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Embattled BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM) has been fighting to regain credibility after critics branded its communications slow and conflicting in response to network service outages.

RIM initially sought to assuage some of the concerns via its Twitter account, but with limited success. BlackBerry has consistently trended on Twitter as users have sought answers and threatened to bin their devices.

Tim Johns,  partner at research and consultancy firm Change Agency, thinks the company missed a communications opportunity. 'They didn't come clean quickly enough when something was wrong, they didn't say what the issues were and they said it was fixed when it wasn't,' he said.

'You need a multiple channel communications approach, the company focused too much on Twitter initially and a lot of BlackBerry users couldn't access Twitter during the problems.'

Sam Philips, managing director of Glide Technologies, also noted the inconsistent messaging. 'At one point the company's chief information officer was quoted as saying that he thought the company knew what the problem was. That kind of language does not reassure users,' he said.  'And the statements on social media read too much like an official statement. In these situations it works well to listen more to customers and less to lawyers, as customers will ultimately keep you in business.'

Johns also criticised the language used by the company. 'The messages were in jargon as if the company was talking to technology experts as opposed to customers. For example, the use of the word 'failover' in company statements. Consumers are left asking What is a failover?'

Johns noted that BlackBerry was belatedly revising its approach. 'Now the company is starting to turn it around by using video interviews that show a human face to the crisis,' he said.

At a press conference held today the company's co-CEO Mike Lazaridis used more inclusive language to try and win over the critics. 'We know we've let many of you down. You expect more from us. I expect more from us.

'You've depended on us for reliable, real-time communications, and right now we're letting you down. We are taking this very seriously and have people around the world working around the clock to address this situation.'

Mark Hutcheon, associate partner at Reputation Inc, thinks a centrally planned communications strategy could be to blame for the company's poor response: 'I don't think Research In Motion had the global communications infrastructure to respond to the crisis. If you're a global bank, you have a network of communications and corporate affairs people around the world who can respond in the various locations. I think Google and Facebook would have been two leagues higher in this kind of situation.'

Johns agreed that centralised communications could be a hindrance. 'This is a real challenge for large organisations,' he said. 'There is not the time to have messages approved by corporate committees and lawyers when customers need information quickly.'

Among the high profile critics were former Number 10 spin doctor Alistair Campbell who tweeted: 'Am going to Macedonia tomorrow. speaking about crisis comms. Many thanks Blackberry for providing topical example of how not to do it.'

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