Business blogging can be scary, there is no denying that. An angry customer, unscrupulous competition, or a troublemaker (known as a troll) all can end up at the end of your well written post in the form of malicious or slanderous comment.

But then, someone could slip in the aisle of your store, or one of your drivers can drive your company truck into your next lawsuit. As the saying goes, *@%* happens. It is unlikely that customers, or your readers, are going to judge you based on one mishap. They will judge you on how well you handle that mishap. And if handled adroitly and fairly - online or off - the whole incident will become the proverbial “lemon into lemonade”.

Liability is part and parcel of doing business and just like physical liabilities are a reality in a public store, so can liabilities land in your blog. You deal with it. Ethically, succinctly, and go on. When executed well, your blog increases in credibility right along with your brand.

Part of blog training includes some information that will guide the business blogger in such situations and, no doubt, your legal counsel will fill in the blanks. For now, this advice from Tom Hespos at iMedia Connection will hold you in good stead.

“… companies often react poorly to the idea that a negative comment could linger on their website, or the idea that someone who has a negative opinion of the company could sour the experience for other folks seeking information. What we do in these cases is try to get the company to think of negative feedback as an opportunity to change minds.

Contrary to popular opinion, very few commenters leave negative feedback that is completely without discussion value. Yes, you will get the occasional hater who engages in drive-by posting on your site, leaving nothing more than “Company X sucks.” What many companies don’t realize is that the people who leave these valueless comments are quickly ostracized by online communities if the company is truly committed to the conversation. If you set up a channel in which you’re listening and responding meaningfully, the people who get value from that will shout down the haters quickly. More often than you’ll hear from the haters, you’ll get people posting details of interactions they’ve had with your company. You will hear from people about why they had a bad experience. Therein lies the opportunity….”

Tags: blog, Blog Training, business-blogging, credibility, legal_counsel, liabilities, negative_feedback, slanderous

This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2007 at 5:08 pm and is filed under Business Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.