Bloggin Strateges For Companies: Stop Suing Bloggers

Beyond Madison Avenue is the blog of Talent Zoo, a marketing executive search firm who has taken great strides into the blogosphere. I had the chance to speak to Rick Myers a few weeks ago, and it reminds me I hadn't written about them.

Well, their site today turned me onto a story today. They write about Apartment Therapy, who apparently is being sued for reviews and comments left about a pair of stores in New York.

Two shops in particular (which I won't bother to publicly pillory, scorn and otherwise humiliate [much as I'd like to], since they'll probably get their lawyers on us again), have tried to get us to delete negative comments, take their listing down and have harassed two readers by discovering and posting their full names and serving another court papers at their home (this reader included their full name in all their comments and was well known to the store).

This is exactly the type of thing the blogosphere should respond to. The company is attacking, not only the blog, but demanding personal information from them to go after commenters for posting reviews about their product. This is a common tactic to tone-deaf companies who think their lawyers can intimidate small companies and individuals. It reminds me of the kerfuffle over JL Kirk, an employment company that charges candidates for the privilege of representing them. That company sent in the lawyers, and the blogosphere responded with a couple hundred links that shot the company (and the lawyers) to the top of the search engines for negative comments about the company.

in this case, Apartment Therapy is playing the role of mediator, not releasing the names of the companies to the hounds, but also registering their dislike of the process. Lucky for those two companies.

The answer from Danny at Beyond Madison Avenue is not to sue, but to use the criticism as a launching board to improve the product.

Now, I could sit here an wax poetic about the problems with our legal system and ask why we live in a society where companies are free to bully the little guy in hopes of scaring them with lawyer fees. But I won’t. We all know that in a post "I got paid for spilling hot McDonalds coffee on myself" world, lawsuits are just a way of life. What I absolutely can’t understand though, is how companies could see this as anything other than an opportunity.

Your company has just been publicly berated for…something…a lack of service, treating a customer poorly, whatever. Now, obviously your first inclination is to go after the person speaking out against them. Spend a grand or two, search out their real names, and slap them with cease and desist letters that probably cost $100/word from your corporate attorneys.

Popular Bloggers are not unreasonable people - certainly not the ones that build and maintain an audience. For a company to sue Apartment Therapy for reviews of their stores shows an ignorance of the nature of social media, and a contempt for their customers. Are they pushign out cease and desist letters to customers that are complaining to friends and family? It's the same story, but published online.

So here's a big thumb in the eye to companies who rely on lawyers who are ignorant of the world of the blogosphere. You may be able to intimidate small companies, but you can't intimidate all of us. You'd be better off spending your money and your time addressing the problems that bloggers your customers uncover.