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A Great Example of Hosting the Conversation When Under Attack

posted on February 23, 2009


Listen to me speak about online reputation management long enough and you’ll hear me talk about the importance of "hosting the conversation" when under attack.

Here’s a great example of that, courtesy of Last.fm which found itself the victim of a "vicious and completely false rumour." The music service tried what many companies try:

I denied it vehemently on the Techcrunch article, as did several other Last.fm staffers. We denied it in the Last.fm forums, on twitter, via email – basically we denied it to anyone that would listen, and now we’re denying it on our blog.

And, the "denying it on our blog" part is the best way to host the conversation. Instead of playing rumor "whack a mole" Last.fm’s blog post hit Techmeme, achieved 1177+ Diggs, dozens of comments, and positioned itself as the official response to the allegations.

Oh, and the title of the post? "Techcrunch are full of sh!t." Not my normal style, but effective at bringing the conversation to their site, don’t you think? ;-)


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  • http://www.jaankanellis.com Jaan Kanellis

    Just another way how blog posts can help control reputation issues.

    Jaan Kanellis’s last blog post..Canonical Tag From Google: So Simple and Smart

  • http://www.newhomessection.com/blog Jayson

    Certainly a “different” title but publishing an official response on their blog was a great way to bring the conversation to their turf so they can address comments in a timely fashion – the results sound like the approach worked well.

    Jayson’s last blog post..Save hundreds of thousands of dollars off your brand new home

  • http://www.oneclickva.com/blog Yelena

    I agree with using company’s own blog to host the conversation and react timely to the “spreading like wildfire” negative news. Too many companies prefer to ignore negative mentions (until they become too visible and disrupting). Do you think it would pay off to have a blog (or a category within an existing company blog) dedicated to complaint responses in general?

    Yelena’s last blog post..6 ways to use Twitter

  • http://www.last.fm/user/Babs_05 Babs

    Last.fm’s response was excellent. Punchy, direct, to the point. Addressed the issue head on. The title was perhaps emotive and may not pass through work firewalls but that’s by-the-by. To me, it looks as much like an instinctive response as an advised one. It’s human. The TechCrunch article was hugely damaging, losing Last.fm some of their users whilst doubt remained amongst others. The blog served to reassure them and at the same time, gave the rest of us diehard Last.fm fans something to cheer over. We users have a lot of trust in Last.fm and we enjoy a great relationship with them, staff and founders alike. There isn’t another site I use that comes anywhere close. It was as important for Last.fm to protect their online reputation on the wider scale as well as within its own userbase.

    I’m not sure what ‘hosting the conversation’ means exactly, but Last.fm whupped TechCrunch good and proper, and that’s good enough for me.

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  • http://designer-watches.org rishil

    I am extremely impressed by the tone and character of Last FMs post – they hit the right emotional tones while at the same time taking some serious damage control into action: (http://blog.last.fm/2009/02/23/techcrunch-are-full-of-shit#c007262)

    “As soon as we saw the TC article we suspended the system that cleans out user accounts marked for deletion, expecting that people would do exactly as you did.If you contact our support team (support [at] last.fm) we should be able to restore your account and scrobbles.”

    rishil’s last blog post..Special Discount – Save 40% Off 0n Armani Watches

  • http://www.emailcharger.com valencio

    TC is full of shit??

    Valencio
    http://www.ePostMailer.com

    valencio’s last blog post..Feature Description

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  • http://forextrading.nunugenius.net/ NUNU GENIUS

    great article, sure i’ll be back.

    good day

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