SEMA Show Goes On with Ed Attanasio
Media and Publicity for Shops
Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based in San Francisco, California. He can be reached at era39@aol.com.
with Ed Attanasio
Are You Defending Your Good Name Online? Your reputation online is always im- spective websites. portant, but during the pandemic it’s You can have amazing empmore vital than ever. loyees, great DRPs and a lot of rewith Everyone can agreeStacey there willPhillips be peat customers, but in the end all fewer cars on the road moving for- you have is your reputation. Compeward, as more and more people will tition is healthy, but sometimes peocontinue to work virtually. ple’s passions make them do things With more competition fighting they wouldn’t normally even consifor less work, a shop’s reputation on- der. with Stacey Phillips line will carry more weight, and that’s In 2008, I began writing for when some shady operators might re- a growing company that provided sort to doing sketchy things, such as “digital privacy solutions.” Their posting fake reviews to disparage the approach was to create a deluge of shop down the street. positive content about an individual In one case, a disgruntled for- or company so any bad things online mer employee with wreaked havoc Phillips on- about them would be bumped down Stacey line for a shop. A body shop owner the ratings. The goal was to get the negative articles, reviews or blogs off Google’s first page, because 75% of all browsers never look past page one, according to Junto Research. During that same period of time, with Stacey Phillips I was also contacted by a company that wanted to pay me well to write fake negative reviews. They had established a ton of bogus emails and online profiles and were targeting companies identified by its clients. When I asked them if it was illegal, they said no, although they admitted it was at with Victoria Antonelli least immoral, so I opted out. Luke Middendorf at WSI Connect in Concord, Luke Middendorf at WSI ConCA, said the best way for a shop to manage its online reputation is to proactively request nect in Concord, CA, protects his positive reviews from its customers clients’ online reputations, including body shops. fired a tech, who had a couple sons “We’ve been implementing rewho were computer whiz kids, and putation-building campaigns for alwith Ed Attanasio they destroyed the owner’s online most all of our clients,” he said. “The reputation within months. It went best way for a business to manage from being just business to being its online reputation is to proactively personal, and the shop in question request positive reviews from its cuslost a significant amount of business tomers. Google and Facebook allow businesses to proactively solicit as a result. In another scenario, a body shop reviews and there are a lot of autowith Gary Ledoux that was producing subpar work hi- mated tools that make the process red a company to defend its reputa- easier to manage. It is against Yelp’s tion by creating a ton of fake reviews policies for businesses to request and posting positive things about the Yelp reviews of their business so it’s shop to push its bad reviews down much more difficult to work with.” the line. Middendorf said you can’t rely In yet another case that occur- on websites like Yelp to monitor rewith Stacey Phillips red recently, two shops in a small views or check for their authenticity. town started manufacturing false “All of the review sites do a negative reviews against each other, very poor job of combating fake but in the end Google black-hatted reviews. Most of the time they avoboth of them and took down their re- id getting involved in any disputes,”
Shop Strategies
Body Shops Giving Back
Tips for Busy Body Shops My SEMA
he said. “They will remove reviews that violate their policies which include personal attacks and explicit language. However, those need to be reported/flagged by someone so that they can be reviewed and considered for removal.” How can you continually monitor your online presence? It’s actually not that difficult. First, perform a search on your shop name in Google, Bing, Angie’s List, Yahoo and other search engines. Delete what you can, including all of your own social networking pages, where you can easily delete your own posts, photos, comments and videos. Ask people who have posted negative things about you to delete their comments, videos and photos. If they refuse to delete a photo, for example, you can usually untag yourself, so that the photo will not appear in any search including your name.
If there are news articles, blog posts, videos, photos or other mentions about your shop that are unflattering, you can always request the page’s publisher to remove them. Not everyone will cooperate, but try anyway. If that doesn’t work, or if you can’t get a hold of the people who posted it, push them down in search results by creating positive content. In many cases, the personal approach may be the best way to go. Quietly unfriend people who are apt to post negative things about you, as well as those who have their own damaged reputations to deal with. You don’t want to be linked to anyone with a questionable reputation, because one rotten blueberry can ruin the whole bunch. On a regular basis, check for any email jokes or other items people send to you or share with you onSee Defending Your Name, Page 53
Hawkinson Kia
Shop Strategies
Product Innovation
OE Shop Certification
Product Innovation
Trust Only Genuine Kia Parts for Your Repair • • • •
Midwest’s Largest Kia Wholesale Supplier • OPS, CollisionLink, RepairLink, 16 Trucks on the Road Daily CCC1, PartsTrader • Covering Two Full States Largest Inventory in the Midwest • We Price Match Aftermarket Parts Dedicated Wholesale Staff
708.720.8972
M-Th 7am-6pm Fri 7am-5pm Sat 8am-4pm
708.720.0657 Fax 5501 Miller Circle Drive Matteson, IL 60443 www.hawkinsonnissan.com/ez-parts
From the Desk of Mike Anderson
40 OCTOBER 2020 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com
with Mike Anderson Midwest_Issue_1020.indd 40
9/21/2020 4:11:48 PM
