Reputation Management Online

Bad press, damage limitation, PR, crisis management, brand protection, call it what you like, the minute you put online in front of any of these phrases changes the requirements of a company who can help.  So who do you need to help mange your reputation on the net?

When you find you have negative content appearing in the search engines where do you go?   Sure negative comments can be a positive thing if you have had a serious issue and have shown to have dealt with it after listening to your customers.  More often than not however it can be an ex employer, competition or customer who has taken a particular disliking for the company and very difficult to show you have dealt with the complaint.

Reputation Management is about showing your company in the correct light and create understanding.  It is unlike advertising, whose main goal and focus is to generate sales and awareness.  Like PR, reputation management should be a planned exercise, with the goal of making the public, customers and suppliers see that the company understands the needs and wants of all parties involved.  You can’t do this if there is only negative content showing on the first page of the search engines.

How you go about producing this positive content must be done honestly and in a manageable structure, otherwise you could take the wrong path.  See this example from the NY Times

Lifestyle Lift, a cosmetic surgery company, has reached a settlement with the State of New York over its attempts to fake positive consumer reviews on the Web, the New York attorney general’s office said Tuesday.  The company had ordered employees to pretend they were satisfied customers and write glowing reviews of its face-lift procedure on Web sites, according to the attorney general’s statement. Lifestyle Lift also created its own sites of face-lift reviews to appear as independent sources.

One e-mail message, discovered by the attorney general’s office, told employees to “devote the day to doing more postings on the Web as a satisfied client.”

So it’s important that you get the right advice, having an online reputation management strategy can save you a lot of time, effort and money.  Leaving it till its a big issue can sometimes hurt you and damage your reputation beyond repair.