At a dinner party recently, I was seated next to someone who asked my advice on a recent business decision.  He had decided to pass on an offer from a “Brand Management Expert.” Interestingly, it had nothing at all to do with the $300/month this person wanted, but was instead motivated by the belief that what this person was offering to do was unethical.

We talked about it for a while, and it seems this person works with site owners to remove negative user reviews and increase positive ones. While his work is all above the board, my companion felt that this type of intentionally throttling negative feedback and promoting the positive was dishonest and unfair, so he didn’t want to participate.

A bit more discussion, and I came to understand that while I heartily agreed with the decision not to hire this “expert,” or employ his tactics, I did not agree that intentionally participating in the perception of your online brand was unethical.

Far from unethical, brand management should be a priority. In my mind, outsourcing something so important is the idea that offends.

In the future, there will be a online-brand-management-best-practices post, but for now I will give this advice, as I remember giving to my dinner companion:

First, you have to separate those who are crazy from those with a legitimate complaint. The crazies, you can’t win because you are not playing the same game, so don’t even try.

For everybody else, your job is to address their complaints in the most honest and respectful way you can. Do it publicly, do it quickly, and do your very best to satisfy them. Your job is to make them understand that even if you can’t change the circumstance, you are willing to dialogue about it, to hear them out, and allow them to like you, even if they don’t like the situation.