Out of all the types of businesses that Rip Off Report could sell text link ads to… you’d think that they could have at least tried the old “Well, we’re only selling relevant text links. They aren’t just to game the search engines… our visitors see them as a resource.” Right, you would think. But wrong, Rip Off Report clearly is not a place where people say “Gee, now that I found out Countrywide is a rip off, I think I’d like to buy some concert tickets.“.

So imagine that, a business probably worth tens of millions of dollars is risking the very search engine rankings that create much of that valuation for a few grand a month at best.

Personally, I’m surprised there haven’t been 10,000 spam reports to our dear friend Matt Cutts’ report paid links page.

Hear that all you thousands of businesses who are smeared on Rip Off Report, albeit true or not? While even if the report is FALSE you can NEVER get it removed (read “2. Ripoff Report’s Policy: Why We NEVER Remove Reports“), you can take this opportunity to possibly have them stripped of their visible PageRank.

Now, it’s obvious that monetizing RipOffReport.com is probably not the easiest thing to do since AdSense or other contextual products would result in them promoting the very brands each respective page is bashing. But, there’s got to be a better way. I guess there reputation advocacy program isn’t working out so well.

So the question now is, will Google and the other engines step up and ban or penalize them or will they let it go?

Alerts - as in Google Alerts is a free service which can better one’s awareness of new content containing specific keywords. Examples of terms which can be tracked are names, company names, and product names. Data is monitored from Google web search, blog search, video, groups, and news search.

B

Blog - Also known as weblogs or web journals; often used by people to publish their personal writings. Blogs are now commonly used by corporations as well to communicate with consumers, fans, and critics alike. Because of today’s technology blogs have become fairly simple to setup and thus millions of people blog on a daily basis. Blogs have become a conduit for personal opinions; both good and bad.

C

CGM - Consumer Generated Media - (CGM) originated as a reference to discussions started by consumers within online venues such as online forums, blogs, wikis, discussion lists etc., on products that they have purchased or services they have used. Shoppers and consumers who are researching products and services often rely on other consumers’ opinions when making buying decisions.

The term has evolved to include video, audio and multimedia posts created by consumers in support (or negative parody/in-protest) of products, brands and corporate institutions.

Popular Consumer Generated Content Sites:
· http://ripoffreport.com/
· http://www.epinions.com/
· http://www.rateitall.com/

Negative CGM - Criticism generated by consumers which appears on blogs or rating and review related websites.

Positive CGM - Positive reviews, ratings, and commentary posted by consumers.

D

E

F

Flickr (flickr.com) - a Yahoo! operated website which allows users to upload, tag, and store photographs in various resolutions. Flickr allows comments on photographs and thus should be monitored for brand related photographs coinciding with negative comments.

Forums - Online discussion boards exist for nearly every topic and niche. Users create accounts and are then able to post new discussion topics or reply to existing topics. Forums are hotbeds for brand and reputation bashing.

G

Google Pages - A free personal webspace hosting service by Google. Users can create profiles which tend to rank highly in search results due to their being attached to the “google.com” domain. See http://pages.google.com/ for more information.

Groups - Online groups range in size from 2 members to hundreds of thousands of members for broader topics. Internet giants such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN all have their own web-based group software.

Google Trends - Updated daily, this Google custom search engine focuses on keywords whose frequency of use has risen dramatically. Learn more at http://www.google.com/trends

H

I

J

K

L

LinkedIn.com - A network for building business and professional profiles with connections to peers, colleagues, co-workers, and others. LinkedIn allows users to determine how they are connected to any given person, if they are connected in any way (i.e. You are connected to John Smith by your colleague Jessica Johnson). Learn more at http://www.linkedin.com/

M

Moreover.com - Offers real-time tracking of more than 250,000 news articles per day. Learn more at http://www.moreover.com/

Myspace - The largest social networking website in the world. Acquired by News Corp, Inc in July of 2005, Myspace has grown immensely. Users create profiles, add friends, blog and add content to the network. Learn more at http://www.myspace.com/

N

O

Opinmind.com - A site tracking opinions of more than 5 million bloggers. http://opinmind.com/

ORM - An acronym for online reputation management. Commonly referred to as brand reputation management, or search engine reputation management in reference to controlling how a brand is perceived by Internet users. Full scale management can include everything from promoting positive content to the top of search engine results to creating and managing interactive profiles on major social networking websites.

P

Q

R

Rollyo.com - A service allowing users to create their own search engines with results restricted to sites they know and trust. For example a “news” search engine could be created which will only return results from the domains cnn.com, fox.com, msnbc.msn.com, etc. Create an engine at http://rollyo.com/.

S

T

U

URL - An acronym for uniform resource locator. URLs are generally used for web page addresses. A URL could be the location a profile page on Myspace, the homepage of Google, etc.

