The internet has changed drastically over the years. With the enhanced forms of human interaction through different channels such as social networking, review blogs and forums, you can now find almost anything you need to know just by surfing the web.
If you back track a few years ago, the internet was so much different. People may say something negative about you, your product or your brand, but you never read about it on the web. We were not as influenced by what we find out as we are today. People’s opinions about your product or brand, be it positive or negative, are now easily voiced out through different networks giving a huge impact on your online reputation.
Did you have some bad reviews posted by a customer that’s been hurting your business? Maybe some dirt in the past resurfaced and is damaging your image? Or do you have a bad press you want gone from your Google results? What do you do when your online reputation has been tarnished? Can it be saved?
Online Reputation Management is all about protecting your image. It can repair the damage done to your online reputation and restore your image – sort of a makeover.
There are two kinds of negative content that affect online reputation. First is through social media networks. These are the complaints, negative comments and criticisms you get that are posted by unhappy customers. The best thing to do here is to closely monitor your social media accounts. This will give you a sense of what people are saying about you and what you need to improve on. Address issues by reacting promptly and politely.
Second is through search engine results. This is when people google you or your brand and the bad content is what they see first. The best thing to do in cases like this is to knock the offending page out of the search results by increasing the number of positive online dialogues about you. Create websites and produce positive and high-grade content and cross-link them. Websites with high-quality content earns high authority with the search engines and influences page ranking. This way the negative ones will be pushed down and hopefully be gone from the first page of the search results.
Bear in mind that online reputation management is not only about improving a company reputation; it could also deal with a personal image or a product. The goal is to safeguard your online reputation whilst strengthening and promoting your credibility and positive online image.