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(CP) - A stay-at-home mother of three who created a website to alert the government about allegedly dangerous environmental problems in her southwestern Ontario neighbourhood is facing a $2 million libel suit by one of the developers she reported on.

Louisette Lanteigne of Waterloo, Ont., said she grew sick of what she saw during construction in her new subdivision and what appeared to be questionable building practices and labour-code violations.

Companies getting attacked in the blogosphere comes with the nature of an online world. If you offer shoddy customer service or threaten the safety of individuals then you should be called out and brought to task.

Of course, one must always consider the possibility of being sued for libel when publishing online but this must also be balanced with the ability to tell the truth in all aspects.

If you’re a company that has someone bad mouthing you online, the worst thing you can do is sue them. This is because even if a court verdict comes out in your favor, the damage is done and will continue to grow progressively worse as the social network of the individual/site you are suing grows more agitated and begins to swarm around you online.

You will do far more damage to your brand than if you were to ignore the charges altogether.

The best way to handle a situation like this is to contact the blogger directly or leave a comment on their site inviting them to present the proof of their charges or print an immediate retraction–just like newspapers.

Of course, there are some bloggers out there who are just unscrupulous worthless bastages who seek to do damage to any kind of corporate entity they can draw virtual eyes and attention towards. Don’t pay attention to these people because they will self-destruct and eradicate their own credibility eventually; it’s as inevitable as objects falling to earth after a descent that doesn’t break the graviational pull of the planet.

You need to be aware of what’s going on in your name online and be prepared to get out in front of it and tackle it head on. This means you need a corporate blogger who researches your online brand every day and defends you against attacks while promoting the good things and gap fixes going on in your company.

If you’re not thinking like this, you’ve already lost the next ten years of business and you don’t even know it yet.

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