However, I did find myself being drawn to one story in the weekend papers that centred around such gossip. The story, which was covered in most of the papers, focused on an injunction a judge had granted a famous “sports person” against a so-called celebrity who was claiming to have had sexual relations with him while he had a fiancee. The sportsman, who has since gotten married, won the right to silence the press on the matter with judge stating that even though he was considered a role model this did not justify making his personal life public knowledge.
What interested me about this story was that all of the papers noted that the names of the individuals involved had been widely discussed on social media. While the sportsman had silenced the press there was little he could do about the conversations taking place on Twitter, Facebook and the like.
It's clear to see that, in this day and age, with technology and social networking such a huge part of day to day life, there is really nowhere to hide – not just for celebrities but for any of us, particularly businesses.
From reviews websites to customers voicing their disapproval on Twitter, if your service or your products or not up to scratch one way or another the general public are going to find out.
A disgruntled customer who bought an inferior insurance policy from you that didn't cover her losses when, say, her tenants trashed her buy-to-let property is not going to stay quiet. Whereas back in the day she may have warned family and friends against using you, nowadays she can take to the internet and tell her experience to thousands upon thousands of potential customers.
So what can you do to protect yourself? Simple. Prioritise quality. Do your due diligence and ensure the product you're offering is exactly suited to your client's needs and is the best on the market. Ensure you've asked all the right questions and used an unbiased whole of market comparison tool to give further assurances that your recommendation is the right one. Cutting corners will come back to bite you at a later date, mark my words.