V

W

X

Y

Z

1. Online negative publicity - Any negative publicity that appears on the internet
2. Offline negative publicity - Any negative publicity that happens outside of the internet. Examples include: within media such as newspapers, TV Ads, magazines etc. Often times this negative press is duplicated on the online version of the particular media (e.g. the newspaper’s website).

Resistance to New Ideas, Products or Services

Innovative people and companies often face harsh criticism when they release new ideas or products. The negative press and discussions that occur at this time can often linger on even after the idea, product or service was found to be a success.

So whether it’s competitors who attempted to downplay the new information or actual consumers who simply thought it wouldn’t be a hit… you are likely to find some forms of dissent lingering on blogs, forums, industry hangouts and similar websites.

Negative Reviews and Ratings by Clients or Consumers

Unfortunately people are much more likely to spare a moment to leave a damaging review or rating on a consumer opinions site than they are to leave a positive reference for a job well done. Most people who tend to see a negative rating which appears sincere would be startled to learn that there are countless individuals who simply leave nothing but negative comments. We’ve seen this type of “trolling” first hand – apparently NOTHING works well, provides good service, or has value in the eyes of some.

Rumors and Gossip Online

Certain professions or personal lifestyles may lead to speculation about you becoming a sport for others. Rumors and gossip are most prevalent on blogs and forums where discussions are started and visitors can chime in with their comments. Keep tabs on what blogs or forums your peers/colleagues/critics frequent or even possibly publish themselves.

Outdated Information

A troubled reputation from yesteryear (or a decade ago for that matter) can resurface out of nowhere with today’s digitization of prior print media. Old newspaper archives are constantly being scanned and published online for example. What you or your company did long ago may still have damaging effects even if you feel you have redeemed yourself or your company’s name after all this time.

Private Life Becomes Public

That college photograph of you doing a kegstand? A hazy memory. Photos of a risqué Halloween outfit? Scary! Excerpts from a loveletter posted by a vengeful ex? Tearjerking. All of these private things are just a few examples of the types of private content that somehow manage to materialize on the web every day unbeknownst to the subjects – generally until a really important time such as a new job interview, a new relationship being formed, an investor doing due diligence; the list goes on.

So what can You Do to Defend your Reputation?

Brand Titan offers a reputation protection product which is aimed to fortify the good press, the positive recommendations, or your own accurate webpage in order for that content to command and maintain the topmost positions on the search engines. With the doorway to most negative content largely being search engines this proactive approach vastly improves the chance that a past indiscretion or even old inaccurate information does not find the prying eyes of those researching you or your company’s name.

Let’s take an example of a company which offers to “DESTROY” negative content for less than $30.00 per month. Even by off-shore pricing standards, at best that would buy 3 hours of time by an educated and technically savvy employee. Doesn’t leave much room for supervision or a personalized approach that won’t offend those who published this critical information does it?

Here’s the fine print:

You authorize us to take such action on your behalf, and to identify ourselves as acting on your behalf…The Customer also acknowledges and accepts the risk that [company name withheld] may not succeed in effecting the removal and/or alteration of any Internet content about the Customer…You recognize that such contact may have unpredictable side-effects, including but not limited to negative responses from others.

Great, so for $30.00 we’ll end up getting flamed by bloggers after we actually think they’ll say “sure, I strongly dislike this person/company for what they did, but since you asked nicely I’ll remove my comments.”. Somehow it’s conceivable they often refer clients to that paragraph in the fine print.

Now in terms of a ORM company using a statement similar to the one above it’s common practice and only makes sense since the wrong person discovering the campaign could genuinely incite a PR nightmare or at the least may just augment the negative comment with more damaging content. That being said, the difference in our approach lies in the fact that we do not open channels of communication with bloggers or critics which clearly have no interest in resolving the issue. Our indirect strategy results in a de-emphasis of the visibility of negative press without the high-risk associated with “stirring the pot”.

And just what exactly can “stirring the pot” do? Well, perhaps a better phrase might be “poking the hive”. Take this example which was featured in the press as an example of reputation defense backfiring: The google search for “Ronnie Segev” or copy/paste this URL: http://www.google.com/search?q=Ronnie+Segev

One such result is entitled “Evil: Ronnie Segev & [**company name**] Can Eat A D***” a clear blow to both the client and the company representing his quest to clean up his online reputation. Additionally reports of his Wikipedia entry being “cleaned up” are repetitiously displayed throughout the next few pages of search engine results.

So what are the Safest Ways to Get Rid of Bad Press?

First, work with a company that understands the sensitive nature of the problem. Understand that considerable resources and expertise need to be devoted to your project if success is to be achieved and disaster averted. In life and in business there is little more valuable than your reputation and being prepared to pay a premium to confidently move towards protecting or improving your reputation is the first step towards a serious reputation management campaign.

