Number one item on Techmeme. High digg juice. Well, what to do when you see a headline like this? Respond. In this case, Matt Cutts from Google did -- but it took more than a bit of time to get out there. And the result? Game over -- controversy ended. For years, I've been saying the key to preventing brand damage in blogs is speed, and that's more true today than ever. What's a company to do?
1. Always monitor the blogosphere. Keep an eye on what people are saying about you, your execs, your company. You can set up specific feeds, or just look at techmeme for a general sense of what is going on.
2. Have a mechanism in place to respond. This means have a blog, have relationships with bloggers, have an ongoing voice in what people are saying. Hint: it's too late to do this when you have a crisis.
3. Move fast. Even a quick "looking into this" is way better than silence. Right or wrong, silence in the blogosphere implies guilt. :) Not nice, but that's the way it is.
4. Get into the comments. Find the original post and the related links and make sure your story is told. If you have a blog, leave links back to your response. Be humble and short -- don't be a jerk. Life isn't fair, remember?
5. Wash, rinse, repeat as needed.