Rand's back briefly to give a quick Whiteboard Friday lesson in reputation management. Following his directory smackdown a couple of weeks ago after the release of the Premium Link Directory, we caught some heat in the forums (albeit largely from disgruntled directory owners). Watch the video and get an idea of how we recommend dealing with these types of situations.
Here are the sources mentioned in the video (fill in your brand/domain for the queries):
- Google, Yahoo!, MSN & Ask
- Google News & Yahoo! News
- Forums like Digitalpoint, Cre8asite, SearchEngineWatch, Sitepoint, WebProWorld & SEOChat
- Voting News sites like Digg, Reddit, Sphinn & Netscape
- Large UGC Communities like Google Groups, Yahoo! Answers & Wikipedia
- Google Blog Search & Technorati
ONE MORE THING: Today is the LAST DAY to get the Early Bird Discount for the Premium SEO Training Seminar we're hosting on October 1st.
https://www.seomoz.org/img/upload/big_bushy_beard.gif
A BIG BUSHY BEARD
and a new avatar for rand
I think another important point is to consider the source of the attack on your product, service or reputation. There are DEFINATELY times when not responding at all is better than arguing with someone who isn't willing to see the lite, accept an opology or pound salt.
If the source of the attack is credible and being professional, you can respond professionally. If the source of the attack is a talentless moron, just looking to be a pain in the a@#, then anyone that matters will see through their bs.
Comment:I remember a post from Matt Cutts where he/Google were accused of misusing user data and lack of user privacy. He said he had to physically leave his keyboard and return after 24 hours to comment rationally because he knew that any immediate response would be fiercely passionate and possibly defamatory.
By waiting before posting he had a much more fair and balanced rebuttal with many supporting arguments.
Respond to criticism logically, not passionately and you will gain credibility.
Question:Why is it only SearchEnginewatch that gets your love?
Also, the switch to YouTube from Ifilm - is this a permanent change?
"Not trying to secretly market your own brand" is some of the most valuable advice I've heard on here. I think it's a common mistake when some of us are just starting out in the field... and once you know better, it's often far too late. Nice one Rand.
You left out that we're going to Astoria to see the house from GOONIES!!!
You should visit Pacific City. There are some great views down there.
pacific city also has decent surf
Then you've gotta get some Rocky Road ice cream too!!
This is very helpful, not just for the great advice but also because it makes me feel better. If SEOmoz - a highly respected company that contributes greatly to the community - receives criticism, then it can truly happen to anyone no matter how helpful, friendly, or open you try to be.
Related to that, I think it's important to not be afraid of criticism and to not be afraid of addressing it. Just by showing up in the forums and being willing to talk to the posters, you increase your credibility even if you can't answer every question or sway every opinion.
I think the best advice is to take some time before writing a reply. It's never good to manage your reputation when you're emotionally charged. If you feel the need to immediately respond then write away and when you're done throw out what you've written.
Good luck on the wedding location search Rand.
When he says that Jane "loves" the Yahoo! singing thing, he means that I love it when I set it off. When anyone else sets it off, it's just not so funny.
It's soooooooo loud!
I heard it in Michigan.
wow , an amazing video
this is the first video of yours, I have got to see it.
I love your way of presentation and your down to earth approach
definitely I will read seomoz daily from now
Great piece -- these whiteboard vids are fantastic. If only I could attract visits with doodling :)
I actually just wrote a piece on reputation management too -- turns out I now outrank Movable Type for the phrase 'movable type customer support'
Check out my post on online reputation management
Great stuff Rand. Reputation Monitoring & Management must be in the air... I just wrote a piece for a local business magazine that I started contributing to.
Google and Yahoo alerts are great too to help automate this, though there is still a need for proactive measures as well.
I think it is also critically important to remember that you have to consider the intent. Hopefully, most people are just looking to be heard and appreciated and will respect your involvement and acknowledgement, but there will always be those few who simply will never be satisfied or that have evil motives, just looking to create a stir. Trying to win or convert them over is going to be a waste.
Fantastic vid once again Rand. Mikkel and Dave had a talk about it in their radioshow strike point which was great also.
If you are not getting criticism, then you are not opening up and putting your ideas and your beliefs out there for other people to experience. Sometimes people will agree with you and sometimes they won't. You can learn from it either way. It tells you that people are reading your work and forming opinions on their own, even if some of them seem to be way out in left field.
I don't think you have to totally avoid writing a rebuttle to a criticism as soon as you read it. That's when your passion about the topic will be at it's highest. Just don't be dumb enough to post it when you're so emotionally charged. Save the draft and come back the next day and read it from a different point of view. You may find that you made some good points or you may find that you really missed the whole point. The next effort will be more likely to get your point across.
Should be great to have a tool (php) that ping back to you by email daily tracking where the people talk about you.
How can you make that tool... maybe a daily search comparing between results (yesterday and today.
Great idea, maybe should be the next tool from Seomoz for viral marketing...
Don't worry - it's already in the pipeline... a few months to launch, though.
Hi Webdsirect, there are tools for doing this (we have one, but I'm not here to go all self-promotional). Have a read of Andy Beal's guide to reputation monitoring as a good intro.
You can get to our blog via my profile if you're interested - we write about reputation monitoring quite a lot.
Google Blog Search, with results ordered by date, is a great way to see what's being said about you online.
Great job Rand. All very good suggestions.
Way to step up and show off your white hat.
You are setting a good example for all of us.
Congratulations!
Yeah! We've been waiting for you guys to write more about reputation stuff. You'll definitely be getting some more links from us...
I remember some issue like this , where i had been facing terrible customer support from from a dedicated server provider . I had made a thread in WHT about the provider and they came down almost imediately to fight it , and they surely got into more trouble . But , what i would like to know is :
you are probably right that one should not jump in right away to defend yourself ... as there will always be several 1 post wonders or minions who are waiting to snap getting such a chance . However ones reputation will not get tarnished by it , but what if certain bigwigs ( well known members ) start posting about you and you keep silent ... what do you think that represents - are you bigger than everyone else and you dont need to care ?
And when you do decide to step into the conversation --
you have to stay committed. If you bail out early, it will only look like a loss.