I have a real thing about powerfull bullies. Let’s just say they upset me somewhat. Therefore once I see said bullying something inside me demands I pour effort into addressing it.

I think your work in the area of customer relations/pr/spin doctoring is unrivaled. Gibbonsesque should go down in the Google record as defining excellence in the field.

I get a real kick out of being called a spin-doctor. The truth is that if I had a PR background I would probably suck at what I do. Customer service is more relevant experience than PR when it comes to social media marketing. Treating bloggers the way you do journalists is a mistake. A blog post is typically a first-person account of your product or company and so a conversation with a blogger is more likely to be a customer service interaction than a PR opportunity.

For comment marketing to work you have to directly address the blogger’s issues and that brings you straight back to the court of public opinion. Don’t waste your time with comments if you know that a reasonable man would not stand by you. If you know you are wrong, all the comments in the world won’t save you (unless your apologizing.) As I said at a recent conference on biz-blogging; if you have an evil business model don’t bother starting a blog. Blogging only works when you are honest, transparent and creating real value for your customers. The only appropriate response when you’ve screwed up is to apologize and correct your mistake.

This ePerks case is a real mess at this stage. I’m not close enough to the details but from what little I’ve read I would doubt that comment marketing could have helped. It’s really surprising that what started with a simple paid blogging engagement could end so badly.

You are right about the general public perception of the real estate and legal industries but I think the case is newsworthy. I expect it would have gotten better coverage in free speech circles, like the mainstream press. Perhaps not enough telephone calls were placed. (Folks in the press still use the telly)

Even with the vented negativity, they would have done better with a PR spin master like Zillow’s David G (the strong arm approach does not work with everyone– I sensed that from Vlad’s reaction to the C&D letter). IMO, Zillow has had much more negative publicity than ePerks, yet it has weathered the storm in large part because of folks like David G & Drew Meyers. A lesson to be learned for any company coming into the space. Get a web savvy PR person & set them up with a bunch of Google alerts to run down.

Do you think the Sorry Solution could work now? It would save Vlad substantial legal fees and possibly stem the flow before it has a chance to gain momentum and reach the channels of mass media. They would also save themselves from the (good) chance the case is booted on procedural grounds or lost outright via a motion for summary judgment or trial.

IMO the case is a weak one, despite the sensational pedophile post– if anything, I believe juries will sympathize with the person accused of such a crime, not a big company (as a trial lawyer, I studied jury psychology). I never would have advised them to sue for damages (how can they collect?). If the client was intent on suing, I would have advised suing for a retraction and removal of the post– makes more sense to me and can be more easily spun as a protective act– suing for money but leaving the post there, with no retraction, sends the wrong message, I think. Anyway, that’s the way I would have practiced law in this case. The client and atty obviously thought differently. And who is to say I am right and they are wrong. That revelation will come to all of us later.

IMO, the case could go national in several ways—the wire services could pick it up, big city news media (LA, NY), someone could post a clever YouTube video, any major influencer or top tier tech blog might cover it. I think what did help ePerks was leaving out the money damages figure– I would have done it that way too– news media love throwing out big numbers– Blogger Sued for $25 Million sounds a lot better than Blogger Sued for Whatever the Court Gives Them.

Anyway, I am curious to see how this plays out. I do wish ePerks would back off and try to repair their image on that gesture than drag a case that somewhere along the line runs the risk of what would leave no survivors.

Thanks for the thoughtful comment Andy.

The US legal system instills a significant amount of fear (some would call it common sense) over speaking out, even as far as things like social media voting.

I suppose some of the reluctance is certainly due to this being connected to real estate - realtors are a service industry that the general public doesn’t care for very much, along with lawyers

One of the problems for ePerks is how much clearing up they have to do, if those IP addresses are connected to them.

If they had taken the “kneel and pray” option a few months ago, owned up to a marketing mistake, and had the owners directly addressing the concerns (even if an uphill battle), they would have garnered a lot more respect rather than ridicule.

One thing that is clear to me as an outsider from a real estate perspective, there was a lot of negative sentiment building well before Vlad even first contemplated putting fingers to keyboard, Vlad’s blog just became the outlet for negativity in his comment area.

Will this go virally internationally? I believe there is more chance of international than national.