Staying Savvy Series: How to Spread the Word, Safely

This is Number Four in a series of posts, which will present some simple tools for protecting yourself from the possibility of your ideas and work being exploited by a less-than-ethical corporation. You can find the rest of the series over here.

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Chapter Four: Spreading the Bad News

Okay, so let’s say you’ve had a bad experience with a company — they’ve used your work inappropriately, and they aren’t responding to your request to stop.

Of course you’ll want to tell people about this! Why not at least forearm the crafty community, so this doesn’t happen to anyone else — right?

Well, yes — but if you spread the word, you need to do so very carefully. Read on . . .

To blog or not to blog? You may feel like the best way to get the word out about this nefarious company is to write a searing blog post about them. But please think long and hard before you do this. Your negative statements, presented in writing and in a public forum like your blog, could be construed as libel, and you could get into legal hot water for it.

There may be situations where blogging is the best response, but there are safer ways to go about it. (More on this in a minute.)

To email or not to email? You may think that if you email your fiery tirade against the company instead of blogging, you’re safe from libel — email is person-to-person after all, right?

Wrong. Emails can go anywhere, anytime, and without your knowledge. If you email your rant to fifty of your closest friends, you could still end up with a libel problem.

So how DO I spread the word? Okay, you do have options — and it IS a good idea to let other crafters know about companies who misuse us. Consider these steps:

First, have you taken legal action? If you are proceeding with a case against the company that wronged you, then you should always consult your lawyer before you try to warn other crafters about the company. Your lawyer may advise you do nothing until your case is settled. Or, your lawyer may have some specific ideas on how you should best spread the word.

Next, separate emotion from facts. If you’ve decided against taking any legal action, then you might decide to tell other crafters in writing about your bad experience. If you take this step, it’s always best to report only the facts of what happened. Of course you’re upset about the whole thing, but keep your emotions out of it. If you’re reporting only the verifiable facts, then you’re not in danger of libel.

So, spell out what happened, what actions you took in response, and what the company did after that. Period. Avoid snarky commentary, and definitely avoid calling the company names. Let the people reading your account make their own judgments.

And finally, if they make good, you make good. Let’s say that you send an email or post to your blog like this — that you report the facts of a company’s misuse of your work. Well, what if the company suddenly decides to make things right?

If that happens, then as a good internet citizen, you need to report this happy turn of events. Send a second email out, or put an addendum on your blog post. This is an easy step to forget, but it’s probably the most important. You don’t want to potentially burn any future bridges by mis-reporting the situation.

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In the next installment, I’ll talk about how to evaluate approaches — when a company contacts you, how they do it will tell you a whole lot.