It's How You Respond...
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In laying the ground rules for thriving in a social media world, I offer up the following:
- You can't hide. Better to be transparent
- You can't control the message
- Bad situations will arise. Those situations, however, are full of opportunity to build your brand. (Here is but one example)
Here's a fascinating example.
This blog, once in a while, receives comment spam. That is, someone will put a comment on a post that is totally irrelevant with the sole purpose of linking to their site (this-in theory-increases their Google Page Rank).
I delete them, but it's annoying.
However, when you post a comment on my blog, I have your IP address (not your computer, but your ISP).
So, after a few spammy comments linking back to OnAirPr.com, I'd had enough.
I found the email of the site owner (Wayne) and I found the abuse department of his hosting company (and cc'd them).
Wayne,
I would respectfully request that whoever on your team is comment-spamming blog refrain from doing so. It's enough.
I am cc'ing the abuse department of your hosting company after having done a WhoIs lookup on your IP address: 69.89.31.237
And am attaching the most recent of the irrelevant comments This is not the way to build your brand.
Now, to Wayne's credit, he responded promptly and professionally. He had hired a firm to do SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for him and well, they obviously were morons.
Poor Wayne...his hoster shut him down and he had a 24 hour period of hassle, but he took it gracefully.
We've exchanged a number of emails and now are friends on Facebook. It's clear that he's a good businessman who just made a bad decision.
Lessons
- if you hire someone to help with SEO, make sure they understand: they are representing your brand
- If things go haywire, own up to it.
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Comments
Wayne Kelly said on 11.17.2008 at 6:34 PM
Thanks Jeremy, It was tough lesson to learn...and I was amazed at how fast a seo company can destroy years of branding. I fired the firm and deleted that site and am now back to the much better twitter, facebook and of course teleclasses. I think this is a valuable lesson on the internet that not everyone is rude or out to get you. If you want to become a trust worthy brand, you have to answer emails and phone calls. It amazes me how many people never respond to their clients by email. I'm glad I responded to you!
Your new friend,
Wayne Kelly
PS As I've looked around your blog, you have terrific info! Keep it up!
Daniel said on 12.07.2008 at 5:44 PM
Jeremy,
I wasn't part of the original discussions, but was it really necessary to 'go nuclear' and report the offense to the abuse department of the hosting company before establishing contact with the offender (which, in this case, you misidentified)?
It seems like there was a way to build rapport without escalating things to the level they were taken. I'm glad you and Wayne were able to work things out, but it seems like there was a better way to handle this.
-D
jer979 said on 12.08.2008 at 6:42 PM
It's a fair question, Daniel, but there are a few variables that affected me. First, this wasn't the first time that I'd been comment spammed by this site, so perhaps my patience was thin. I had deleted a number of other comments. If at that point, you don't get the message, you should stop. Second, I don't feel like it is my job to be nice to comment spammers. third, I don't have the time to reach out to all of these people and try to talk with them. Fourth, the ISP abuse alias is not something I use lightly, but it gets results, and fifth, with enough stories like this, I suspect that people will stop the practice as they see the result.
Fair enough? ;-)