MaineBusiness.com

I love writing about Yelp. It and other consumer review sites turn every customer into a potential reviewer. It injects steroids into word of mouth marketing. And it creates challenges for small business.

It also can create challenges for the newly-empowered reviewers. One of the benefits of being a professional who writes reviews for MSM is that you get libel and defamation training. You learn what not to say. And if you make a mistake, you usually get the benefit of the publications legal counsel who specializes in libel law.

You get none of that when you call a local chiropractor dishonest on Yelp. Thus a San Francisco resident is being sued for comments made about a dispute he had. Here's the money quote:

"I don’t think good business means charging people whatever you feel like hoping they’ll pay without a fuss. Especially considering that I found a much better, honest chiropractor."

The defendant's attorney is quoted as saying "If Christopher loses, then anyone on Yelp who writes a negative review better be careful." Now I'm not a lawyer, never played one on TV and didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night. But reviewers need to be careful no matter what. They never had any special right to commit libel.

Opinion is protected by libel law. But I see the above quote to be more statement of fact and less opinion. In other words, I can write that your business has lousy coffee. That's a protected opinion. But I can't suggest you improve it by not making it with dirty dishwater. I should write that your coffee tastes like dirty dishwater. Again, protected opinion.

This yelping may fall into a gray area and be up to debate. That's why everyone has hired lawyers and will go to court. A judge will decide.

No matter how the judge rules, this doesn't change anything. Reviewers are not bullet proof. And businesses do have recourse. But before they call a lawyer, they need to really think about what they want to achieve by suing. If damage has been done, winning a libel suit probably won't fix it. The lawsuit will end up being a punishment. Make sure you aren't the one being punished.

This brings up a couple good issues. The Internet has given everyone the ability to become a publisher. So you need to know what you can write, blog, tweet or comment. And if you have a blog with comments, what's your liability for something in those comments?

First of all, check the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Legal Guide for Bloggers. It's a pretty good read that will get you up to speed on libel, defamation and intellectual property rights. One thing I like is that it explains very well what you have the right to publish.

Second, I don't know. The liability you have for comments made by someone outside your employ is unknown. There is no law nor court precedent. Lawyers have opinions which they will happily share with you. And most of those opinions are conservative, counseling toward tight moderation. But no one knows. And no one wants to be the test case so these things tend to get settled if a suit is filed. Again, I'm not a lawyer so I can't tell you what to do.

Remember, it's not all bad. There's a lot of room to converse in social media without running into legal trouble. You can be careful without taking out all the fun and gain.

CRITICAL INSIGHT

Comments don't have to be libelous to be troubling. Sometimes a critic will join your conversation. Des Walsh has good advice for dealing with critical comments on your site. Remember, you asked for feedback. You can't delete or restrict comments you don't like. The disgruntled commenter may turn to another venue to make their criticism known. Deal with it in your arena.

Another thing to remember, at least now you have the ability to be among the first people to read criticism about your business. This gives you a chance to control the damage before it hurts your brand.