Today Elixir Interactive has published the results of an ongoing case study documenting a systematic attack on our online reputation. “Brands Under Attack” details the tactics used by unscrupulous companies and/or individuals in an attempt to overwhelm search engine results with negative, slanderous reports for a given brand or brand-related keyword. The case study is the result of months of research and analysis that was sparked when Elixir came under attack in early 2010, as originally outlined here in March.
Taking full advantage of the anonymity of review and complaint sites and employing black hat linking tactics, someone has been attacking online reputation management companies since at least the Fall of 2009. When we first noticed they were attacking Elixir, rather than ignoring it or dealing with it behind closed doors, I decided to document the tactics used by our attacker as well as the actions we took to counter it and to bring everything out into the open on the web. While we certainly garnered sympathy with our first blog post four months ago, we also triggered a more vicious and persistent attack, which continues to this day.
As an experienced Online Reputation Management (ORM) company, Elixir already had a solid web presence and we have been able to increase the visibility of some of our assets as well as create additional ones to counter the unrelenting creation of fictitious reports against our brand. The case study explains the steps we took, and continue to take, to maintain clean SERPs for our branded search terms. It also analyzes the complicity of complaint sites in these types of attacks, the surprising lack of legal recourse for what would otherwise be considered slanderous reviews, and the price of living in a instantaneous and anonymous web.
“Brands Under Attack” can be found at www.elixirinteractivecomplaints.com where we will continue to update the case study as needed.
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July 27th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Fionn Downhill, Reputation Advisor. Reputation Advisor said: Elixir Interactive Releases Eagerly Awaited Online Reputation … http://bit.ly/bbMJt9 [...]
July 27th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
I looked at that old post and am curious if you ever sorted out that “repspinner scam” thing. The owner strongly denied they had posted any negative reports before and yet you never responded.
July 29th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
Rob,
If the owner says they did not post the reports I believe him. If you read the post I never said they did post the reports. The ‘scam’ issue I had was with the unsolicated e-mails to the victims of these reports. It simply compounds their misery to be solicited in that way. Repsinner are not the only company doing it. I had said what I needed to say. James said what he needed to say not sure there was anything else to respond to. It was no longer appropriate to keep posting on that post. James is more than welcome to contact me offline I know he has my e-mail.
July 30th, 2010 at 4:01 am
The original title of your post was “Warning Repspinner Reputation Management SCAM”. How much clearer could it be. I googled repspinner and many people are saying they appear to be putting up fake reviews to scam people, as a result of reading your post. It’s obvious that’s what you were suggesting. Now who knows what this company was doing but if they weren’t the ones posting fake reports, then what you did was very bad. Your main problem obviously was not about the email being sent and “compounding misery” but fake reports being posted in the first place. Also going on about how you can have some fun with them by calling up pretending to be a client etc., I believe that was in very poor taste.