Bloggers trashing your company? Online reputation managers are here

[Ramakrishnan]

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/ind...?autono=336250

Chances are that when you run a search for a company on the web, blogs with negative content will show up on the first page, if not as the first search option.

For example, a Google search for "Airtel broadband + reviews" or "Tata broadband + reviews" throws up blogs that don't exactly praise these companies' services. This is the case with many other services like Dish TV and Tata Sky.

Apart from the embarrassment, these “crazy blogs” — as companies term them — force India Inc to spend crores of rupees to repair the damage.

Many companies now are choosing an easier option and contacting a host of online reputation management companies that clean up the negative content from the web. It's already a Rs 200 crore industry in India, and growing.

Companies like eBrandz, Communicate2, Value Pitch and Id8lab, among others, are offering this service.

Value Pitch CEO CH Venkataramana said companies will find it difficult to stop this practice themselves.

“The guys who do it are faceless and nameless people — maybe from competition or disgruntled employees or even pranksters — trying to malign companies. On the net, these blogs have mini-newspaper status and crop up on every search, even after a decade,” he said.

There are also “cribbing websites” like mouthshut.com, complaintboard.com and customercomplaint.com, while content of a defamatory nature are also put up on the web. “We call them cribbing websites because they only contain negative content,” Venkataramana added.

But how do they do it? Most companies refused to divulge what they called "trade secrets", but Communicate 2 Managing Director Vivek Bhargava said the first thing is to identify the source and if possible to pull the site down with the creator’s permission. If not, these companies create more content to confuse the search engine, so that the crazy blog doesn’t come up on the first page.

But these are basic steps; the rest involves much more complicated, specialised work.

Although online reputation is a new sector in India, globally, this is part of the paid search industry – that is, firms getting paid for every search you do - that stands at around $18 billion.

The problem is certainly huge. For example, an earlier campaign on the net alleging use of Sodium Laureth Sulfate (a chemical that allegedly causes cancer) had raised doubts about the reputation of shampoo brands like Clear, Fructis, Palmolive and O'real, said eBrandz, an online reputation management company, CEO Milind Mody.

“Companies are spending crores of rupees to promote their brand and yet a single high-ranking negative blog can destroy their reputation,” Mody said. Rankings of blogs depend on the number of users visiting them. The higher the number of users, the higher the rankings.

In India, a considerable amount of malicious content has also cropped up on the web on the issues between the Ambani brothers, the Wadia-Danone fight over the brands owned by Britannia, the tussle between Austral Coke and Gujarat NRE and the Bajaj family.

[phreak0ut]

If a person is writing a honest review about a company's product or service, what is wrong in that? The company should take care atleast in the sector where the customers are complaining about. We are crying hoarse about BSNL's reputation when it customer support, but it's still the same. I support the bloggers.

[iinfi]

jus a one line comment.
"Private sector turning into politicians"

“The guys who do it are faceless and nameless people — maybe from competition or disgruntled employees or even pranksters — trying to malign companies. On the net, these blogs have mini-newspaper status and crop up on every search, even after a decade,” he said.

too optimistic. as if there is a fool proof customer redressal system in place in every company.
for my broadband complaint I first wrote to the Nodal Officer of tata indocom!!! nothing positive!!
then i wrote to the HO of Tata Indicom. no response!!
Then i wrote a letter to Tata House in Mumbai. nothing positive.
i disconnected my broadband connection after 2 months of broadband running slower than narrowband and diconnecting ever 2-3 mins. still they call me for non-payment of bills.

now if i post somewhere abt their super customer service and they try to push the google result to the second page instead of getting their service better, they are only making a fool of themselves.

to b frank, i didnt expect this from the Tatas!! i had a better exp whn i wrote to the CEO of reliance communications and NIIT Ltd when they chose to reply to my mail personally.

[amizdu]

May be these are the people who write positive reviews (for useless products) at mouthshut!

The companies must concentrate on improving their products and must learn to be honest. EVERY one of us know that TATA and BSNL services are mostly terrible.

If these people doctor reviews, then we wont be able to trust any website!

[afonofa]

These type of services should be availed of only if a company knows for sure that a competitor is purposely trashing the company's product through such negative blogs. Other than that the company should focus on improving their products & services with the money they spend on damage control, online reputation managers etc.

[chandru.in]

Originally Posted by iinfi

for my broadband complaint I first wrote to the Nodal Officer of tata indocom!!! nothing positive!!
then i wrote to the HO of Tata Indicom. no response!!
Then i wrote a letter to Tata House in Mumbai. nothing positive.
i disconnected my broadband connection after 2 months of broadband running slower than narrowband and diconnecting ever 2-3 mins. still they call me for non-payment of bills.

now if i post somewhere abt their super customer service and they try to push the google result to the second page instead of getting their service better, they are only making a fool of themselves.

to b frank, i didnt expect this from the Tatas!! i had a better exp whn i wrote to the CEO of reliance communications and NIIT Ltd when they chose to reply to my mail personally.

I guess Tata Indicom's low grade service was not just to me. I had blogged about Tata Indicom broadband's (wired) poor services too. Every word put in there is 100% true. If alone the retards in such companies take these as indirect feedbacks rather than defamation, India would have a far better quality of services (at least in broadband).

If I can get my hands on people doing this service of hiding public opinion on Tata Indicom's broadband, I'd thrash them till the last of drop of energy exists in me.

Since then I have switched to Reliance's wireless broadband service. Though the experience is not exactly top notch, I have not yet faced any such horrid service as Tata Indicom.

[W i d e S c r e e N]

is there a list of sites that are managed and furnished by this service?

[ax3]

its same like hidden cost[*] 2 an electronic item .......

bt no matter how much a company hides, TRUTH IS OUT THERE ! ! !

[mastermunj]

Money matters boss... smart people know where to earn from.. Its all about making business from crap..

But these blogs are not crazy and such sites are not cribbing... They should rather work even smarter to identify fake blogs and posts and correct them only..

[kumarmohit]

What these companies term as 'crazy blogs' are actually the products of lousy service and support these companies provide.

Business without customer care is going to invite such a reaction and nothing more. We need something like an Indian version of www.Consumerist.com

[MetalheadGautham]

truth is truth.
if you suck, it means you suck.