Posts Tagged ‘reputation management’
Tuesday, August 28th, 2012
 We’ve all heard the horror stories of small businesses trying to deal with the consequences of negative online reviews, malicious blog comments and inaccurate reports, which can damage a company’s reputation and hinder sales for years.
Your first instinct may be to respond online immediately. Not a good idea. Or, you might pick up the phone to call your lawyer. Also a bad idea. But there are steps you can take to remedy the situation.
InternetReputationManagement.com founder and chief SEO strategist Kent Campbell offers the following 5 tips on how to deal with a negative online review:
DON’T respond online: It is possible that any additional comments on the review site will just strengthen the link in the eyes of search engines. By defending yourself online, you may be drawing more attention to the negative.
DON’T call your attorney: Or at least think about it first. Your attorney may file a complaint which tends to find its way online, get indexed on Google, and then pops up as a link in Google’s search results – it can worsen the problem if handled incorrectly.
DON’T share the bad news: Business owners usually want to talk about the bad review with their teams or worse … online, asking “Can you believe this guy?” … but Kent advises not to. “It’s the opposite of containing the problem. You share the bad news, which is the same as spreading the negative sentiment.” Make your best call, but you don’t want it to end up on an employee’s Facebook page.
DO call the reviewer (or reporter) on the phone (if you can get a hold of his number) and speak calmly. Don’t send an email. If you do, the email may be reposted online.
DO try to get the reviewer to retract the comment. If you are able to get a hold of her by phone, offer to fix the problem and see if she’s willing to retract the comment once you do. You’ll be saving yourself the cost of an internet reputation expert to push the review further down in Google’s search results.
In our interviews with other online reputation management experts, we understand you may also be able to get those negative comments and/or reviews off the first page of the search engines by producing high quality positive content via a blog, mini-company site, and tactics.
For an example of how a company can go wrong and create an online reputation disaster see: “Hold the Lettuce and Don’t Break Guitars.”
Additional tips from Internet Reputation Management.
Tags: Best Practices, Kent Campbell, reputation management, tips on dealing with negative online reviews
Posted in Best Practices, Business advice, Internet/New Media | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 27th, 2012
 Social media offers any business tremendous upside but at the same time, if it is not managed properly, it opens a company up to enormous risk. One inappropriate tweet or Facebook post can cause irreparable damage, but should this stop companies from integrating social media into their business?
Steve Nicholls, author of “Social Media in Business,” believes that any form of progress comes with risk and the key is to identify them and overcome them. In today’s digital culture, the greatest risk of all is not to embrace social media because your competitors will be.
Nicholls, who has helped business managers add millions of dollars to their bottom line through social media, offers the following top five risks and solutions to overcome them.
Top 5 Risks When Using Social Media in Business
1. Reputation management: Social media may cause a risk to a company’s reputation by creating negative publicity. Legal issues may perhaps arise if a company gives an inappropriate comment about another company on a social media platform for instance.
Solution: Create an approval process involving a senior leader for any social media communication. Do not give a junior person full control as their inexperience could cause irreparable damage.
2. Security Issues: There is always a risk of hacking, spy-ware and bugs amongst others. This means that there is a risk of having confidential company information leaked outside the company.
Solution: Work with your IT department or hire a professional to ensure proper privacy and security settings are in place. This is critical to protect confidential information, to avoid having your account hacked, or falling victim to cyber theft. Higher profile companies will need more sophisticated security systems.
3. Engaging in two-way dialogue and potential criticism: While social media allows a company to interact directly with customers in real time, it also gives those same customers a public platform to voice dissatisfaction.
Solution: Carefully monitor the social media platforms you operate on so you can quickly identify negative feedback and address it before it gains support.
4. Trust as part of the culture: In order for employees to use social media in a successful way for the company, trust is a prerequisite. Not having that trust as part of the organizational culture can present a risk when it comes to social media.
Solution: Create an extensive training program for the entire organization highlighting the do’s and don’ts. While everybody in the company needs to understand the mission, only allow a trusted few to actually pull the trigger.
5. Wasting company time: Social media can be addictive and there is a risk that employees will spend too much time on it, compromising their work and thus the organization’s business operations.
Solution: Many companies monitor what website employees visit and how much time they spend on them. If an employee seems to be spending an unnecessary amount of time on social media sites, have human resources discuss it with them.
