Using Social Media to Put on the Spin on Clients’ Questions

Back in April, when I first came into contact with Carri and began writing about the pending revocation of Camden and Ohio’s Adoption by Gentle Care, one of the very first things Gentle Care did was unpublish their Facebook page.  The first post went live on 25th, and by that evening the page was down and AGC went silent. Obviously, they were unsure how they planned on handling the public pressure and questions that would come from maintaining a social media presence during such a difficult phrase in their agency’s reputation.

Two months later, I guess they either figured out some form of crisis social media policy, or perhaps someone told them that saying nothing makes them look guilty? In any case, they have returned to Facebook and the Adoption by Gentle Care Facebook page is back in business.

Like a Sequel to a Horror Story; AGC They’re Back….

So what’s their great plan to  controlling the message and maybe not look like a really unethical and non caring adoption agency? It seems like the course in online reputation management that they took advised AGC to some highly “black hat” ( that’s “unethical” in SEO terms) techniques. Since Carri’s revocation is currently pending in the Ohio’s courts and I cannot comment on what I know right now; I thought it might be fun to take some time out and look into what we can SEE Adoption by Gentle Care doing right now on the public forums.

Lessons from Adoption by Gentle Care on How to Clean Up Your Reputation

Monitor and Sterilize Public Commentary: It doesn’t come to anyone’s surprise that AGC is watching the Facebook page and immediately deleting anyone who doesn’t say lovely things about them. Free Speech? Hell No! It’s open censorship season at the AGC page. You can have fun if you want to experience an exercise in futility, but expect to be deleted and banned right fast.

Now currently they do not control the Adoption by Gentle Care Review page on Facebook; however they are trying to merge the two pages right now.  In non geek terms, the review page is automatically created by Facebook  when the system saw that AGC was a “place”, but AGC did not have control of the page. It was just a public area. However the actual company run FB page is theirs. Under FB terms, they can tell FB that both are one in the same and have people looking for AGC to be directed to the controlled page, not the review page.

Ask for Fake and Bullshit Positive Reviews: Yup, this is a tried and true online reputation management (ORM) ploy. Reviews count a lot in terms on SEO.  A place with good reviews can be ranked higher than a place with less than stellar reviews; so there are ORM companies that you can play to make BS reviews for your company. Now I don’t know if AGC did resort to paying folks, but really, they  only had to ask former paying clients to review them. I not would hesitate to think that they sent out an appeal in a newsletter or some other communication. Who knows, maybe they even played victim to counteract what people might see if they started looking.  In any case, if one does look at the AGC reviews on say  Yelp, you might notice that a few of the reviews were made by people who do not seem to be frequent ‘Yelper’s” That these reviews happen to be in days right after Carri became their current ethical nightmare. Coincidence? I cannot say.

However, on Facebook, I have a much stronger feeling that yeah; they were openly directing folks to post nice things on the behalf of AGC. There are just TOO many reviews  made over the weekend, including my personal favorite, this one made by Cindy Saunders…

Who just might happen to have the same last name as Executive Director Trina Saunders…listed as friends, dare I wonder, relatives? Sisters?

Yeah, get your relatives to post fake five star reviews for you, because that’s not at all shady.

Getting Friends and Relatives to do your dirty work for you: Reviews are one thing, but how about having a person act like an “interested third party” and play’s Devil’s Advocate?

Yes, I knew that our Nurse Rackett AKA Mary Barnett HAD to have an ulterior motive for really ripping into Carri on the NBC News article comment section.  Horrible  Hopper, we know, is just a local loon who had an ax to grind, but Mary was a bit of mystery thought we had an idea that SOMEONE from the agency was giving out information.  Some of the statements made by Mary and Melissa were things said only by AGC, incorrectly, but was their statement’s almost word for word.  Well now, the mystery is solved.

Adoption by Gentle Care’s Executive Director Trina Saunders and Mary Barnett are friends.

So that’s professional, right?  Get your buddy to make comments on your behalf.  Feed them inside information to booster the lies. Cast doubt by repeating the same line of BS over and over. Eventually people might believe it, right?

