 Reputation Management
“Online reputation management” has become a corporate catchphrase for 2011. While reputation management might sound intimidating, it refers to a marketing approach that can easily become the best friend of an individual, a product, or a business. Simply put, online reputation management boosts the prominence of “good” information on the web while burying the “bad.”
Reputation management can be proactive or reactive and anyone can benefit. Thus it’s no surprise that professional reputation management firms are popping up like mushrooms after a rainstorm. But just what do they do – and how can you choose a company that will get the job done right? Consider the following a primer to reputation management in the online era.
Reputation Management in the Online Era:
Online Reputation Management is Proactive
Online reputation management isn’t only for companies that have something to hide: reputation management can be proactive too. Since many start-ups and even well-established businesses don’t have the name recognition or keyword budgets of their biggest competitors, they think they can’t get top search engine rankings. Online reputation management campaigns can help because they needn’t include pricy keyword purchases. Instead, they can create new and affordable content – content that is full of the client’s keywords and otherwise designed to make certain webpages naturally rise to the top of search results.
Professional reputation management firms take steps to make positive information about a company more prominent online. This has two immediate proactive effects: it makes a company look like a bigger player and it makes the company easier to find. Enhanced prominence is achieved when a reputation management firm builds more links to the client’s website by writing press releases, positive forum posts, and other content. Reputation management companies’ own web designers even build dozens or hundreds of all-new websites with the sole purpose of using their outbound links to boost a single client’s ranking.
Of course, a proactive reputation management campaign automatically has a reactive element. That is, the very existence of a reputation management campaign helps a person or company stay a step ahead of disgruntled former employees, dissatisfied clients, and other obstacles that might appear on the horizon. If a problem arises, then it’s less likely to zoom to the top of a Google search if a proactive reputation management campaign is already well-established. This protects profits while the company develops a more reactive marketing campaign.
Reactive Reputation Management Hides the Blemishes
 Let’s face it: while reputation management is ideally proactive, it often comes to mind only when something’s gone terribly wrong. Perhaps, like BP Oil in 2010, a company suddenly becomes involved in a disaster and needs quick damage control. More idyllically, maybe the company just has a great product that competitors love to cast doubt on with “black hat” tactics such as false consumer reviews.
Unfortunately, the anonymity of the Internet makes it easier than ever for smear campaigns to take hold. False accusations about politicians, contrived stories of product malfunctions, and other propaganda can be perpetrated without the traditional threat of an easy libel suit. Negative campaigns appear in multiple forms: news stories, industry complaint boards, blogs that profit off competitors’ links, viral videos, and other online venues. However, the bright side is that these very media can also be used for damage control in reactive reputation management campaigns.
Whether the negative information posted online stems from a genuine corporate foul-up or is the product of a malicious competitor’s campaign, a reactive online reputation management campaign can put it in its place: far out of the spotlight and certainly not in Google’s top ten search results.
The Risks of Inaction
When it comes to reputation management, inaction frankly seems foolish. Independent contractors and big-wig CEOs alike can quickly see their hard-earned legacies crumble when online attacks begin. After all, once cached in Google and other search engines, a negative review usually doesn’t go away. A stellar reputation and plenty of opportunities for profit can be lost if a company fails to develop a proactive reputation management campaign, suffers an attack, and then must scramble to get a reputation management plan designed and implemented.
Signs of a Professional Reputation Management Firm
Top reputation management firms stand out from the others in several ways. First, they offer solid customer testimonials – but in keeping with their confidential trade, they keep these testimonials guarded. In other words, the top reputation management firms provide testimonials on a case-by-case basis and only with the approval of the relevant previous clients. They don’t simply plaster testimonials across a website for all to see.
Second, professional reputation management companies offer free analyses and quotes on a per-project basis. Companies that offer a flat fee simply can’t deliver tailored and effective damage control. Those that deliver on their promises will research the origin of a specific company’s attacks and develop an appropriate action strategy free of charge.
Third, top reputation managers offer ongoing surveillance of blogs and other venues. They can help lessen the severity of future attacks by quickly countering new negative reviews with positive posts.
Have Your Reputation Management Tailor-Made
The thought of “Googling” one’s own name or company can sometimes instill a bit of anxiety. Many of us aren’t quite sure what we’ll find. In a worst-case scenario, damaging text or photos appear right up top in Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other major search engines. Oh, the shame – and the profit loss!
Now imagine a best-case scenario: a search for your name, your company, or your product quickly yields flattering photos, reviews from satisfied clients, and the like. At the same time, any negative material is crowded out by the favorable information planted or highlighted by your reputation management firm. In that age of the Internet, that’s the security that online reputation management can offer.
Learn about our Reputation Management website
These days, reputation management for a company is more important than ever. Success or failure can hinge on the overall impression that the general public has about a company and its products and services. In years past, negative press traveled relatively slowly; all of that’s changed, though, and a company’s reputation can rise or plummet in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, there’s a measured and proactive way to keep your company’s reputation intact on the Internet: online reputation management. If you own a business and have never looked into reputation management services, it’s high time that you did. By getting on board now, you can save your company a lot of grief – and money – down the road.