Steve Nicholls is the author of the best-selling book “Social Media in Business” and has implemented advanced Internet applications for leading organizations including British Telecom, Ciena Corp., Detathree, Inmarsat, John Laing and NSPCC, a UK Children’s charity organization, to name just a few. Steve grows client revenue dollars by millions with his effective social media training.
Tags: avoid damaging the brand, criticism, reputation management, risks companies face, Security, Social Media in Business, Steve Nicholls, wasting company time
Posted in Best Practices, Business advice, Internet/New Media, social media, Viewpoint | No Comments »
Friday, November 11th, 2011
 Gary Vaynerchuk keynotes the 2011 Internet Summit in Raleigh next week, which is nearly sold-out. Fewer than 50 seats remain for next week’s Internet Summit, which is bringing hundreds of digital media and marketing thought-leaders to the Raleigh, NC Convention Center Nov. 15-16.
The event, which attracts a capacity crowd, offers take-away insight into social media marketing, search engine optimization, ecommerce trends, email marketing, we and mobile analytics, big data, cloud computing, startup fund-raising and much more.
You’ll have access to visionary thought leaders who will share their insight and experience with you. Hear from the founders of companies like Twitpic, TheLadders & HowStuffWorks! Not enough? How about a Keynote from Top rated SXSW keynote and ‘Social Media King’ Gary Vaynerchuk?
That’s just a sampling of the more than 120 speakers and presenters that will be on hand.
We interviewed just a handful of the many presenters. For a preview of what thought-leaders will be presenting at the event see:
The Internet Summit’s Talented Speakers & Presenters include:
- Gary Vaynerchuk, Co-Founder, VaynerMedia
- Marc Cendella, Founder & CEO, TheLadders
- Marshall Brain, Founder, HowStuffWorks
- David Payne, Chief Digital Officer, Gannett
- Noah Everett, Founder, TwitPic and Heello
- Ro Choy, COO, Formspring
- Liz Strauss, Co-founder, SOBcon & LizStrauss.com
- Brian Hitney, Developer Evangelist, Microsoft
- David Perry, Business Development Executive, Google
- Jack Krawczyk, Sr Product Marketing Mgr, StumbleUpon
- Traug Keller, Sr VP of Production, ESPN
- Catherine Cook, Co-Founder, myYearbook
- Eric Ranta, SVP of Value Engineering, SAP
- Micahel Cristinziano, VP Strategic Development, Citrix
- Doug Smith, Dir Product Management, Taleo
- Malin Huffman, Head of Product Development, NetSuite
- Jerry Cuomo, CTO WebSphere, IBM
- Lee Congdon, CIO, RedHat
- Jeff Ragovin, Chief Revenue Officer, Buddy Media
- Peggy Fry, Chief Revenue Officer, Clearspring Technologies
- Mike Relm, Founder, Relmvision
- Bob Young, Founder & CEO, Lulu.com
- Donna DeMarco, Co-Founder & VP, Viddler
- Emily Keye, Marketing Strategist, Bronto
- Tammy Gordon, Dir Social Communications & Strategy, AARP
- Markus, Renstrom, Head of SEO, Yahoo!
- Dr. Manuel Aparicio, CEO & Co-Founder, Saffon Technologies
- Julianna DeLua, Enterprise Solutions Evangelist, Informatica
- Tony Haile, General Manager, Chartbeat
- Ryan Mannion, Chief Technology Officer, Politico
- David Giambruno, SVP and CIO, Revlon
- Gaurav Howard, Sr. Dir Product Marketing, Marketo
- Michael Lubek, CIO, GE Global Applications
- Angela Connor, Social Media Manager, Capstrat
- Ryan Allis, CEO, iContact
- Prerna Gupta, CEO, Khush
- Kevin Dando, Dir Digital & Education Communication, PBS
- Clint Smith, Co-Founder & CEO, Emma
- Matt Crenshaw, VP of Marketing, Discovery Communications
- Scott Gunter, VP of User Experience, Usability Sciences
- Lindsay Wassell, Partner & Consultant, KeyphraSEOlogy
- Steve Ashley, VP Internet Marketing, Market America
- Dennis Gullitto, APM Product Marketing Manager, Compuware
- Scott Baker, Sr. Mgr Virtualization & Cloud Engineering, NetApp
- Jeramiah Dooley, vArchitect, VCE/Cisco Virtualization
- Gerard Bush, Chief Creative Dir, The brpr Group
- Ted McDonald, Analyst, Verisign
- Rob Ousbey, VP Operations Seattle, Distilled
- David Gudai, VP of Marketing, Storkie
- Glenn Mersereau, Dir of Internet Marketing, PHE
