December, 2007
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December, 2007 |
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I don’t even want to get into the discussion or debate as to what is the appropriate salutation this time of year. What ever you celebrate, it is a glorious time of year! It is a great time to look back at all that we accomplished and experienced during the past 12 months. I hope you feel smarter than you did this time last year. I know I do. I have spoken to audiences about building their brands and raising their visibility from Bangkok to Singapore; Calgary to Atlanta – and parts in between. I have been fortunate to have sold thousands of my books and appeared on over 80 television and radio stations talking about appreciating the gifts that surround us. My son learned to ride a bike, my daughter started wearing makeup and my other daughter was the MVP of her softball championship game. More importantly, I have kissed my wife and kids many thousands of times – and I’m not even close to running out! My cup runneth over. But even as we recognize the plethora of blessings that surround us, this month’s featured article highlights a significant risk to our business that cannot be ignored! Don’t miss it. So read on and until next year, I hope your holiday is safe, warm, happy and filled with gratitude for all that we have. Happy New Year. |
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By David Avrin – The Visibility Coach Like death and taxes, if you are in business, someone will inevitably utter an expletive connected to your name, or the name of your company. It’s a given. It could come from a dissatisfied client or even an unfriendly competitor. And depending on where they say it, and to whom, it could be very, very dangerous for your business. We all know that we can’t satisfy every client or customer, and eventually, someone will be less-than-thrilled with the results of your business relationship, or from the threat you pose as a competitor. As they say: “Reputation Rules” and a motivated, dissatisfied individual can wreak havoc with your reputation and even destroy your livelihood. And if you think that a draconian scenario like this is unlikely and doesn’t apply to you? Wake up! A generation ago, we used talk about “the general public,” you know, the average Joe or Jane on the street. Well guess what? They don’t exist anymore. Now, instead of the general public, we have a variety of “publics” that we must address, communicate with, cater to, contend with and be cautious of. In yesteryear, an unsatisfied customer might be motivated to write a letter to the editor, complain to the Better Business Bureau, or maybe even grab a picket sign and set up camp in front of your office. Today’s unhappy camper is altogether different.
While the rest of us are sleeping away, dreaming of compelling new marketing campaigns, successful strategies and exciting new product launches, search engines are working away, finding every mention of your name, every reference to your company – without regard to truth, your business objectives or anyone’s motivations. As we awake to face the new day, countless prospects are logging on to computers around the world and searching for products, services, experts and resources. Unfortunately, they are learning more than simply what you want them to know about your business – but what others want them to know and think about you and your business as well. The doomsday scenario: Despite your best efforts and quality service, a client has unrealistic expectations and is unhappy about the results of your business exchange. You try to work out a reasonable compromise, but he is having none of it. He is loaded-for-bear and he wants satisfaction. Translation: He wants revenge. So he goes online and registers the domain name: “The Name of Your Company Sucks.com.” He then proceeds to create a basic website and a blog and begins to rant about his dispute with you. Moreover, he posts profanity-laced tirades on a daily basis and encourages others to do the same. Before long, his rants are being referenced on other people’s blogs and the critical mass of name mentions achieves the unthinkable: It gains a high ranking on the search engines. In fact, it beats the ranking of your official site and appears higher on the search page than you do! Your prospective clients begin learning about you first, not from your official website, but from someone who wants to hurt you. An unlikely scenario? Oh contraire, my marketing minions! It has happened time and time again to some very well known companies and to some lesser known ones as well. The saboteurs have come from the ranks of customers, competitors, neighbors, employees and even family members! Some organizations had the resources to whether the storm, while other were crushed under the weight of the bad visibility. The real tragedy is that there is very little you can do about it once it occurs. It can take years, even decades to build a positive reputation and only a matter of days to destroy it. Because you can never ensure that everyone will be happy with you and your business, the least you can, and must do, is to remove the easy online weapons that might be used to assault you and your business’s reputation. Heather Lutze, a speaker and leading guru on search engine optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing (www.lutzeconsulting.com) says that, as uncomfortable as it might seem, you need to register and own the domain names: “(yourbusinessname)sucks.com” as well as every variation of your business name, including adding the word “the” as in theCocaColaCompany…… Beyond that, you need to register the dreaded “F” word before your name as well. You’d be astonished at how many malcontents resort to creating web pages called F(Company X).com in an effort to exact revenge. Trust me, it will be disturbing viewing those domain names on the screen as you are purchasing them, but take comfort in the fact that you own them and no one else does – or can. Then just keep the name with no website and never let them expire. If it never get’s posted, it’ll never be found on the search engines. Guard your name. Guard your brand. Guard your reputation. Beyond the importance of providing good work and good service to your clients, take proactive steps to ensure that your visibility online is the result of your hard efforts – and not in spite of them. Sometimes the greatest visibility strategy is knowing when it’s best to remain invisible!
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Articles may be reprinted, but must include the following tag: David Avrin is known internationally as the Visibility Coach. A popular speaker, author, branding consultant and executive coach, David helps position professionals and organizations to stand apart from their competitors and become top-of-mind with their top prospects. Visit him online at: www.visibilitycoach.com. Interested in working one-on-one with David Avrin? Interested in learning more about the Visibility Coach? Click here!
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The internet has given a voice to the down-trodden and the disgruntled; the inconvenienced and the inconsolable; the fed-up and furious. A 45 year-old with a beef about anything from a barking dog to a late package used to be relegated to sitting in his robe at 1:00 in the morning complaining to his wife. Today, that same man or woman spends half the night furiously typing on his or her keyboard and ranting to the masses. And if you think that no one is listening, you are so 20th century.
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