What information comes up when people Google you?
Before the internet, and Google in particular, it was relatively easy for a person or company to get away with defamation. All you had to do was change your location or company name and you could start all over again without anyone needing to know about your past. In today’s digital society, we are unfortunately not as protected.
If someone writes shit about you on the Internet that hurts you as a private person, it can have serious consequences for your future opportunities to get a job in a workplace and can damage you psychologically. As a company, it can have massive financial consequences.
Everyone uses Google today to look up information about people, companies and the products they sell. What do you think would happen if a competitor started writing shit on Flashback, for example? It won’t be long before the thread ranks on the first page of Google.
This does not necessarily mean that the rumor is true. In fact, it could be that a competitor in your industry wants to bring you down and wants you to lose customers and you have no way of stopping it. When potential customers don’t buy because it doesn’t feel right, not only do you lose sales, but the overall reputation of your brand also suffers.
When these issues arise, it can be difficult to know what to do, as some threads on forums don’t go away but only get stronger over the years.
Luckily, there are a couple of exclusive companies in the Nordics that do this, and my team and I are one of them. Thanks to reputation management, they are able to help companies or individuals who have suffered, rebuilding trust and bringing back the company’s strong image.
What does an online reputation management company do?
Online reputation management companies analyze, build, protect and restore your brand’s online presence.
They add value to both your personal and corporate brand by increasing the visibility of positive and relevant information and preventing your identity from being misused by others.
Which services are important when choosing reputation management?
Search engine optimization: Search engine optimization (SEO) means ranking your website higher in popular search engines so that potential customers searching for your brand or your services and products can find you. If SEO is done correctly, the user will find honest, relevant information about you in the process.
If there is negative information about you in the search results, your ORM provider can use strategies to showcase credible, positive content, while pushing negative content further down the list so that people searching for you or your business will not find the negative results.
Content development
This goes hand in hand with SEO, if you want to rank well in the search engines and build a good reputation, you need to have highly relevant content. This means that your website or blog should be organized, unique and well-written. Online Reputation Management (ORM) services will help you improve your existing content and create new material so that users not only find positive results about your business, they also see that the content you share is relevant and worth reading. This gives even more credibility to your brand and reputation.
Social Media
You are probably already on several social media sites, whether for personal use or for your business. While social media like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram can help your business or personal brand grow, an inappropriate image or comment can cause a PR nightmare. Most ORM services can help you clean up your social networks to make sure they are appropriate, and can monitor how your social media profiles affect your reputation.
Dealing with competitors or former employees
Even if your website and social media presence are good, outside forces can still easily damage your reputation. This could include competitors, former employees or unhappy customers. It is incredibly easy to create a new website or blog, where people can write whatever they want, or post on existing forums that are highly trusted and easily rank well on Google. For example, if you were to fire an employee, or one of your employees were to leave on bad terms, there is nothing to stop them from writing malicious blog posts or giving out false information in the form of reviews on the web. Reputation management companies will monitor these types of content to see what people are saying about you.
All these steps contribute to successful reputation management. But choosing the right ORM provider is not always easy.
What opportunities are there?
Online reputation management can help people and businesses achieve several goals. There are three main things you can do with reputation management services:
New and young companies can use it to gain exposure.
Companies that don’t have the time or resources to work on their online brands can turn to ORM companies to create detailed and proactive branding strategies.
It prevents malicious attacks from companies and individuals.
It only takes one bad word from a customer to destroy your reputation. ORM services can help you with strategies to protect against any negative situations. Consumer complaints or negative blog articles can cause damage to a person or company in just a few weeks, and then stay there for a very long time.
Reputation management companies can help establish authentic, positive media that can help protect and limit the damage of negative customer feedback.
It can restore your reputation if the damage has already been done.
While you would ideally use reputation management to prevent negative situations, these services can also help restore your good name once things go wrong. The right company can use positive content to overhaul your reputation and drive down negative information.
How to choose the right supplier?
Currently, there are not many specialists working on reputation management. My team and I have been working on it as one of the leading providers of online reputation management.
Identify your needs and goals
Before contacting any ORM company, set goals that you want to achieve with the service. Are you looking to monitor and improve your presence on Google? What do the search results look like? Do you want to clean up your social networks? It makes a difference whether you use a reputation management service as an individual or a company.
If you are a recent graduate, you will benefit from a company that can remove inappropriate or outdated photographs and information on social media. Employers today Google their job applicants. This can be a big factor when choosing the right employee. In some cases, negative information about you can cost you your dream job or get you fired from your current position.
If you are a high-ranking person and have a rising presence in the business world, you may need help in responding to and managing negative comments or news.
The process of building and maintaining a positive online presence is time-consuming, but with the right skills and the right company, the results tend to help companies save millions each year. Every reputation management strategy is unique and requires a customized approach to your brand strategy. Don’t let a bad reputation drag down your turnover.
Need help with reputation management?
Contact me – for a free quote and we can discuss what you need help with.
