For the last five months or so, I’ve been working on a contract basis as the Community Manager of an Internet start-up company called ReputationDefender. In my work, I’m primarily responsible for writing customer-facing communications, including newsletters and daily blog posts about online reputation management, Internet privacy, and personal branding issues. In addition to my writing, I am also responsible for monitoring and managing the company’s presence on social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. It is in this part of my job where I get to have some of the most fun.

For instance, take a look at this exchange I had with a guy named Jay Braymer on Twitter.

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Although Jay didn’t mention ReputationDefender by name, nor did he use an @ reply to tag us, I was still able to see his message and respond to it because I was monitoring the appropriate search terms on TweetDeck. The resulting conversation was not only comical, but it helped demonstrate a value that my company offers, namely that we can help you effectively monitor and manage your online reputation.

Now, I know it probably seems like I’m patting myself on the back too much for something that seems pretty obvious, but the truth is that some companies will only engage their customers at the mention of their brand name. If I had only been looking out for mentions of @RepDef, I would have missed Jay’s message and thus missed the opportunity to have a unique and memorable exchange. Monitoring a diverse set of keywords relative to your core competencies is a great way to start interesting conversations and move beyond the realm of mere self-promotion.

Will Jay become a customer of ReputationDefender? Maybe yes, maybe no. To me, though, that’s not really the point. At the end of the day, when I look at how I used Twitter, or other social media tools, I ask myself, “Did I have any fun or interesting conversations today and did I represent my company’s brand well?” In this case, I’m happy to say yes on both counts.

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By now, the odds are good that you’ve heard about film director Kevin Smith’s recent clash with Southwest Airlines. If you haven’t yet heard the story, or you’re a bit fuzzy on the details, here are the essential details.

Kevin Smith, who is famous for directing Clerks, among numerous other popular comedy films, purchased two tickets for a short Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Burbank. When offered the opportunity to board an earlier stand-by flight, Smith took the option. Once on board, Smith seated himself and waited for the flight. At this point, according to Smith, it was determined by a Southwest employee that he required two seats to sit comfortably under Southwest’s “Customer of Size” policy and that he would have to be removed from the plane.

Being understandably embarrassed about the situation, Smith demonstrated that he could buckle the seat belt and put down the arm rests (two key requirements of the policy), but he was told to exit the plane anyway. At this point, Smith turned to his more than 1.6 million Twitter followers. In response to his status updates, many of his followers began lashing out against Southwest, prompting a Southwest employee to tweet an apology from the official Southwest Twitter account, along with an official apology at the Southwest Airlines corporate blog.

While you would think that might be the end of it, Smith still has a bone to pick with Southwest. The reason? As he clearly indicated by passing their test, he isn’t in fact “too fat to fly.” Despite this fact, however, while Southwest has agreed to review their “Customer of Size” policy to make sure that it’s appropriate, nobody has gone on record as saying that Smith was not in violation of the policy, which is all that he wants. Unfortunately, because of all the drama that this incident raised, the moniker of “too fat to fly” will now be a stain on his reputation for the rest of his life.

Kevin Smith on Southwest Airlines

As much as I like Kevin Smith as a director, and as a person in general, I can’t help but wonder if he isn’t responsible for all of this media attention. Now before you get mad at me, I want you to know I’m not blaming the victim. From my understanding of the incident, Smith was not necessarily treated fairly and I’m glad that Southwest is reviewing their policies to make sure nobody else must be embarrassed unnecessarily. However, if Kevin Smith hadn’t taken to Twitter with his complaint, it’s likely that the story wouldn’t have made national news (even the New York Times got involved) and he would still be known as one of the world’s most beloved indie-film directors and not the “too fat to fly” guy.

While social media websites like Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp have made it easier than ever to voice your displeasure over bad service, that doesn’t mean that you should automatically jump onto the web to plead your case. As Kevin Smith found out, when you complain about something, not everyone will be on your side. In this case, the sheer volume of angry, obscenity-laced comments against overweight people that the Smith/Southwest story has brought up is enough to show that perhaps it would have been better for him to suffer in silence, and then work with Southwest behind closed doors on resolving the issue.

If Smith had waited to try and sort out the issue privately, he may have been able to reach a more satisfying conclusion that wouldn’t have led to major media exposure. If Southwest wanted to play hardball, he still would have had the option of sharing his negative experience with the world, but he could have done it in a full-length blog post (like he eventually did here and here) where he might have been able to control the story better. Consider how much more impact Smith’s complaint would have had if he weren’t forced to try and explain the story in 140 character outbursts.

Social media has made it easy to give in to our impulses, particularly when it comes to complaining about something. As such, it is very important for companies to engage in proactive social media monitoring and maintain a full support staff for responding to customer concerns online. However, as consumers, we must also understand that Twitter and other social media sites are not always the proper forum to bring up a customer service issue.

