Should a company at bay blog?

Chris Edwards has published a long and thoughtful piece about our Search is brand white paper.

He makes one point that calls for a clarification – yes the stats were UK only. We are planning a wider survey in due course.

He also makes two points which call for a response:

1) the report counted everything that was might be seen as damaging to the brand as “negative”. He mentions the fact that a search on Dairylea brought up a reference to an historic product recall. This is true. We assumed that anything that would diminish the public perception of the brand was negative.

2) Chris questions whether search engine optimisation and blogging are enough when a brand is deep in the mire, as in the case of the Kryptonite lock. We would answer that the Kryptonite case and the recent issues with Land Rover instead demonstrate a couple of important things:

a brand under attack in the blogosphere has to respond early. If a blogger has raised a valid problem, then it is important not to ignore the problem and hope the blogger will get bored and desist. Blog attacks are public and remain on search engines forever. If the problem is a real one, others will find the attack and link to it.

the brand has to address the problem. There is no point in planning a sophisticated Google-bombing, SEO-ed up to the gills, widely syndicated response that doesn’t take away the original pain. Only if action has been taken on the problem, and the company has publicised that action, will the links go to the new source of authority. For example the “how to get a cash refund for my Kryptonite lock” page.

We would argue that SEO and blogging are both useful tools in making a corporate response public. If there is a problem that effects a small number of consumers, then the brand has nothing to lose by creating a well-indexed page which comes up on Google when a description of that problem is entered as a search term, and making sure that all stakeholders in the company know about that page. Ideally it would be part of an FAQ.

Blogging is an informal way of dealing with issues major and minor and getting the word out. “We screwed up. We have decided to give you all your money back or offer you a free upgrade. Here is what you do. Email us here if you are stuck. By the way, we are building a better version of the product applying the lessons of this experience.” This is an approach that is much more likely to win back lost trust and loyalty than putting out a press release written in legalese, or Google-bombing your detractors. …