Copyright | Mike Falconer

Reviews are here to stay, and that’s a good thing. But how do businesses defend themselves from those who would abuse the review system for their own ends? In this three-part series, I offer practical advice on how to handle Yelp bombing campaigns and how to mitigate their effects. In part three, we look at other tactics undertaken by Yelp bombers, other than just posting reviews, and coming to a resolution. You can find part one, on prevention and initial responses to weaponized reviews, here and part two, on preventing and then handling a weaponized review campaign going viral, here.

(image courtesy of http://pexels.com )

Other Tactics

Reviews are not the only weapons that can be used in an online attack.

An out of context video, or audio recording, from inside your business, can be used as the cornerstone of an online attack. YouTube or Facebook will be the usual place to host these. If the people who have been recorded did not give their consent, and there is not a significant public interest in the subject matter, then privacy concerns will usually allow you to have these videos removed. This is not a quick process so some kind of measured response will need to posted in case the recordings start to have legs. In addition, each state has different laws with regards to the surreptitious recording of others. It may be possible to prosecute someone who has made a recording without the knowledge of those being recorded.

Facebook Live, and other live streaming services, are really beyond the scope of this article; but I wrote about my concerns about how these platforms can be used here. My only suggestion for handling situations, where these platforms are being used to essentially blackmail, would be to get the police involved at the time of recording and then deal with the fall out which is likely to take the form of a Yelp bombing campaign.

With a concerted online attack on a business, impersonation of official sites can become an issue. Misuse of your logo and / or name should be able to reported as a Terms of Service violation, particularly if the purpose is to confuse the public as to whom the site / page actually belongs to. There may also be trademark and copyright infringement issues that social networks can be particularly sensitive to. If there has been misuse of your name, or logo, you may find that social networks will respond quicker to these issues over privacy and other concerns.

Resolutions

All online attacks, even the ones that go viral, will burn out.

The issue becomes what is the damage while it is burning, and what might be the lasting impact. The internet is littered with stories of those who have had their lives ruined over a stupid tweet, or an off-color joke. Jon Ronson’s book “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed,” which I reviewed here, gives some excellent background to the phenomena of internet shaming and its consequences. In the veterinary world, there have been bullying campaigns that have led to businesses closing and even to suicide. It is important to get help and stand as part of a community.

For businesses, the good news is that while they cannot be complacent, they tend to fair better than individuals. It is hard to imagine a company getting worse press, for good reason, than United Airlines. However, they are still flying and the month after they dragged a passenger off an oversold flight their stock reached a record high.

A disgruntled customer, who launches a Yelp Bombing campaign, may be open to a financial settlement, or that may be their motivation in the first place. This can be difficult territory, and can be filled with potential landmines. Does the customer have a case? Other than being upset, is what they are asking for reasonable? These are things that only you and your team can answer. Remember it is not about who is right, it is about resolving the issue. If a Yelp bombing campaign has taken place I think it is sensible to get a lawyer involved, to ask for posts to be removed, and to have a document that states that the matter is resolved. If there has not been a campaign, but just a bad review I feel that you should steer clear of such arrangements, unless the customer is being very unreasonable, as they can look bad when the client posts them online.

If a business cannot settle an issue that has led to a Yelp bombing campaign, then other than playing “whack-a-mole,” it may just be a case of keeping your head down and waiting for it to burn out. If the campaign is malicious, and has real world consequences, then suing is an option. A photographer successfully sued a couple who launched an Yelp bombing and media campaign against her, effectively ruining her wedding photography business. It is important to note that in this case there was a clear campaign, clear damage, and the judge found a clear and genuine attempt by the photographer to resolve the issue. It is always an option to consult with a lawyer, but be aware that if your attacker has nothing to loose, or money to burn, this might be an expensive way of doing not a lot.

