One more situation that can require the services of a social media manager is a reputation crisis. Many businesses don’t know how to handle negative comments posted online, and either ignore them or respond from a position of fear and anger, making the situation worse. This can result in the negative content about their company growing bigger and ending up showing in search results for their business name.

Most situations can be handled by a concerted multi-platform response that gets your client’s side of the story out to handle the curiosity of those following it and to push down negative results on search engines at the same time. What you have to keep in mind is that even after the initial wave of drama passes, your job is only half done and you have to proactively work to de-emphasize the search engine positioning of any negative content related to the incident.

You have to respond to any negativity quickly. The longer it sits unanswered, the harder your job will be. You need to be assertive and clearly spell out exactly what your client’s position is on the subject. This is true whether the comments posted are right or wrong. There are situations in which the allegations are correct and the best thing you can do is formulate a response for your client that shows them taking responsibility for it to defuse the situation.

If, however, the allegations against your client are false, you will play your hand a bit differently. Create a calm, professional response and post it first to where the accusatory comments originally appeared. Then wait and watch to see if the situation needs further attention. Encourage your client to offer to take the discussion offline – they may be able to handle it more discreetly.

You need to use whatever platforms are at your disposal, including social account, a blog and even press releases, to provide a full explanation of why your client is being targeted with false accusations. Make sure that everything is tagged and keyworded so that it will also help replace negative results in the search engines. Don’t be argumentative or use any lowbrow tactics – stick strictly to the facts and remain professional.

You will need to use every tool at your disposal to spread your response far and wide as quickly as possible. This means you will want to have a clear statement of fact on Facebook (pinned to the top of your page or highlighted), Google+, Twitter, and any other social network you use. Don’t stop there though. Add bookmark platforms such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Tagza and Reddit (if possible). This also goes a long way toward getting your results in the search engines to reflect the content you want people to see.

If your client’s adversary continues pushing the issue you have to continue responding in some way. You do not need to engage with a full response every time and place there is a comment, but you should be making sure that wherever negativity appears, you provide at least a link to your version of the issue. Never assume any incident is done after one exchange. Watch for the existing negative content being promoted and any new content appearing.

The only time you may consider not responding as if the attack against you is so ridiculous that the average person would dismiss it as such. “Trolls” who simply want to stir up trouble are common on the internet, and it is not necessary to engage them – they will self destruct and viewers will recognize them for what they are. In these isolated cases it is best to let them spew and ignore them. If they do not get attention from you they will drop the attack and go elsewhere.