Today’s guest post is by Rich Gorman.

The Internet has often been likened to the Wild West, and not without reason.

Anyone with a vendetta and enough determination can eventually tarnish a company or an individual’s online reputation.

Online defamation is a particularly big problem for smaller brands; not only must small business owners contend with bad reviews and damaging allegations, but also with the many internal errors that can create online reputation nightmares.

For external issues, negative reviews, BBB complaints, or plain-and-simple bad PR, there are two basic routes that a small business can take.

The first method is to employ a professional reputation repair service; the other is to attempt going the DIY route. In either case, however, the best efforts are undercut if the company persists in making basic reputation management mistakes. (more…)