A New PR Front: Watch Your Online Reviews

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By: Doug Bedell

So maybe it won't happen often, but when it does, it can be especially harmful. Customers are putting a lot of stock in online reviews. One survey found that consumers trust online reviews as much as recommendations from a friend. Get a poor one, and what do you do? A column in the Idaho Statesman addresses this increasingly important aspect of Internet PR and marketing.

The first thing to do is to monitor your brand online. Don't let it fend for itself "out there." Jeanette Duwe, who owns a PR firm and is a former journalist, writes that Google Alerts, Mention, and MyReviewsPage.com are the places to start for online monitoring. Then, should a bad review appear, "respond with a solution." Act just as though the unhappy customer is standing before you. "Be kind and civil," Jeanette advises, "even if the review has your blood boiling."

Yes, people are people, whether on the web or not. PR principles of empathy and patience apply online as much as off.

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About the Author

Doug Bedell has a background in journalism and PR and is the proprietor of Resource Relations in Central PA, which focuses on organizational communication, crisis communication, and social media. His blog, “Beetles Beat,” can be found at www.ResourceRelations.com. On Twitter, he’s DougBeetle.

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