Reputation Management Basics
Understanding Your Company’s Online Reputation
You don’t have to run an online business to be concerned about its online reputation. People regularly discuss brick-and-mortar businesses online. Nowadays, one of the first things that many people do before giving a company their business is to look it up online. When you search for your company online, what kind of results do you get? Ideally, the first few pages of results should cast your company in a positive light; if they don’t, you need to get on board with reputation management services as quickly as possible.
Things Change in the Blink of an Eye
The Internet is anything but static. While your company’s reputation may be sitting pretty right now, that can change in a heartbeat. Today, people may be presented with a positive picture of your business; tomorrow, they could be confronted with page after page of negative press. Reputation management puts you back in the driver’s seat when it comes to your company’s reputation. Instead of “rolling with the punches,” you can engage in spot-on reputation management to keep your company’s image shiny and clean.
How Online Reputation Management can Help
If you think that online reputation management is a gimmick, think again. It is a proven way to keep a company’s reputation intact. Increasingly, many companies are dovetailing online reputation management practices with their general marketing campaigns. In many ways, reputation management and everyday marketing go hand-in-hand; after all, the best marketing campaign in the world is doomed to failure if prevailing online sentiments about the company are negative. It is well worth it to invest some of your marketing funds in online reputation management, even if your business isn’t online – and even if its reputation is currently fine.
Top Online Reputation Management Strategies
 By now, you’re probably wondering how online reputation management works. In order to understand it, you need to realize that reputation management services typically involve several different techniques; four of the most important ones are highlighted below.
Tracking and Monitoring – Before anything can be done to improve a company’s reputation, an overall picture of what’s going on needs to be obtained. An initial analysis is usually performed to gauge problem areas. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though – in order to be truly successful, online reputation management requires continuous tracking and monitoring of a company’s reputation. Alerts can be set up across various parts of the Internet, including social media sites, forums, blogs and other places. Typically, those alerts will include the company’s name, the names of its products, its top brand names, its competitors’ names and popular industry terms. In short, successful online reputation management requires you to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s being said about your business.
Addressing Issues and Concerns Directly – Many times, negative comments can be defused by simply addressing them directly, in a straightforward way. This technique is the most successful when it involves a random, flash-in-the-pan online comment. It only works well when it comes to legitimate complaints, too – if a smear campaign is happening, different reputation management techniques need to be brought to the table.
Asking for the Removal of Negative Content – If something particularly libelous is being said about your company online, a strongly worded letter will sometimes do the trick. Reputation management can also keep you abreast of possible copyright and trademark infringements, too; if they crop up, cease-and-desist letters can be sent.
Burying Negative Content through SEO – The bread and butter of any good reputation management campaign is search engine optimization, or SEO. This technique relies on using specific keywords to drive up positive results for your company in the search engines. There is a multitude of ways to handle this; you can release press releases, create new blogs, register new domains, engage in vigorous social media marketing or do a number of different things. The goal is to pull positive information about your company to the top of the rankings – and to relegate negative content to lower search engine results pages.
The Top Benefits of Online Reputation Management
Without a doubt, the top benefit of a successful and well-executed online reputation management campaign is maintaining a favorable image for your company. When consumers turn up nothing but positive information about your company, they are more likely to do business with it. Additional benefits include:
Early Warning about Negative Press – Since you’ll be tracking and monitoring your company’s reputation, you will be able to respond to negative comments and articles in a quick and strategic way. The longer that such comments go without responses, the more serious the damage will be.
Improve Customer Satisfaction – Online reputation management requires you to be proactive about responding to criticisms of your company on the Internet. This not only improves your company’s image, but it can dramatically improve customer satisfaction. Customers are impressed when a company cares enough to respond to them personally about issues that they are having. As long as you take the time to respond in a thoughtful and helpful way, you simply can’t go wrong.
Save Money on Marketing – While you will have to pay for the best reputation management services, they will actually save you serious money in the long run. As mentioned above, think of reputation management as an extension of your overall marketing campaign. When your company’s image is flourishing, you don’t have to work quite as hard at convincing people about the quality of its products and services.
Learn More about the Competition – The old saying about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer is true. Your competitors aren’t your enemies, per se, but you need to keep tabs on them. Every now and then, reputation management strategies reveal underhanded, shady techniques by the competition – and it’s better to become aware of them sooner rather than later.
Online Reputation Management: Go without It at Your Own Risk!
The bottom line on reputation management services is that they are crucial for any company that wants to enjoy resounding success. The importance of making a positive impression in the search engines and on social media sites simply cannot be stressed enough. The difference between a so-so online reputation and a glowing one can mean thousands of dollars in profit. Being in the dark about your company’s reputation is a surefire way to lose your competitive edge. Getting on board with reputation management services is easy – don’t wait until it’s too late!
Back to Reputation Management home page
 How to Use Online Reputation Management to Protect You and Your Company
Did you know that 74% of all online shoppers choose companies based on what customer reviews and comments have said about them? According to online reputation management experts, those recorded positive or negative experiences can mean the difference between selling a service or product or being passed over for another more favorable-appearing business. Unfortunately, since it is more human nature to complain than to compliment, those recorded unpleasant criticisms can cast your business in a negative light unless deliberate reputation management principles are applied. After all, your business reputation is the most important asset your company has. It may have taken years to build, but it can be destroyed almost overnight through negative attention on the Internet.
