When you consider the subject of cyberbullying, what is the first thing you think of? Chances are that one of your first thoughts was the online interactions between young people that could be considered bullying–such as an individual posting diminutive remarks about a peer’s weight online. However, while this is certainly an important aspect of cyberbullying, it is not the only aspect of cyberbullying.
Business Cyberbullying and its Effects
A common definition of cyberbullying is to harass someone online by sending or posting intimidating or threatening messages. When a business or business owner is cyberbullied, they are the victim of negative, harmful or cruel posts and emails, negative and harmful reviews, online threats, hate pages and much more. Since news, and unfortunately bad news, can spread very rapidly and easily on the internet, a single cyberbully can do extensive damage in a relatively short period of time.
False, slanderous and damaging reviews and claims promoted by a cyberbully can certainly affect a business’ overall online rating and reviews, but they can also motivate uninformed individuals so that they unknowingly become cyberbullies too. If a cyberbully is especially adept at dramatically reporting on various “incidents” related to the business or the business owner, they may even succeed in attracting media coverage. Needless to say, this can potentially destroy the reputation of both the business and the business owner, and it can not only be difficult to cope with, but also difficult to resolve.
Professional online reputation management can assist in blocking and reversing the damaging effects of cyberbullying, and sometimes even bringing it entirely to an end. This can be done through a suppression of negative posts, reviews and threats, using reverse SEO to push down such reviews in search results and pull up positive posts, reviews and information. It can also be done through litigation, where appropriate, without participating in a public retaliatory battle. Such actions can help prevent lasting damage to business and business owner reputations, and protect their overall health and well-being.