UPDATED: A lesson in why criticising your competitors should be avoided

When looking to promote your business, it's very tempting to criticise your competitors. Saying your rivals are rubbish seems easy and potentially effective. But trust me; it isn't.  

A real-world example of that took place today. 

A few weeks ago, I tweeted at live blogging software company Cover It Live to let them know that we were using their services for a webchat from Downing Street. I was hoping they might use it as a case study. They didn't but never mind. 

I'd completely forgotten about the tweet until yesterday but then I received this post about ScribbleLive, a competitor to Cover It Live:

I intially assumed the post was from a user of the software. I responded saying I disagreed. He replied with:

Ever the suspicous journalist, I thought I'd try and find out who the tweeter was. A simple search led to the Raajiv Rajadurai's LinkedIn profile which revealed he works for Scribble Technologies, the company behind ScribbleLive. His link to the business is not mentioned in his Twitter biography.

The tweets left a sour taste in my mouth. Before this incident, although I've already tried ScribbleLive and am not a fan, that didn't mean I couldn't be convinced. The tweets however mean that is less likely.

Saying your competitor is 'weak' without disclosing who you are isn't a good business tactic and @raajiv_r's claim that no-one has ever told him they prefer Cover It Live is unlikely given the traction in the market CiL has achieved and the type of clients they work with.

I'm a huge fan of social media and firmly believe that it can be used to make money but slagging off your rivals, particularly if you don't make it clear that they are your rivals, is not a route you should go down. 

I'll leave the closing words to Dragons' Den judge Deborah Meaden:

UPDATE:

Raajiv Rajadurai has responded:

In response to this post:

My response:

UPDATE:

Raajiv Rajadurai has now deleted the tweets he sent to me. 

UPDATE:

After getting no response from ScribbleLive through Twitter, I emailed them a link to this blog post. Yesterday, the company's founder and CEO Michael De Monte called me from Canada!

He was very apologetic and explained that as a result of my post, the company now requires that all employees using Twitter for business reasons make their affliations to ScribbleLive clear in their profile and tweets to other users. He also said that Raajib Rajadurai had been a bit too "over-enthusiastic" and the company doesn't make it a policy to criticised competitors.

I ended up having a 20 minute conversation with De Monte and we covered subjects including finance for business owners, the start-up market in Canada and last year's Royal wedding! It turned out to be an interesting chat and Michael is now a useful contact. I've even agreed to a sales person from ScribbleLive calling me to talk through the product!

There are lessons to be learnt from this.

If you receive negative feedback about your business, deal with it and turn it around. I now feel much more positive about ScribbleLive and may even end up using the service.