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Sounds like Cringely is having some trouble with his Sony – tip for Sony – don’t piss off anyone with a blog that’s read by thousands of professionals, it really screws up your reputation http://www.cringely.com/2010/08/its-a-sony/
The SEO community is buzzing about Elixir Interactive this week. The company released their long-awaited online reputation management case study which documents in detail an ongoing attack on Elixir’s own reputation. Usually ORM companies are hired to help clients with negative results showing up in search engines. In this case, the ORM company is the target of someone (or some company) that wants to hurt Elixir’s search results.
Back in 2009 a number of ORMs came under limited attack, as false reviews were published on a number of complaint sites. Elixir first noticed they were under attack in March. Rather than quietly correct for the attack, CEO Fionn Downhill used her blog to expose the tactics being used against all the top ranked online reputation management companies. Downhill feels that incited the attackers to ramp up their campaign.
“Brands Under Attack” details the systematic tactics used against Elixir. Along the way it reveals some of the dangers faced by anyone with an online presence. The ease of posting anonymously combined with the ethically-questionable business model of some complaint sites makes it all too easy for a disgruntled employee, former client, or even competitor to rank false reports for branded terms. Add to this the fact that the legal system hasn’t caught up to the internet age and so ends up protecting the criminals rather than the slander victims, and it’s a recipe for reputation sabotage.
The Elixir Interactive case study also provides some tips for anyone who faces a similar attack. Moreover, most of these tips could be taken proactively, to build strong defenses against future negative campaigns. Because Elixir already had a strong web presence, the damage against their brand has been negligible.
While extortion might seem a harsh word there have now been three companies that have found our false complaints in ripoffreport and have contacted us to inquire about helping fix the issue. Now obviously if they did any due-diligence they would know we to do online reputation management however these companies are obviously too ignorant to do even basic background checking before sending their offers of help (for a fee of course).
List of shame:
So why did I use the word extortion? Well we’ve already proved the complaints are false (they say we’re a gym for a starters) so someone, somewhere decided that loading false reports into sites such as ripoffreport was a good way to make money, and according to Wikipedia
Exaction refers not only to extortion or the unlawful demanding and obtaining of something through force, but additionally, in its formal definition, means the infliction of something such as pain and suffering or making somebody endure something unpleasant.
So these companies may, or may not, have written the sham reports but they’re sure trying to cash in on them.
Repspinner (or is that Rep Spinner) appear to be putting up fake bad reviews of companies and calling the company or emailing them to get the complaints removed. Fionn Downhill discusses her issues with a potential Rep Spinner scam on her blog at http://www.fionndownhill.com/2010/03/25/repspinner-warning-reputation-management-scam/
Fionn details various telltale giveaways that the reports are bogus including:
These are the two easiest claims to refute, the other claims are bogus too.
So is Repspinner involved? Fionn contacted their US phone number who denied any link to Rep Spinner and started complaining about the number being a home address and she had a baby asleep in her house. At this stage Jessica at Rep Spinner has not contacted Fionn so until they do we have to assume this scam is not being run by RepSpinner, it just appears to be.
Small businesses have a unique place in today’s market. In many ways they are safe from many of the things that bring other businesses down. Many small businesses are unable to offer employee benefits such as 401k’s and insurance and although it is difficult at times, it saves the company a lot of money. Small businesses don’t have a lot of the costs that larger businesses do and, if they do, they are much smaller scale. On the other hand small businesses need all the business they can get, especially during these uncertain economic times. There are few things you can do to protect and build your online reputation. Management of your reputation is key, especially for small businesses.
The first thing that you want to do is to build and maintain a website. It does not have to be anything especially fancy, but clear and precise. The easy it is for a potential customer to see and understand what it is that you do and what you can do for them, the better off you will be.
It is also a good idea to get established on some of the social networking sites. The three main ones are Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin. Thousands of users worldwide log on to these sites every day. There is no better way to get massive amounts of free exposure.
The second thing to do for your Reputation Management is to watch what others are saying about you online. Check your name or your companies name on Google and other search engines frequently and see what others are writing about you. A good way to do this is setup a Google Alert on your brand name with and without spaces and including any misspellings. If it is all positive, then you are in the clear. If it is negative then you are going to have some work to do. It is important to stay on top of this. Small businesses in particular are greater risk for losing business over negative comments, especially if you are not well established.
There are many companies out there, like Elixir Interactive, that can help you keep your online reputation clean.