After taking the day off yesterday I decided it was time to tackle another Internet issue. Today it’s social media and negative SEO. Devoted readers will know that I posted on negative SEO tactics on June 29. Well, negative SEO is back in the spotlight, but this time in related to social media rather than Google.

Social media consists of bookmarking and news sharing sites like Digg and del.icio.us. One of my favorite Internet marketing blogs - Marketing Pilgrim - recently discussed negative SEO regarding these types of media sites. I think they make a great point.

Social media marketing is growing in popularity. It’s where companies promote their website content or news about them through the bookmarking sites by hiring people to bookmark them. One variation of it is to hire people to vote you up on Digg and other such sites. This could be quite lucrative if you have a large network of people who regularly read your bookmarks and copy them. The whole idea is to share your bookmarks or favorite news items with a network of friends who, in turn, see the value in them and bookmark them as well. When those network friends share the same bookmarks with their network friends, who also share with their network friends, who also share, and so on then you have a viral campaign going on. That’s what these companies are hoping will happen.

But what happens if, instead, an angry customer, a competitor, or a disgruntled employee goes on the attack? If negative comments about your company surface and you end up with people bookmarking those comments then you could have a serious public relations problem on your hands - especially if the comments about you are untrue or blown out of proportion. What should you do?

First, don’t panic. It can happen to the best of us. Secondly, you need to address it before it gets out of hand. For instance, if you have a company blog that would be a good place to address the issue. Post a blog post in connection with the comments explaining your side of the story. Then send out a press release, be sure to send one to any media who has picked up on your story, and tell everyone that you have addressed the comments. Encourage your friends, employees, or anybody you know to bookmark the blog post so that your information rises to the top of the heap and pushes everyone else down. With a little positive public relation you should be able to regain any traction your business had.

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