge of this matter.

Pinduoduo employees’ comments on the workplace gossip website also indirectly “confirmed” the matter.

In fact, Pinduoduo said in its statement that this was the circle of friends of the deceased's family, and it had obtained the family's consent, but the sentence "2 minutes ago" did seem to make the people handling the matter seem a little too "anxious" to calm public opinion.

But from an operational perspective, 5 minutes? Half an hour? Is it better? Actually, there is no such way. The simplest way is to "beat the horse".

We often say that crisis public relations requires three perspectives: the corporate perspective is the most abundant, but what public relations lacks most is the media perspective and the public perspective.

This small detail once again exposes the problem of corporate public relations' lack of public perspective. Everyone is dealing with this matter with great tension, and it is easy to overlook the problems that may be exposed by the details. How to solve it? We should learn from Huawei, which has a blue army and a red army, and a PK process.

But these are not the core of this crisis.

Zhihu officially confirmed that Pinduoduo's official account did post the above remarks and then deleted them, which slapped Pinduoduo's denial statement in the face.

I think Zhihu has done what it should do as a platform. If you post something, it’s posted and you can’t lie. If it cooperates with Pinduoduo in "fraud", it will also damage its brand reputation.

Interestingly, Pinduoduo’s second statement was issued within one hour, and there was even a handwritten statement from a temporary worker.

Unlike the first statement, which deliberately downplayed the sadness and would rather write one word less than one word more, this statement is very complete, fully meeting the 5W elements of news, and there is also a handwritten copy to prove the authenticity of this "temporary worker".

The most crucial thing is that there are special details, such as adding the IMEI number of the device in the signature, because this number will be recorded in the account logged in to the backend of Zhihu and can be verified, thus proving that it was indeed done by a temporary worker.

In order to prove the existence of temporary workers, Pinduoduo’s public relations team has tried its best.

Excluding the complexity of responding to questions, the first statement was sent nearly 20 hours later, while the second statement was sent only 1 hour later.

Could it be that the second letter has already been written? I think this possibility exists.

So the question is, why didn’t they clearly state in the first statement that it was done by temporary workers? Are they afraid that the public will understand this as the government shifting the blame, so they take a risk and deny it first?

I never expected that people on Zhihu had a record...I failed to pass the buck and got slapped in the face instead.

Regardless of whether it was written by a temporary worker, the Zhihu reply must only represent the editor's personal thoughts. I believe the public has this common sense, and there is really no need to hide it.

Regarding Pinduoduo's crisis public relations this time, my intuitive feeling is that it is "not open". The official really hopes that the matter will be settled as soon as possible, and even the official Weibo was unwilling to issue a response statement (two statements were issued together 20 minutes ago), but it backfired and they issued an extra statement.

Hot events are most afraid of reversals. Once they are reversed, more people will discuss them, they will go beyond the circle and last longer.

The saddest thing is that after all the trouble, no one seems to care about the girl who died suddenly, which is in line with Pinduoduo’s original strategy.

But this is just the external environment.

I guess that the attention and even anger of Pinduoduo’s internal employees on this matter must have increased instead of decreased, because everyone not only saw a young colleague leave me, but also saw the company’s official public "lie". Under such a high-intensity "battle", what companies need to pay more attention to is the mentality of internal employees.

The uncle suggested that a high-level leader is needed at this time to clearly understand this matter and the problems it reflects and provide solutions.

Within a company, the public relations department should not be known for “deleting posts” and “lying”. The stronger this image is, the more inconsistent the inside and the outside are.

The temporary workers cannot take the blame for this.

Remember, the last time Huang Zheng rushed to face the media was during the counterfeit crisis in 2018.

The uncle feels that this crisis is no less serious than the last one.

Author: Uncle

Source: Uncle