It’s important for companies and individuals who have faced damaging press and incidents in the past, present, or those which have a high likelihood of being “slammed” in the future (e.g. politicians running for office, lawyers taking on a controversial case, etc.) to understand the steps to monitor, defend, and repair their reputation.

• A combination of automation and manual reviews makes widespread reputation monitoring feasible. Monitoring hundreds of thousands of blogs, forums, and news sites for your name in combination with critical information allows for fast-paced response
• By bolstering existing positive content and creating additional trustworthy references through the right channels we can effectively fortify your reputation so that future attacks have less or possibly no impact at all within search results for your name or company name.
• With an in-depth review and analysis as a starting point we are able to pinpoint web pages which contain negative, neutral or unrelated, or positive content. From that point we create a strategic plan for pushing negative results off the first pages by promoting desirable information to the top.

There are additional options, however, that are more specific to the offending forum posts or blog posts.

1. Respond directly to the message with a thoughtful and pleasant message addressing all the issues with care and concern. Show them that you are different than they believe you to be by being genuine – surprise them with eloquence and tact.
2. If you have clients/customers who are die-hard and would not be put off by seeing these comments ask them to leave a truthful testimonial on your behalf. Ask if they’ll send you the testimonial to review first.
3. Email or call the commenter if their contact information is available. Introduce yourself and let them know that you want to attempt to address the issue with them since you believe there is reason for a change in their opinion. It’s important to be extremely cautious with what you say or especially what you write though – you don’t want to arm an unswayable critic with information that can be taken out of context and used against you further.

The key is to carefully approach pushing the issue any further. You never want to wake a sleeping giant. A combination of wisely addressing the issue directly and promoting positive press to the top of forums or search engine results should enable your online image to become an asset to you and your business.

Sound familiar? While there are plenty of cases where the complaint or criticism is legitimate there are thousands of instances where the information given is completely erroneous.

Unscrupulous competitors or others with a personal vendetta are largely the source of these types of reputation attacks. Unfortunately for the victim, people who read these tirades are unlikely to make that connection and instead are more likely to believe them to be true!

39% of the top 100 results are consumer generated media such as blogs. Blogs and forum results are becoming a major issue for reputation management considering that 75% of searchers don’t go past the first page of results when searching. In general the key is to target Page one and two of search results or in some cases a few more depending on whether the searcher is likely to dig deep.

After interviewing more than 2,300 people, a study by search marketing agency iCrossing, and Harris Interactive found that 77 percent of adults who research online before making a purchase decision use search engines. Forty percent of those conducting online research go to search engines first.

The numbers and potential losing business or damaging relationships are certainly all the motivation that is needed for talking action.

Of course, if your company is not perfect, negative results will sometimes occur. The delivery will be delayed, a customer will be billed incorrectly, or an employee will be less than pleasant with an important client. No matter how carefully you structure your business, sometimes your results will be imperfect.

In today’s world, though, one negative result can quickly be broadcast over the Internet. One disgruntled customer can share their negative experiences with hundreds, or even thousands, of potential customers via high-ranking forums, blogs, and social networking sites. The determined customer can even set up a site dedicated to highlighting poor experiences with your company. PayPal, for example, has a high-ranking critical website, PayPalSucks.com. When customers Google PayPal, they often see the detractor’s website as well as the official company website displayed on the same page.

The first step in dealing with irate customers is to realize that bad results do happen. Not every customer will be pleased with your company, and your business will not always be able to offer the best value. When it comes to minimizing the negative results that customer criticism can bring, start with an investigation. Are customers justified in being irate? Are there things your company can change to make customer experiences better? If so, go ahead and make the changes and then advertise those changes online. Customers will not generally hold onto a negative view of your business if you make real efforts to change your best practices.

In the same token, you might want to open discussion with online detractors. Address the poor customer service, apologize where necessary or ask for more information and then find out what can be done to make the customer feel mollified. In many cases, a replacement product, a formal apology, a refund, or a discount on future service is all it takes to make a customer feel better about a bad experience. Once the customer is appeased, they will have no reason to continue broadcasting their bad experience.

If you have several customers making different types of complaints, it may not be feasible to change one or two aspects of your business. For example, if some customers are publicly deriding your high prices while other customers are loudly calling for higher-end products, you may not be able to appease both customers. In cases where the criticism seems especially loud, you may need professionals to monitor and neutralize bad publicity so that you can focus on a bright business future.

It can be frustrating to build a great website only to see that someone else has designed a website to disparage your company or has created a blog post or has written a forum comment meant to put your company in a bad light. In today’s web 2.0 world, where anyone can publish their thoughts quickly – not to mention anonymously – you simply cannot afford to ignore negative feedback about your business, especially when that feedback ranks high on Google.

