Your brand is not in your hands anymore.

The internet possesses powers that can turn you into a celebrity overnight. But the great god that giveth, doth also taketh away. In other words, deal with your business honestly or you won’t own a business anymore. Think this sounds dramatic? It’s true.

Take the example of Brian King. Brian is media editor (video mostly) and also a podcaster. He’s a freelancer. He lives in LA and does great work. Brian had the opportunity to help someone who needed, more-or-less, a quick and dirty video done. Cheap, fast, you know the drill. Brian had some connections and offered to work on the project. After multiple editing rounds, the client paid. Well… kinda. Brian got a letter from Bank of America saying the client in question had stopped the check. It wasn’t for a whole lot of money, but Brian had paid out of pocket to use facilities and now he was in the hole. Of course, the amount isn’t what matters, its too small of a check to bother hiring a lawyer, but its the principle of thing. So Brian decided he wanted payment, and he was going to do what it took to make that happen.

Brian turned to the internet. First he bought a domain. It just so happens that his client does not own his-name.com: philconti.com Then he promoted the page to his blog. Then he posted it to twitter. Within 2 days he had over 100 retweets and dozen of people making comments on their own blogs and personal websites. If you now google performers Phil Conti & Marlene Arden, mostly negative press shows up.

I found out about Brian’s plight from a webcomic I read: Candi by Starline X. Hodge. She posted about it in her daily update because,

“He’s a good friend of mine, so when he posted it on his blog, I decided to help. I just didn’t like hearing that he got ripped off. Figured if more people knew about it, then maybe they’d pay him for his work.”

I contacted Brian and asked if he’d tell me a little bit about why he chose this course of action (putting pressure on the client through the internet). He said

“They’re entertainers, and I know that entertainers’ web presence is extremely important. If they realize that the internet dislikes them, and their google/twitter/whatever search results are negative, they’re going to have problems.”

Which I agree, it’d be a problem for anyone! I asked Brian what kind of outcome he hope for. He said he’d just like to make up the difference, if they pay in full, he’ll pull down all the pages he wrote mentioning them.

Brian is just one freelancer in California and he completely changed the personal brand of Phil & Marlene. So the next time you deal with a customer or hire a company, be above board. Make sure you hold the keys to your company’s image. Never underestimate the power of the internet and what that means for your brand.

So what do you think? Do you think smearing someone’s brand is justified? Is it too much? Not enough? Have you seen the internet eat another business alive?
If you agree with Brian’s approach be sure to spread the word, ReTweet, blog, link on Facebook. Show his site some love. And Starline too!

Image by AndYaDon’tStop