Reputation Damage and how to fix it

Improving your company's online reputation or as Searchology 101 like to call it; Online reputation management (ORM) is critical to building your relationship and fixing online reputation damage with online and off line visitors. Online reputation management is all about what is being said about your company and your products online. Many times it is near impossible to control what others say about your brand and offerings thus, it is very important to perform regular searches for blogs, complaint websites and other locations where people may post unfavorable messages about your company.

Managing and maintaining your company’s online image is difficult and may seem like a daunting task. I am confident all businesses try to maintain 100% satisfaction in customer service and product excellence. This is not always possible as you can please some of the time and can’t please all people all the time. Which makes it a online reputation management a critical key to your web site marketing efforts and over all brand protection.

If you find your online reputation is under assault or your company has suffered online reputation damage, I would recommend the following steps. Keep in mind to push down negative posts on forums, message boards and complaint web sites is nearly impossible. The objective is to confront the issues posted by angry or upset customers and do something about it. Be proactive about soothing the posters and you may find a new ally in your online reputation management efforts.

Online Reputation Management Research Process (ORM Process)

Find your keyword selection –Use the Google Keyword Tool to find keywords which visitors may use to locate your company online. Many of these keywords you find may be directly associated with your brand, brand name products, etc.
Search the top search engines for search results [Google, MSN, Yahoo, Ask] as they relate to your new keyword list.
Depending on how deep into the search engine results you want to go [one page, two pages, etc.] will help define the scope of your initial research.
Visit all pages which contain keywords and content related to your brands and company.
Copy and paste all negative postings you find within the search engine results pages.
Begin to build a strategy on how to approach the negative online comments.
Search Omgili for online comments and sign up for Google Alerts

Online Reputation Management Solutions

All recommendations will have a search engine optimization component. The higher your company’s website can rank in the natural search results the further they will push down the negative postings. This may require a SEO review with competitive analysis of other similar online websites. Search engine optimization may be needed in order to increase your online visibility and decrease the visibility of negative posts.
Consider SMO [social media optimization] Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin, Twitter or build a online community for your website visitors. All of these locations will help out with positive content , consumer retention, consumer communication and consumer purchase consideration.
Join all websites with negative comments, research each case and post a very customer friendly response. In addition, your company may be able to reach the posters [complainants] via email and find a way to resolve the complaint, thus end the negative content.
To add more positive content about your business your company website needs to be in more places. To add more positive information and content add blog to your website, submit questions and answers on Linkedin or Yahoo Answers.
You may want to consider paying others to post positive blog entries. * This can be done, but must be done very carefully as not to alert consumers that it was a paid blog post. * Many times consumers may feel like it is a ‘pay to play’ situation and will regard your buying your way onto a popular blog distasteful.
Your company may wish to consider monthly news stories [press releases] to add more positive content to the web. Your company may wish to consider monthly news stories [press releases] to add more positive content to the web.
Your company may want to consider adding a direct communication tool to their website for immediate Q&A from online visitors.
Optimize your website for top visibility regarding search engine optimization. Content is King here. The better your content for the visitor, the more relevant information, the more likely it will be to be for (remove) your website will be found by searching individuals and the search engines.
Find out if your competition is using your branded keyword terms for pay per click advertising. If so, you can prevent them from using your brand terms by contacting the respective search engine. Place text ads and banner ads on websites which display the negative remarks.

Please keep in mind that these solutions may not totally get rid of or stop negative posts, but it will help strengthen your online visibility, customer trust and propel customer loyalty. Online reputation management takes time and based on the scope of your potential online reputation issues you may want to outsource the creation and research for this type of work.

The CEO can't always put out all of the fires created by online reputation damage but with some skill, hard work, and consistency online and with your customers you can stem the loss of potentially cataclysmic online damage.

As always, please contact us with any of your online reputation management questions. or visit our blog for frequent posts on how to market your web site.