Ignoring Blogs Can Create and Propel a PR Crisis

More and more businesses of every kind are discovering the importance of their Google ranking. Some are even learning how blog posts and comments can positively or negatively effect their rankings. The reaction to this discovery is often more bad PR for them. This is exactly what is happening over at the Accordion Guy's blog. Seems a friend left a comment stating his opinion and experience with a business in Toronto. The business discovered the comment as the number two result for them on Google. They tracked down the blogger and threatened him to remove the comment. He checked with his friend who left the comment and verified his comment. Then promptly blogged the whole story. Now this story is the number one result when googling the name of the business. I predict a name change for the business.

Handling a crisis of bad (or good) blog based PR is increasingly important these days. This in not just a good reason for businesses to have their own blog to participate and shape conversations about them, it's also a lesson in how not to handle these types of situations. Without experience and understanding of the blogosphere errors of response (being too quick with the legal threats) can only make the situation worse. It's a good reason to consider outsourcing your blogging with experienced bloggers who know the blogosphere and have some experience dealing with these kind of PR situations.

Read the whole story here: accordion guy gets into hot water and think about how you would react if it was your business.

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