While having a review issue, or even a Yelp bombing campaign, it is easy to feel the world is coming to an end. It is not. That is not to detract from how difficult these situations are to weather, but it is important to get some perspective. Reach out to your peers, even your competitors, you’ll be surprised how supportive they will be, even if your business made a mistake. You are not alone. It might be a tough day, week, or even month, but people lose interest, news cycles move on, and clients still need your services.

If you have stories, or additional tips on how to solve Yelp Bombing / review campaigns, please let me know in the comments. If you have an ongoing issue, please feel free to reach out to me.

I was reminded recently that there is huge confusion about trademarks and copyright – particularly the use of those funny symbols and letters. Which is a lot of ways, is really surprising since they are there to protect everyone – particularly in marketing and business. There is no point in creating a distinct brand, complete with logo as part if your marketing program, without protecting it is some way.

Before we start, I should stress that I am not a lawyer, or even an expert – I can just read the US Patent and Trademark Office website and have been dealing with copyright and trademarks for a very long time. I would urge you to click on the link above to confirm how copyright and trademarks effect your business – what follows is really just a primer. If you are outside of the US you should check your own local laws, but by and large they follow the same kind if thinking.

TM -Trademark

Possibly the most misunderstood of everything we are looking at today. That little “TM” after a logo or brand name simply means that an entity is asserting that the name or logo is a trademark used to identify their business. ANYONE CAN DO THIS, AT ANYTIME, FOR ALMOST ANYTHING! The “TM” has no legal standing in its own right unless you choose to go to court to enforce it. If you did go to court you would have to prove that the person, or business, who violated your trademark did so knowingly – in other words they saw your “TM” and ignored it. If you did not have the “TM” next to your logo it would be much harder to claim a violation of your trademark.

However, if you do not protect your trademarks and they are widely violated by lots of people but you decide to try and enforce your trademark against one entity they can claim that your trademark is irrelevant. You have to protect your trademark if you are claiming to have one.

You also have to be careful that trademark is actually unique. For example, if your animal hospital has a large generic sign saying “animal hospital” outside of it, you can’t trademark “Animal Hospital” or get bent out of shape by the animal hospital down the street having a similar sign. If your sign says “Town X Animal Hospital” you could trademark that (as long as someone else was not already using it). You could almost certainly also claim a trademark infraction if the animal hospital down the street put up a sign saying “Town X Animal Hospital” after you had put up yours.

: The UPS logo – notice the “TM” in the bottom right hand corner.

® Registered Trademark

This mark has legal standing. To use this mark you must have registered your trademark with the patent office. They will have conducted their own research and concluded that your trademark is unique and will help with enforcement of your trademark rights should there ever be any issues. You cannot use this mark until the patent office says you can – you can be prosecuted if you do. Registered trademarks are normally the purview of major brands, mutli-nationals and very clever logos that might be abused by third parties without the added protect of being a registered trademark.

The Starbucks Coffee logo - notice the "®" in the bottom right corner.

The copyright symbol is used much like the “TM” trademark symbol, except for intellectual property. This article is copyrighted, which means it cannot be used in whole, or part, without giving credit to me or my permission. These days copyright is not nearly as cut and dried as say trademarks, and there are entire books covering just this subject, but the simple concept is that copyright protects unique creations (articles, books, music, films etc.) Like “TM”, the “©” is used to inform others that the work is considered to belong to someone and therefore care should be taken when doing anything with it.

Interestingly, as Wired reported recently, the FBI is seriously exploring the idea of allowing anyone to use their Anti-Piracy seal which is normally reserved for items that are subject to significant copyright infringement like music and movies.

Coming to a blog near you soon?

The “all rights reserved” phrase is normally used alongside the copyright symbol and basically states that all rights to the material are reserved for the copyright holder and you’d need explicate permission to use the material in any way.

This whole subject can get really complicated, very quickly indeed. However, the basics are really quite simple and are about offering a measure of protection of your hardwork. “TM” and “©” are free tools that you can use and really let others know that you care about your content, your logo and your brand.

Any copyright or trademark horror stories to share? Feel free to use the comments to let me know how it has all gone wrong, or right!

Simply Copyright and Trademarks

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