Give the company a chance to respond to your concerns through traditional means of communication before pulling out the big guns. If you play your cards right, the company may offer a more satisfactory resolution to your concern than they would if they were forced to play defense online. Besides, even if a web rant does bring you swifter justice, consider the long-term effects in could have on your reputation. Do you really want the first results about you on Google to be a Twitter tirade?

What do you think? Is social media the first place you turn when you have a customer service problem, or do you use the good old-fashioned 800 number?

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Generally speaking, I can’t watch reality television. I’m not trying to be a hater, but it’s just not my thing. For some reason, however, I make an exception for cooking shows. Don’t ask me why, but if it involves slicing and dicing or broiling and boiling, I’m there. That’s why I’ve been so wrapped up in Top Chef Masters on Bravo.

The show, which follows in the footsteps of the original Top Chef series, pits several talented chefs against one another in a series of culinary competitions. The difference between Top Chef and Top Chef Masters (or TCM as it’s referred to by devotees) is that on TCM, the competitors are not looking to make a name for themselves. In fact, all six of the original contestants are already well-established figures in the culinary industry.

So far in the competition, I’ve taken a shine to Rick Bayless, who is famous for his Mexican cooking and his two Chicago restaurants, Frontera Grill and Topolobampo. Why am I supporting Bayless? Three reasons.

1. He makes Mexican food, and who doesn’t like Mexican food?
2. He is based out of Chicago,  a city I love and also where I graduated from college.
3. He understands social media and he actively uses it to reach out to fans of the show.

As with all reality shows, TCM is only partially “real.” It’s impossible for the average viewer to know what goes on behind the scenes or what gets left on the editing room floor. Basically, we are stuck with what the producers decide to show us, meaning our opinions of these wonderful chefs are inevitably skewed.

Thanks to the social media savvy of Rick Bayless, fans of TCM have been getting a unique behind-the-scenes look at the show. In addition to having a big presence on Twitter (almost 10,000 followers whom he interacts with regularly), Bayless also has his own blog, Root4Rick.com, that chronicles his experience on the show.

The best part about Bayless’ blog and his frequent Twitter updates is how genuine he is in communicating with his fans. You get the sense that this is the “real” Rick Bayless, a guy whom you would like to sit down with over some fish tacos and just converse. In other words, he “gets” social media, and with every tweet he is pro-actively building the Rick Bayless brand.

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According to a report from Mashable, a Chicago-based apartment management company has filed  a $50,000 lawsuit against a tenant for complaining about the company on Twitter. While the complaint was relatively minor — “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.” — and was only sent out to approximately 20 followers, it was enough to warrant this response from Horizon Realty spokesperson Jeffrey Michael.

“The statements are obviously false, and it’s our intention to prove that”, adding that Horizon has a good reputation to protect. Bonnen wasn’t contacted before the suit was filed or asked to remove the Tweet, he said: “We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization”.

Here at ReputationDefender, we pride ourselves on helping individuals and companies defend themselves from slander and libel online. Unfortunately, slander and libel can be very subjective terms. In a traditional legal sense, they are understood in a very specific context. There are legal precedents to abide by and reams of case law to reference. With the mass adoption of Internet technology, however, our understanding of defamation law has changed.

If an individual is critical of a business online, is that libel? If the criticism is patently false, the answer is likely to be yes. Does it matter how inflammatory the criticism is? If it’s truthful, maybe not. Right now, judges and legislators across the country are sorting out these issues, but it will still be some time before any kind of consensus can be reached. In the meanwhile, it is critical for individuals and businesses to take a proactive stance in managing their reputations online.

In the above situation, there are two important takeaways to remember. If you have a problem with a company, try and contact them directly first. Remember to be respectful, honest, and have facts to back up your claims. If you feel you must take your complaints online, understand that there may be consequences. While a $50,000 law suit seems grossly disproportionate to the “damage” caused by the tweet, there is no guarantee that a judge will feel the same way, and it would be a shame to go bankrupt over an offhanded remark on Twitter.

Similarly, if you are managing a business, do everything in your power to assuage a customer’s complaint before turning to your attorneys. Because of this lawsuit, and the “sue  first ask questions later” attitude of the company, Horizon Realty is only gaining more negative publicity. What could have been a small reputation management problem has become a big reputation management problem because the company was quick to play the victim card instead of investigating the legitimacy of a tenant’s complaints. As of the writing of this blog post, Mashable’s article has been retweeted 1648 times.

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You know, it’s funny. No matter how old you get, it seems like everyone wants to be the cool kid. That’s certainly the case with Facebook. Even though Facebook is the world’s largest social networking site, for the past year, the company has been playing catch-up with the world’s newest social media darling, Twitter.

The company’s efforts in this regard have led to some major changes to the website’s interface. The result has left many Facebook users angered and annoyed. Just this past March, Facebook switched the whole layout of the site, prompting major protests. Now, it seems, Facebook is hoping to further mimic Twitter with a major new change to the way messages are shared within the network.

