What are people saying about you? Good online reputation
management is not only about reacting well to what people say about you, your
brand, or your products and services, but also about whether to react at all
and, if so, when. Sometimes a reaction is not necessary, and sometimes a
reaction that is too late can cost you millions.
A proactive approach to the matter consists of monitoring
your public reputation on a regular basis, and not just when you come to know
about a specific event to deal with. How do you do this? The magic tools
invented to solve this problem fall under the name of “social media
monitoring.”
Simply put, social media monitoring allows companies to
gather public online content (from blog posts to tweets, from online reviews to
Facebook updates), process it, and see whether something negative or positive
is being said affecting their reputation.
In the online reputation management scenario, there are two
types of negative content that companies should be aware of. One is represented
by complaints on social networks. They need to be addressed properly, but
unless your company has serious problems, they do not pose a real challenge to
your business.
The other is what I define as “online reputation bombs,”
which affect your reputation and sales long term and can severely damage a
business. They are very powerful because, unlike social network content, they
are prominent in search engine results. What if someone googles your brand name
and finds defamatory content? Let’s see what they are:
• Negative
reviews: Review sites allow users to express their opinion on your brand. Did
they like your service/product? Would they recommend it? Negative content can
affect your sales, and addressing the criticism on the site may not be enough.
Websites like Ripoff Report and Pissed Consumer provide the perfect platform
for this kind of negative content.
• Hate
sites: Some people go beyond simple negative reviews and create ad hoc websites
with their opinions, some of them containing illegal content. So-called “hate
sites” sometimes address companies and public figures with insults and false
information. Needless to say, a search result like “The truth about
NAMEOFYOURCOMPANY” or “NAME scam/rip off” will make your potential customers
run away!
• Negative
media coverage: Phineas T. Barnum used to say “There’s no such thing as bad
publicity.” That may be true for controversial public figures like Paris
Hilton, but many times unfavorable TV, print, and online media coverage impacts
negatively on companies and brands.
It is obvious that everyone has the right to express their
voice about your brand. There are, however, certain boundaries that need to be
respected. Some of the negative content online actually is illegal. Why?
• It uses
defamatory language
• It
reports false information
• It is
aimed at damaging the company’s reputation
How do you react to all of this? How do you defend yourself
or your company from this kind of illegal behavior? Depending on the scope of
the problem, several paths can be pursued in order to restore your online
reputation:
• Aggressive
SEO: If someone googles your name, appearing on page 1 and 2 of the search
results will be much more important than your business card or website. They
will show at a glance several high ranking web sources talking about you. If
they display false information, the first thing that you or your online
reputation management company should do is devise a search marketing strategy
that increases the ranking of positive content, owned by either you or third
parties. The search engine game is too important to be ignored, and it is the
first step in restoring your image.
• Review
removal: Did that user claim something false about your company? Is that review
clearly aimed at destroying your reputation rather than providing feedback?
Does it contain improper language? Legal liaison and speed of reaction will
make it possible to remove the negative review.
• Online
investigations: In case of serious attacks to your brand image, it may be
necessary to hire skilled online analysts to investigate untraceable threats
and attackers via email tracing, data cross-indexing, and other information
collection techniques. Cyber investigations are the definitive path to get to
the bottom of difficult reputation management cases.
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