I speak at venues across the country. I've been on the speaking circuit for quite a while and, during the past four years, I've been speaking specifically about social media. Yet I'm still surprised when people who have blogs ask me what to do if someone writes something negative about them, their company or their brand on the blog.

In fact, it happens so often, I decided to share my advice through this column:

• You're probably late to the party. People are probably already writing negative things about your company. When was the last time you did a search for your company name? When was the last time you got a Google Alert? If you haven't conducted a search in a while or you don't know what a Google Alert is, there's a good chance someone has already written something negative or untrue about your business. That's the bad news. The good news is, if you have your own blog, you also have your own turf on which to set the record straight.
  
  Who remembers the Martha Stewart trial? At one point in the trial, Stewart set up a website (OK, it was probably her public relations people) called MarthaSpeaks.com, where she set the record straight on a regular basis. This was done before blogs became popular, and I believe it's why Stewart had such a strong comeback story. She was able to sway the court of public opinion. She didn't have press conferences or send out boilerplate press releases. She used her blog.
   
• Don't let fear stop you. People will always say negative things about your brand; that's business in the big city. Negative brand sentiments don't stop you from using other forms of marketing or purchasing ad space, so it shouldn't stop you from blogging.
   
• Where there's smoke, there's incense. For every person who writes something negative--unless your company is totally falling down on the job--there will be plenty of positive comments, many times from "influencers" (people with a dedicated following who tend to take the influencer's words and recommendations as gospel).
   
• You're missing the point. One of the key reasons for starting a company blog is to develop an open and honest dialogue with your market. Obviously, you shouldn't allow people to say "[your company] sucks," because that's not constructive. But you can't expect all the feedback you receive to be missives of praise. The reality is, people don't call corporate headquarters or write with praise all the time, so it's unrealistic to think that blogging is going to be any different.
   
• Soften the blow--a little. All blog platforms are equipped with a comment moderation feature. This means that someone from your team will be able to approve all comments before they appear in the blog's comment section. In other words, no comments get posted to the blog without an internal person's approval. Smart, eh?
  
  That doesn't mean you should only approve good comments and delete the bad ones; it just means that you'll have some degree of management over what actually gets posted.
   
• Set the rules. All blogs should have a Terms of Use clause. This outlines what can and cannot be said on your blog. When people submit comments for approval that don't meet the Terms of Use, whoever is in charge of administering the blog can simply direct them to the Terms of Use and ask that they resubmit their comments under the guidelines posted. Whatever you do, never edit a reader's comment--not even to correct a typo.
   
• Carpe diem. Don't forget that dealing with negative feedback is also a testament to your brand promise. If you really want your customers to be happy, show, don't tell. If someone has a bad experience with your company, that's an excellent opportunity to publicly show how much your company cares about its customers. It's a show of good faith to have someone from your team respond with an apology, work things out favorably and--bingo--there's a permanent record of stellar customer service.
   
• It's not a matter of if, but when. By that I mean, something is going to happen with your brand that's not so positive. People will blog about it and form their own sordid opinions. There's a saying that any rumor that goes uncountered for 24 hours becomes truth in the mind of the public. If that's true, can you imagine not having a publicly accessible place to set the record straight and what a phone call/e-mail/backlog nightmare it would be without one?

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