You’ve been trashed online. Somebody has said something awful about you on a blog, a website, Facebook or Twitter.

It might be a client, it might be an opposing party, it might be a former employee. If it hasn’t happened yet, it’s going to happen.

The internet didn’t invent criticism. It just made it easier to spread the word.

Hopefully, you’re monitoring your reputation online and you’re aware of the slam. Now that you know about it, what do you do about it?

There are three things you should do immediately –

First, connect with the critic. Apologize for making them unhappy. Offer to continue the discussion offline. Meet with them or talk by phone. They might, ultimately, change whatever it is that they’ve written.

Second, post content about yourself that fills the search engines with positive or neutral information about you. Put up articles, videos, podcasts, etc. Post them on your site, your blog, free article hosting sites, video hosting sites and anywhere else that’s looking for content. Flood your name with your content. That will push the criticism down on the search engine results page.

Finally, ask your happy clients to post reviews of your service. Teach them how to use Yelp, CitySearch, Google Maps, and the host of other review sites to say something nice about you. Again, these entries will fill the search engine with positive references to you.

If you haven’t yet been criticized then be proactive. Get to work now and take control of your name in the search engines. Don’t make it easy for your critic to seize control of your reputation.