Travel businesses attacked by aggressive bloggers should try and form a relationship with them to improve future coverage.
Speaking at last week’s Travlaw Big Tent Event entitled ‘What’s your reputation worth?’, Siren PR group client director James Watts said reputable bloggers will be reasonable and discuss negative comments if they are approached about them.
He added: “If they’re worth their salt you can build a relationship with them and they will listen to you.”
However, he admitted the tactic will not work with all bloggers, some of whom remain so aggressive they cannot be reasoned with, adding: “You’ve got to pick your battles as otherwise you can spend a lot of time shouting in to the void.”
Travlaw senior partner Stephen Mason added should a blogger who has made unfair and unreasonable comments about a company refuse to take them down, then it is time to call in the lawyers.
He said: “We have the job of issuing tough actions against those various blogging sites. You never get money out of these people but if they take the post down, that’s something.”