Deny Something That Sounds Like the Truth: I find that this one to be almost funny.  So AGC keeps on saying that there is no active investigation by the Ohio State’s Attorney General’s Office.  Here’s the screen shot; but  this so rich, I have to copy and paste it in its entirety:

AGC families and Birth parents. You might see comments on here talking about an investigation with the Ohio Attorney Generals Office. It is public record and you can find the report yourself. When you find it you will see there was NEVER an investigation open and we are in good standing. 

Here’s the thing; the Ohio Attorney General’s Office is PUBLIC record for CONSUMER complaints, but the complaint that Carri filed was accepted by the CHARITABLE DIVISION which is NOT public record.

The Ohio’s Attorney general office has issued a complaint #08999 for this investigation of Adoption by Gentle Care and it is a VERY active investigation.  I really cannot say much more because I don’t even know much more, but the lead investigator in the case was not too thrilled to read what AGC stated above. I guess maybe he was rather insulted by them saying that “everything is fine here” ? Not really a smart move, guys!

Report ONE True Thing, but Ignore Other Facts:

The State of Ohio recently conducted an audit at the office and we received 100%. There was nothing found out of compliance. If you have questions feel free to email the office.

Now yes, the Ohio DJFS did also look into AGC and yes, all their paperwork was compliant.  Now, DJFS also suggested that a complaint be filed against the social workers with the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, & Marriage and Family Therapist Board. And YES, there are investigations in process regarding  the social workers  Kelly Schumaker and Megan Kennedy.

Round up the Wagons and Promote Those in Question? Speaking of the Social workers in question, Kelly Schumaker and Megan Kennedy, they are suddenly starting a Facebook page for Birthmothers!! Doesn’t that make sense?

What better way to reassure folks that you stand by their professional decisions than to allow them to have even more exposure to those emotionally vulnerable! It’s actually almost brilliant; see if Kelly and Megan have some nice one on one time with former birthmothers from Adoption by Gentle Care, then they give them all a nice big dose of Adoption Kool-aide and make sure they are still feeling happy. Then, when AGC is feeling attacked or in need of back up, they have a ready and willing group of birthmothers ready to do their bidding.  Ah, adoption, love how agencies keep on finding more and more ways to keep using birthmothers. Take your child and then take your will and dignity.

Post Passive Aggressive Crap that Hints at “Rumors”: Yes, posting Mark Twain quotes about lies and the truth that somehow allude to your be on the side of truth is a good tactic. Especially is you keep every statement made all nice and squeaky clean. Of course, what Adoption by Gentle Care cannot control is what happens when one searches for their name on Google. They can’t control what people read on other sites online like here. So I will simply allude the numbers of folks who are Googling the name “Adoption by Gentle Care” and ending up on these pages.  Let’s just say that they are not minor numbers. People have questions and they will search for answers.

Act All Cocky: Is it Confidence or a Desperate Death Cry?

So again, not sure what they started all this nonsense now with the case pending  and the officers of the court watching, but it is rather amusing. AGC was not originally happy with the public attention of the case, but I do see this as too little, too late. Personally, I think it just makes their activities even more suspect.

I mean, how can you come across as being all high and mighty while the life of a baby is held in limbo?  I mean how can you even pretend to say that you ” cover every aspect of an adoption so that the adoptive process meets the needs of everyone involved, especially those of the child” when the child in this case has been in a foster care home for over two months? What happened to permanency as BEST for children?

I wish I could update more about what is happening legally, but I will say to keep thinking good thoughts.  We continue to be extremely confident that the Ohio Courts will see right through Gentle Care’s tricks. Lord knows their actions do not support what they claim. They certainly do not care about Camden’s best interests and I can’t say that they seem to be willing to let people know the truth.

Whose interests are they looking out for? If I had any dealing with them, that is what I would be asking myself. Camden is 13 weeks old today and still not back in his mother’s arms; that’s one simple fact that no one can argue with.

This post was originally written and published on June 30th, 2014.

The date has been changed so that the updates and stories can be read more easily in chronology order.

Please see the main mini site pages on the Unethical Ohio Adoption Agency   pages to continue learning about Carri and Camden’s adoption story and how you can help Bring Camden Home.