Web Forum Gets Sued – My Experience With The Same Forum

Here’s an interesting one.

A web site forum (Whirlpool) is being sued because of comments made by users about a piece of accounting software.

It’s interesting in terms of reputation management – our reputation has been damaged on the same forum.

In this case it was our reputation being damaged by some clown who doesn’t know us.

You see, we’d been suggested on the forum as a company that can meet the needs of a guy who is having trouble finding a web development firm.

The guy looking to get the work done doesn’t like the look of this site (I don’t care – this design has worked the best at doing what it is supposed to do better than any design we’ve ever tried).

“….they have hardly any experience….”

And then Dave from Adelaide (nodeADSL2+) comes in and says “If good quality work is what you are after then you are right not to go with them (Tailored), they have hardly any experience in creating complex, visually appealing web portals.

“If you want some one to build you a website as complex as you have listed then avoid tailored like the plague.”

Dave From Adelaide Has No Idea About Us!

I don’t know Dave from Adelaide (that’s him on the left!) but I can guarantee that he doesn’t know our client list and he doesn’t know what sort of sites we mostly do.

It’s pretty clear that Dave’s in no position to make a relevant or useful judgment about us. But he does anyway.

You Can’t Control What People Say About You

And that’s the thing about the web. You can’t control what people are saying about you.

And they’ll say lots of different things – let’s take Dave again. Dave then goes on to say nice things about my kit – so he’s not a complete clown )

This Post Is An Example Of Brand Management

This post is an example of brand management in action – notice how I’ve:

1. Made potential clients/customers (visitors to this web site) aware of a negative story about us. It’s very effective when you show people the bad stuff about you – shows you’re not trying to hide anything.

2. And then I’ve addressed it in a fairly logical way.

3. And then I’ve been very slightly aggressive towards Dave (by bagging him) – that’s a useful technique to show you’re standing up for yourself and to generate some visitors to this site by people who link over from that forum.

Basically, controversy works.

You Can’t Control What People Say About You

You can’t control what people say about you, and you do have to (like have) weigh up if the damage to your reputation is worth the risk of taking legal action.

In my case I thought it wasn’t enough.

But for a company like 2Clix there was obviously a measurable detrimental impact on their business that made it worthwhile to take legal action.

Plus, they get the benefit of widespread media exposure and greater market awareness.

Then you have Dave. Will he sue me for portraying him as a clown? Or should I use the term “idiot”?

Maybe “Dave the Idiot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, who damages other people’s reputations”?

Would he sue for that?

Brand management is critical to any business. Manage your brand very carefully and be aware of what people are saying about you online.

4 Easy Ways To Check Your Online Brand

1. Sign up for Google Alerts
2. Check your web stats regularly and see who is linking to you
3. Do a regular web search on your name and your business name and see what you find
4. Sign up for Distilled Reputation Monitoring Tool

Cheers

Brendon

P.S: Please note that some of this blog post was copied from an earlier one I wrote last year.

Cheers,