People are talking bad about your brand. Yes, they are. If you think you are perfect and everyone sees you in a glowing light, you need to get a grip. Failing to recognize that not everyone likes your brand can be a killer.
While some have it worse than others, there is a good chance people have taken to the internet to voice their negativity. Some of it may be from trolls and competitors, while others are probably well-deserving. Either way, you need to monitor your reputation online in order to keep control of your brand.
When people let others control their online presence, it can be fatal to a brand. As part of your marketing strategy, you need to regularly monitor these locations to ensure no negative information has been posted. If it has, you need to make it part of your strategy to control it.
1. Social Media
Social media is now the go-to place for people wanting to air their complaints about your brand. It is easy for them to do and they can often word a complaint in a way that garners sympathy and support of others. If you don’t monitor your social media presence, it can get out of control very quickly.
“[People] complain about brands an astonishing 879 million times a year on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media networks,” writes Venture Beat. “A full 10 percent of us find something to be angry about publicly every single day.”
So, what can you do to limit any problems on social media? Monitor all social media networks and be quick to respond to complaints and maybe even have a little fun with it. A great example is a recent exchange between Wendy’s and a Twitter troll. I don’t recommend doing this with every complaint, but you get the idea.
Each social network should be treated different when handling customer service. A great place to start is using the social media guide to customer service provided by BufferApp. While the guide does not cover all social networks, it is a good place to start.
2. Yelp
Yelp is a website that most brands try to avoid. When people are dissatisfied with your product or service, it is one of the first websites people use to bash you. However, it can also be a great tool for managing your brand.
So why would you care about Yelp? How about the fact that it is the most trusted source of online reviews by consumers. People are using Yelp to determine if they want to do business with you. Failing to control your presence on Yelp means you are letting others decide how good you are without even stating your case. Your business should consider implementing online review management strategies to help shape the conversation around your brand.
Yelp does filter reviews (see screenshot below), but that doesn’t mean they will catch everything left by a troll. It also doesn’t mean it will remove negative reviews that are true. You will need to address negative reviews, showing potential customers that you do address the concerns of your customers.
One of the good things about Yelp is they are easier to deal with than sites such as RipOffReport. If someone is violating Yelp’s terms and conditions, you can contact them to investigate and a review will be filtered if found in violation. This is the best way to deal with trolls posting negative information even though they have never even used your business.
3. Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a great branding tool. Of course, you need to make sure you qualify for a Wikipedia page before you even think about creating one. Most brands don’t qualify but you should always check in case a page has been created. You also may be mentioned in another page if it is associated with something significant that happened in the news.
Since Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, chances are trolls are there to vandalize your page. Mitt Romney found this out the hard way when his name was changed from “Mitt” to something unflattering.
Most vandalism is corrected quickly on Wikipedia. However, you need to watch out for people who push a specific point of view about your brand.
According to Rand Fishkin from Moz.com, “One of the smartest Wiki-Hackers, in my opinion, is barely an editor of content at all, but simply uses a well-liked editorial account on Talk Pages, helping to sway the discussion in favor of keeping/removing links and content. On rare occasions, rather than actually making changes, the Talker will simply suggest that certain edits be made, then use a secondary or anonymous account to complete them if there’s no pushback.”
If you notice an issue where information about you is spun in a negative way, you can use talk page of articles to recommend changes.
4. RipOffReport and Pissed Consumer
The most hated website by brands, RipOffReport (and its counterpart, Pissed Consumer) is one of the most difficult places to address negative information. The site allows consumers to make complaints about you and has a policy of not removing anything, even if you can prove the information is false.
You want to watch RipOffReport as the process to remove negative information is time-consuming. First, you can pay to go into its “corporate advocacy” program which is really nothing more than the company investigating complaints against you and reporting the findings.
The other method is to go through legal proceedings against anyone who left a defamatory report. Note that suing the website itself is useless as they are protected by federal law. You will need to go after the person making the report. The process involves filing a lawsuit, obtaining a judgment, and then using that judgment to de-index the complaint page from Google. Although difficult, it is possible to remove ripoff report postings from Google.
You need a valid reason to file a lawsuit against the person making the report. If it is a valid complaint, the best thing you can do is simply tell your side of the story with a rebuttal on the website. Keep in mind that the more you “ping” the complaint page (including leaving rebuttal comments), the more likely Google will rank the page higher as it sees it getting traffic.
5. Better Business Bureau
The Better Business Bureau (“BBB”) is a nonprofit organization that tracks consumer complaints and works as an intermediary to resolve issues between businesses and consumers. Think of it as Yelp but with a referee.
Complaints against you with the BBB need to be addressed as they can seriously affect your business.
“It’s not necessarily just a complaint that can harm a business’s reputation,” said Sandy Gamby in an interview with Small Biz Trends. “Most businesses get complaints at some point. But it looks bad if the volume of complaints is large compared to the size of your business; if there’s a pattern where the same type of complaint is lodged multiple times; or if the complaint is deemed to be serious like if a customer paid for something and didn’t receive anything in return.”
The first thing I recommend is becoming accredited by your local BBB. Once you verify your name, address, telephone, web address, etc., the BBB will know where to send complaints if they ever happen. If they don’t know how to contact you, there could be a report that goes unanswered which could hurt your rating.
If someone does file a complaint against you with the BBB, you can file a response and even work with the original complainant to find a resolution. BBB will then report if a resolution to the issue was made and assign you a “grade” accordingly.
Final Word on Controlling Your Online Presence
If you do find negative information, you need to be prepared to respond. Complaints that are deserving need to be addressed properly so people can see you are taking care of valid concerns. Trolls are another story and may require the help of an online reputation management firm.
Regardless of your response, keep in mind that all of these sites will show up in search results. Turning a blind eye and not dealing with any of the complaints that arise will likely cause you to lose business.