Confronting Attacks On Your Reputation Online

Anyone who has dealt with online attacks on either their own or their business’ reputation knows how unpleasant it can be—especially when the criticism is disproportionate, inaccurate, or unfair. You may feel inclined to respond to unflattering comments and reviews on your own, to set the record straight. But you’re still busy trying to keep the day-to-day operations of your business running smoothly, and realistically, you just don’t have time to answer every critic. Worse, you know that what gets written online stays online for a long time.

So, what should you do when you’re being trashed on the web? How can you salvage your reputation from haters with seemingly unlimited time on their hands?

Prioritize the most prominent or most commonly recurring negative opinions

You may find that many commenters are highlighting similar themes in their negative reviews. Maybe they’ve all had a comparable experience, or maybe they’ve been influenced by a particularly outspoken seed-planter. Regardless, you’ll save yourself valuable time and energy by locating the original or most prominent exponent of a particular derogatory view. Address that person directly, and try to be diplomatic if you reasonably can.

If a misconception about you or your business is very prevalent in public discourse, or there is a significant issue affecting your organization that requires explanation or clarification, an open letter or public announcement would be more effective than trying to address individuals’ concerns one at a time.

Resist the knee-jerk temptation to become defensive

Defensiveness is a natural reaction when one feels under attack. But a defensive tone can easily invite escalation. Many disgruntled-sounding customers will become more reasonable and even-handed once they’ve calmed down. By contrast, the more heated and argumentative an online discussion gets, the lower the probability of a mutually satisfactory outcome.

A good first step in many cases is to express regret over the unpleasant experience the complainer has had—“I’m sorry that this happened to you.”

Often, you’ll find it’s not difficult to identify the source of the individual’s discontent and possible solutions.

Try to set things right

Does the complainer have a legitimate gripe? Did you or your company do something that caused offense or dissatisfaction? Can the problem be rectified, or at least mitigated? Was it within your control?

Be honest with yourself as you contemplate these questions, and think about ways that you can offer a legitimately dissatisfied customer, client, or stakeholder some consolation. Would a partial or total refund be appropriate? Or a free session or product?

Don’t waste time on lewd or scurrilous comments

You’ve undoubtedly come across the phrase “Don’t feed the trolls”. Indeed, not all critics  are fair, civil, or reasonable, and it’s okay to be discerning about the ones you choose to engage.

Online harassment remains a very serious problem in our society, and the ability to offer opinions anonymously online brings out the worst in certain people. Unfortunately, even in 2016, women and girls in the public eye are still regularly subjected to degrading, misogynistic diatribes. Abusive language and character assassination aren’t justified by any error or misjudgement on your part, and you needn’t feel obliged to put up with such behaviour.

Online fora and social media platforms typically have content management policies, including harassment protocols. If someone is either harassing you directly or spreading hateful innuendo about you or your organization, don’t hesitate to report it to the site’s administrators.

Keep your eye on the ball

While you can’t always dissuade people from making negative comments about you or your business, you can focus on your present and future clients and customers. If you continually learn from your mistakes and do your job responsibly and effectively, you should receive plenty of positive reviews to offset the nasty ones—especially if you make a point of soliciting and incentivizing feedback.

The Art of Self-assessment

Self-assessment is an art, and knowing precisely who we are, where we’re at, and what we offer is an essential component to business management. Looking inward can be cathartic, it can be eye opening, and it can even be shocking. But no matter what, it has to be revealing and it has to be authentic. In the process of assessing ourselves, if the truth does not surface, even if it’s a hard truth to face, your business could soon find itself in peril. Of course, it’s hard, even seemingly impossible, to be incredible – to always be ahead of the business game and driving the market forward – but it should always be an ideal to strive toward. Most of the time every business out there is just trying to stay relevant and stay in the game – we want to find a niche, grab a slice, and build a life. A credible business that stays true to itself and that feels solid from sunrise to sunset is where the lion’s share of us to look to invest our time and energy - it’s how we earn our living; it’s how we eat. Done properly, a thorough self-assessment can be the difference between being a credible business and being an incredible business. On the other hand, an inauthentic self-assessment can be the difference between being credible and being eaten alive.

Leave your ego at the door

The story of how the artist suffered through countless years of having their work overlooked and receiving rejection after rejection before they eventually had their big breakthrough is so mainstream that it’s become cliché. Typically, the reason even some of the greatest artists, musicians, and writers suffered for so long isn’t because the world wasn’t ready, or that their work just hadn’t reached its audience, it’s because their work probably wasn’t very good. Inventors also go through hundreds of designs that fail miserably before they hit on the one that works, goes public, and then viral.

The roadblock that proves so difficult for these artists and inventors to overcome is their own conceptions of their real, or perceived, talent. In much the same way that a mother always believes her child is the most beautiful baby ever born, so an artist believes that their work is brilliant. It’s too crushing to the psyche to admit that what came from the most intimate part of us is ugly or worthless, so we end up living in denial instead of taking the positive out of negative criticism.

Harness the force of negative feedback

Anyone who has studied the ancient Chinese martial art of judo understands that the key to subduing your opponent is to use their own weight, and their own force, against them. This is how we have to begin to understand self-assessment from a business standpoint. If our work, or our product, is receiving negative feedback it’s important to make the distinction that it’s not as much about our clients pointing out our inadequacies, as it is about responding to what our clients are telling us they want. Every piece of negative feedback, whether about your product or service, or your competitors, is a window into what customers in your market are looking for. Isn’t business, after all, about meeting that demand?

The seldom-told story

Whereas the story of the struggling artist has become almost trite, there is another story that you don’t really ever hear about. It’s the story about the artist who after years and years of rejection eventually just gave up and was never heard of, ever. It’s not a story many people like telling, but the unfortunate reality is that it is by far the more common. Conventional wisdom tells us that what separates the successful artist from the one that got out of the game was a result of their superior talent. But in art, as in business, Darwinian principles rule where it is not the strongest of the species that survives, but the one most responsive to change. The successful artist, like a successful business, is able to tap into what their clientele is looking for by successfully internalizing the criticism they receive. After an objective self-assessment whose focus is on growth, one can then use any criticism to make positive strides forward and leap from being edible to credible, or even credible to incredible.