Negative comments that rank high on search engine results are a problem because they are so visible. Someone looking for your company online will see not only your official site, but also negative comments about your company. This customer will have to take both into consideration before choosing whether to do business with your company. Unfortunately, online reputations tend to be taken for fact. Any disgruntled employee, customer, or even competitor can post anything about you
online. They do not even have to post any evidence about their claims about your company. Despite this, many people will tend to believe negative comments online.

Marketing professionals have run numerous studies showing that potential customers react more strongly to fear than to promise. That is, they are more likely to act on the idea that they will be scammed than on the promise of good service.
Statistically, if a customer is faced with two claims about a company – that the company is a scam or that the company provides great service – the customer is more likely to believe the scam claim, since the customer reacts most strongly to fear.

While this is bad news, bad press in search engine results does not have to devastate your company. Once you start to become aware of the negative comments showing up on search engine rankings, you can take action. You can send a cease and desist letter to the owners of flame sites targeting your company and to blogs that post negative and untrue comments about your business. However, this tends to create more bad press about you. A better solution might be to confront the blogs and websites head on, challenging any untrue comments or misinformation. You can also use your own SEO strategy and your own blog to respond to detractors and to ensure that a Google of your company name nets positive comments and real information.

1. Use your own SEO strategy to keep your site and your feeder sites high on the search engine rankings. Your web design firm can help you get high search engine rankings, so that potential customers looking for your company online will find you – and not your critics – first. Keep in mind that this strategy, used alone, will backfire. Yes, you want good ranking pages that outrank the criticism. However, maintaining high ranking pages costs a lot of money and takes a lot of effort – all without addressing the root of the problem.
2. Stay aware of negative Google results. Set up Google Alerts (at google.com/alerts) and Yahoo Alerts (at alerts.yahoo.com). You will be notified whenever ranking pages using specific keywords are used. You should set up alerts for your brands, product names, company name, and executives’ names. Each time these names are mentioned
   online, you will hear about it. Be sure to also combine your names with words such as “sucks” and “scam” to specifically find criticisms about your company.
3. Participate in industry forums and online publications. Look especially for forums, ezines, and blogs that rank high in your industry. Make useful comments – not just marketing comments praising your company – and volunteer to be a guest blogger on the top blogs in your industry. All this will help establish you as a credible and trustworthy company, and that can go far towards negating some of that bad press.
4. Address negative comments that rank high on Google. If you do notice negative comments about your company through Google alerts, do not just get angry. Instead, research the allegations made against your company to find out if there is any merit to the claims. If there is not, provide proof and ask for corrections to be made. If the complaints are legitimate, open a discussion with the disgruntled employee or customer. Be honest about the situation and listen to the complaint. Ask specifically what can be done to resolve the situation. Google can be just as powerful an ally for you as for your detractors. Simply start using the major search engine to your advantage.

Even if your company’s official Web 2.0 presence is perfectly respectable, though, there are many ways that social networking sites could be damaging your business reputation:

1. Employees and team members may have unsavory pages on social networking sites – and may be identifying themselves with your company.
2. Customers and even competitors may be posting criticism and harmful comments about your business online.

Of course, everyone has the right to express themselves as they like – our Founding Fathers fought hard for freedom of speech – but what happens when that expression is used to put down the business you have spent years building?

Social networking can be a bit of a nightmare, since any pages can be seen by thousands of people in minutes. For example, if your financial department has a MySpace page showing members of your company drinking beer (or worse) that page will be seen by every “friend” linked to that page – and by every friend of every friend. You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to see that those images – which can portray your workplace in a less-than-flattering light – can make their way halfway around the world and back again before you are even aware of their existence.

The first step to halting the problem is to become aware of it. Take a look online to see what search results come up when you Google your company name. Consider hiring a company that can unearth all the search results. Next, call in your team members to talk about social networking. Avoid a confrontational tone, but let employees know that things they may have wanted to keep private may be affecting how they are seen professionally. Encourage your employees to set their settings to “private” on personal social networking sites. This ensures that only invited friends can see these pages.

Encourage your team members to put together professional pages on sites such as LinkedIn. This can help your employees bolster their own professional prospects while helping your company name appear in a more flattering light. You may even wish to have your team members assemble a few social networking pages – on Facebook and MySpace, even – for the company as a whole. This can be a great way to project a professional but slightly more relaxed image of your company. It can also be a great place to counter some of the criticisms that may be lurking out there in cyberspace, aimed at your business. Belonging to social networking sites even allows you to contact those people who post unflattering comments about your company. You can use the opportunity to ask these unhappy customers how your business can make things right.