The good news is that a new breed of reputation management services has responded to this need for protecting and advancing you and/or your business online. It is estimated that by 2013 more than four million Internet businesses will be using some form of reputation management to protect their products and services.
In fact, 76% of today’s retailers expect online content will play an increasingly greater role in their public relations strategy in the future, and reputation risk is considered the number one danger to any company’s future success, smart reputation management is more important today than ever. This makes sense when you realize that the net worth of almost half of the companies in the United States is tied up in intangible assets such as reputation and brand equity. Damaging either of these through lack of reputation management could spell disaster, especially for a small business.
Internet reputation management support can provide marketing stability for your online enterprise. Reputation management can also serve as a way to fight back against otherwise unchecked defamation of character or product. Putting your best “face” forward for maximum customer appeal is more easily accomplished when your online image is being monitored and protected by a professional reputation management service.
How Does Online Reputation Management Make A Difference?
 The first step involves monitoring everywhere on the Internet your name, your business name or your brand appears. This includes what you have placed there yourself as well as what others have said about you or your business. Your own website is part of the picture. Comments on social media sites such as Twitter or Digg, Facebook conversations or images, YouTube videos, any articles or posts carrying your byline, any comments you have made or others have made about you on message boards, blog sites or forums, geo-location information—even emails or instant messaging that has the potential to go viral. Online reputation management fishes through all these sites looking for negative commentary that could harm you or your business.
The Internet today has truly become an “open media” with unlimited opportunities for anonymous input from customers, competitors, disgruntled employees or those with personal vendettas. Sites such as “Yelp” exist specifically for the purpose of complaining about services or products that were unsatisfactory and worse, yet, optimizes them for front page ranking. Expert online reputation management cannot erase these negative posts but it can flood the search engines with positive statements which will make defamatory comments drop down on the rankings list, effectively pushing them out of sight.
Once problem comments are located and identified, your reputation management team will analyze the extent of the damage and its potential for future impact. Retailers who have been negatively impacted by online commentary estimate that as much as 80% of the results were created by a conflict between the reality of their product or service and the local “chatter” or “buzz” about it. Online reputation management will reverse those figures by flooding the Internet landscape with positive statements. The goal will be to portray you and/or your business in a positive context in the primary search engine (Google, Yahoo and Bing) results through generating new content, as well as to establish your presence more favorably in those less complimentary arenas. There are several ways in which reputation management can accomplish this.
On your own website:
• Your experienced reputation management team can address those that need to know without drawing unnecessary attention to the uninvolved.
• Targeted press releases can be linked to several sources and optimized for ranking by relevance of key words and terms.
• Developing a list of important media contacts for rapid-fire distribution will also be useful.
• Invite positive testimonials to your site.
On other online sites:
 • Identifying the most influential editorial contacts, publications, portals and ezines will help develop your reputation management service develop a positive flow strategy.
• Finding opportunities to post relevant comments on related articles will also increase your presence online.
• Since blogs are currently the most publicized extension of the Internet, they have been drawing more and more attention from information-hungry customers. As these opinion posts are taken more seriously, they need to be addressed, not ignored. Your reputation management team will move you into the conversation through postings, even on detractor sites and then provide valuable links back to your own website. They will also encourage adding your own strong-on-content, highly informative blogs to the mix to establish more credibility.
• Although newsgroups, wikis, threaded forums and similar consumer-generated media sites do not yet carry the same weight of influence, reputation management requires constant monitoring and positive input when necessary. Defending yourself or apologizing may be necessary, but being polite, positive and respectful is critical.
• Even faster than press releases is the use of Google AdWords and other related pay-per-click online programs. Your reputation management team will take control of placement and message for maximum punch in the least amount of time.
• Creating a squidoo lens or YouTube video can also impact your front page rankings.
• Reputation management means going after those potentially toxic social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and zoominfo. Once you or your brand’s presence is established and protected by being registered, you can use these platforms to your advantage as well as practice damage control. Learning to confront negative comments respectfully rather than ignoring them is absolutely necessary, and your reputation management technicians are already experts at this important self-defense technique.
• In addition to establishing yourself or your business on various popular social group sites where you can publish your news, your reputation management team will also want you to invite people you know to respond with positive comments and/or become your fans.
• Public relations, of which reputation management is a key component, can also be utilized by establishing a visible network of professional people. We are often judged by the company we keep, and the more legitimate and professional your colleagues, the more you will be seen in the same light.
How To Find A Good Online Reputation Management Service
Look for a company with a proven track record and references available. It should also have resources such as reputation management white papers that you can read. Also look at the caliber of the companies that are served by the reputation management company. You will want to be associated only with other legitimate businesses with the same high levels of integrity as your own. Choose a reputation management service that is choosy about its clients, and you will be well on your way to protecting your good name and that of your business.
Go to Reputation Management home
|
|