In an effort to increase the amount of public data Facebook shares with the world, the company has implemented an “improved” Publisher application, which gives users the choice of sharing their information with everyone.

As described by TechCrunch, the feature works like this:

You can now control who you want to inform of your Facebook friends when you add any kind of content to the site. Here’s how it works: After writing a status, uploading a photo or creating other content from the Publisher, use the lock icon in the lower-right corner of the Publisher to access the drop-down menu. From there, you can then choose to make the post visible to everyone, friends and certain networks, friends of friends, and a custom list.

The idea of allowing users to selectively share content with the world is fine. The question is, will this alienate some of Facebook’s most loyal users? What made Facebook likeable compared to other social networking sites was its sense of privacy. Unlike MySpace, which has devolved into a spam-filled nightmare of glitter writing and loud unstoppable music, Facebook allowed people to make connections with friends and family in a setting that was clean and easy to use. As the site moves more and more toward a Twitter-like live streaming interface, however, the notion that Facebook is a “closed community” is being called into question.

I have no problem sharing information about myself online (I have a blog and I use Twitter) but, for me, that’s not what Facebook is for. I use Facebook as a way to connect with friends whom I might not take the time to personally e-mail or call. That’s it. In its effort to become more and more like Twitter, I fear Facebook may lose some of its value as a networking tool and become just another haven for self-promotion and spam.

Perhaps I’m overstating this change. After all, it is optional, so there’s a good chance that all the Facebook users who think like me will simply opt out. What do you think? Are Facebook’s attempt to become more Twitter-like helping or hurting the site?

It happens to companies too. Just look at the Silicon Valley. Out here, people seem to think that if you have a cool service with a bunch of users, money will follow. While this has proven true for some companies (Twitter did recently close another $15M in funding), how often does this approach backfire? The reason I’m bringing up the Five P’s after all these years is because today I had the unfortunate luck of experiencing a failure in proper planning firsthand.

For a couple of weeks, I had been looking forward to attending the Great American Food and Music Fest at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View. Despite the event’s steep price tag ($40 for a single ticket), I figured it would be a cool way to try some new food, listen to some good music, and see one of my favorite celebrity chefs, Bobby Flay. Unfortunately, by the time me, my fiancee, and my future mother-in-law arrived to enjoy the festivities, the event had already spun out of control.

First, we had to park about a mile away from the entrance. “No big deal,” I thought. “It’s a concert venue, that’s just how it works.” My feelings soon changed when I saw the line to enter. Stretching across the street from the amphitheater through two parking lots, the line was overwhelming. Through some quick detective work, I discovered that some people had been waiting in line for nearly an hour. Mind you, this is the line to get into the event.

Luckily, by the time we found our way to the end of the line, things were moving along relatively quickly. While still uneasy about the Fest’s obvious disarray, I was beginning to calm down. That is, until we actually reached the ticket lines. While there were several lines of people waiting to buy tickets, the longest line was for people waiting to get refunds. As we stood in line, we heard snippets of complaints from the refund line. “Waste of money.” “I waited for hours and didn’t get any food.” “The computer system is down and they are only taking cash.”

My girlfriend, future mother-in-law and I shared an “Oh crap” look and I went over to investigate. I talked to a few different people in the refund line and got the lay of the land. As part of your ticket, you are supposed to receive one free meal from a vendor. This meal was supposed to be authorized electronically through your wristband. Early in the day, the computer system authorizing this free meal crashed. Apparently, the vendors were unprepared to switch to a different system, causing huge back-ups throughout the fest. Some people said that they had been in lines for three hours without getting a single bite of food.

Sensing the futility of our situation, we decided to simply give up and spend the afternoon in downtown Palo Alto instead. It was a good decision. Palo Alto is nice in the summertime. Anyway, when I got home I decided to check online to see how other people felt about the Great American Food and Music FAIL. Dissatisfied foodies were already venting their frustrations en masse at Yelp. Just goes to show you how quickly poor planning can lead to a major loss of credibility. The Internet has given everyone a voice, and if you piss them off, they will let you know. Check out some of the juiciest complaints after the jump.

From Yelp:

Jeff S. – “I’m here right now and it is total chaos. The lines are out of control and it’s impossible to move.”

Calvin M. – “Just left after demanding a refund. This was the worst event i’ve ever been to…fail fail fail.”

Donna S. – “I’ve never seen a disaster of this magnitude…Long story short, I arrived at 12:05 and left at 3:20 pm without getting one bite to eat.”

Doug B. – “A MAJOR RIPOFF, worthy of a class action suit. The worst event execution I have ever experienced. Utter idiocy from start to finish…We will not return. Shame on the organizers for such woefully inept organization.”

People have also taken their frustrations here where they are talking about contacting Live Nation for refunds.