- Jim Tobin, President, Ignite Social Media
- Kevin Pomplun, CEO, SkyGrid
- Sherry Bastion, Web Creative Director, Lenovo
- John Lovett, Sr Partner, Web Analytics Demystified
- Drew Diskin, Dir of Interactive & Web Strategy, Penn Medicine
- Lynette Montgomery, VP Ecommerce, Burt’s Bees
- Noah Dinkin, Co-Founder & President, FanBridge
- Jessica Bowman, SEOinhouse.com
- Todd Moy, Sr User Experience Designer, Viget Labs
- Donna Bedford, Global SEO Lead, Lenovo
- Francis Shepherd, Media Evangelist
- Dallas Lawrence, Chief Digital Strategist, Burson-Marsteller
- Karen Albritton, President, Capstrat
- Thuy LeDihn, Senior Marketing Manager, .ORG
- Adam Covati, Co-founder & CTO, Argyle Social
- Kyle Scott Richardson, Social Media, NC National Guard
- Cara Rousseau, Social Media Manager, Duke University
- Loren Baker, VP of Marketing, Blueglass
- Matthew Muñoz, Partner & Chief Design Officer, New Kind
- Jill Whalen, CEO, HighRankings
- Jason Caplain, General Partner, Southern Capitol Ventures
- David Heaney, Senior Associate, TomorrowVentures
- John Lawrence, Partner & CFO, Longworth Venture Partners
- Brooks Raiford, CEO, NCTA
- Roger Krakoff, Managing Partner, Cloud Capital Partners
- Charles Nicholls, Chief Strategy Officer, SeeWhy
- Jeff Campbell, VP & Co-Founder, Resolution Media
- Gary Storr, Business Architect & Solutions, Nortel
- Jeff Spivey, VP Board of Directors, ISACA
- Doug Hanna, CEO, A Small Orange
- Lisa, Braziel, Strategy Director, Ignite Social Media
- William Blackmon, CEO, LinkMein
- Chris Condayan, Public Outreach, Am Society for Microbiology
- Kyle Scott Richardson, Dir of Social Media, NC National Guard
- Jill Carlson, Marketing Manager, Argyle Social
- John Lane, VP Strategy & Creative, Centerline Digital
- Michael , Gowan, Associate Dir of Web Strategy, Duke Medicine
- Dana Kirchman, SVP Head of Client Operations, Lumi Mobile
Internet Summit is an outstanding learning experience mixed with prime networking opportunities and entertaining keynotes.
There’s even 5 additional hours of intense session digging deep into Social Media, SEO & Search, User Experience & Design and Analytics when you add the pre-conference to your registration.
Tags: AARP, Buddy Media, Capstrat, chartbeat, Clearspring Technologie, cloud computing, David Payne, David Perry, ecommerce trends, email marketing, ESPN, Gannett, Gary Vaynerchuk, Google, Howstuffworks, Internet Summit, Khush, Marshall Brain, measuring social, Microsoft, mobile presence, myYearbook, NC, NetSuite, Noah Everett, online advertising, paid search, Politico, Raleigh, Red Hat, reputation management, SAP, SEO, social media marketing, startup strategies, TheLadders, Twitpic, usability, web & mobile analytics, Yahoo
Posted in Amazon, Apple, Best Practices, Business advice, Carolinas, Cisco, Cloud, Education, entrepreneurship, Events, Facebook, games, Government/Defense, Internet/New Media, IT, Legal, LinkedIn, Marketing, Microsoft, Mobile, mobile games, North Carolina, smartphones, social media, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech Culture, TechLife, Telecommunications, video, Viewpoint | No Comments »
Thursday, August 18th, 2011
 James Schramko Google’s controversial move to ban the use pseudonyms on Google Plus has sparked debates and outrage in the online community, especially since a number of reports that came out stated that several accounts registered under fake names have been reinstated.
In a surprising statement earlier this month, Randi Zuckerberg, Marketing Director of Facebook and sister to the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, was quoted saying “I think anonymity on the internet has to go away” echoing statements made about a year ago by Google’s former CEO, Eric Schmidt.
Internet marketer and CEO of www.ReputationManagementAuthority.com James Schramko, says things are never that simple. He explains further:
“Completely taking away the right to speak anonymously could expose a lot of people to security risks and possibly to life-threatening situations. Information dissemination should remain on a need-to-know basis, and there are things that other people don’t need to know.”
As illustrated in a report on TNW, two separate Bahraini anti-government activists shared opposing views on anonymity: one choosing to reveal himself for credibility reasons – which came at a price, while the other chose anonymity as his ally for security reasons.
In a report yesterday on The Sydney Morning Herald, Cisco is facing a lawsuit filed by Chinese dissidents who were allegedly captured and tortured for several years by the Chinese government. The group of more than 10 plaintiffs claim that Cisco aided the CCP in developing technology that would help track and censor all internet traffic to and from China, suppressing the right to freedom of speech in favor of an oppressive regime.
“Imagine what oppressive governments could do had they access to everyone’s names online.” says Schramko
UK looter nabbed after taunting Facebook post
In a different story, a looter in Manchester who [is assumed to have] used his real name on Facebook was arrested by police after bragging on Facebook that he couldn’t be caught. A separate story showed a 16-year-old boy brought into custody for allegedly inciting riots on Facebook and several other people were arrested for inciting violence over Twitter.
“Lately, social media channels like Facebook and Twitter have become instrumental in bringing some criminals to justice, though this still does not justify sacrificing the safety of those fighting a good fight.” says Schramko.
In business matters, Schramko says that the absence of anonymity and the fear of legal ramifications may prevent the spread of malicious content over the web by shady competitors. He adds “Consumers, who sometimes may (or may not) have valid reasons to publicly voice their opinions about a brand or service, will in some cases be forced to think twice and choose their words more carefully under their real names – if they are smart that is.”
“I am stressing the words ‘in some cases’ because people do stupid things on the internet with their real names all the time. It gets them fired, or it gets them rejected during job applications. Businesses get ruined by slander more often than we know. Forcing the zero-anonymity policy, however, is not the solution and endangers other individuals needlessly.
“Ultimately, the choice to reveal one’s identity should be a personal one and not a decision forced upon us. For now, if you’ve done something regrettable and irreversible over internet, or your business is suffering from unfair and unwanted media exposure, turning to reputation managment companies like Reputation Management Authority is your best bet in cleaning up the mess.”
Online reputation management is one of the topics frequently covered at TechMedia’s Internet-focused conferences. The next is Digital East in Tysons Corner, VA in late September.
Tags: annoymous users, Bahraini, censorship, Chines dissidents, Cisco, Eric Schmidt, facebook, Google, James Schramko, Mark Zuckerberg, Rani Zukerberg, reputation management, social media sites, Viewpoint
Posted in Facebook, Google, Internet/New Media, social media, Viewpoint | No Comments »
Friday, January 21st, 2011
By Allan Maurer
 WASHINGTON, DC – LivingSocial offered a great deal this week, a $20 Amazon gift card for $10. People grabbed it too: more than 1.35 million of them. But the size of the deal apparently caused some technical difficulties for the rapidly expanding local deals firm.
The company, which recently received a $175 million investment from Amazon, seemed to experience a number of problems, from delays in getting out the deal emails to Snafus that led some members who spread news of the deal in hopes of getting theirs free to encounter a number of problems, according to comments on the company’s Facebook page.
Some people who shared the deal said they were charged more than once. Others said they received a message they tried to sign up for the deal more than once. Others said they got the email but did not find the discount code.
It’s Facebook account collected a good many complaints, some saying things such as “You really dropped the ball on this one.” Not a few making comments on LivingSocial’s Facebook page were irate. It will be interesting to see how they handle this. Reputation management online is a big deal because such things go viral on the Internet at the speed of light.
The company has serious competition in the local social deals space from Chicago-based Groupon and several other large players, not to mention a host of smaller ones. It’s one of the hottest spaces in Internet commerce right now.
Mashable has disclosed Google’s plans to create its own rival service, Google Offers. Google reportedly tried to buy Groupon for $6 billion, a deal the company declined. It then proceeded to raise $950 million more in venture backing.
I took the deal myself and while the email with the Amazon discount code did not show up until 2:30 a.m. Friday morning, I followed the procedure they outlined to claim it and had no difficulties myself.
We are contacting the company to see how they’re handling this and will update you upon receiving a response.
Email TJS editor Allan Maurer: Allan at TechJournal South dot com.
Tags: Amazon discount deal, Amazon/LivingSocial deal, DC, facebook, LIvingSocial, reputation management
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
|
