When You Need Reputation Management, You’all know it. Here’s what to do.

The Internet is deep and your data is everywhere. You even visit a website using Google Chrome and your data is stored. How else would Amazon promote their products related to your last search? You would be hard-pressed to find a human being with a squeaky clean online reputation. If by chance you do find one, you can safely assume that a good online reputation management team has been behind it.

Humans are social animals, and it is our innate nature to share our lives with other people. While that is all very normal, it does not always play out so forgivingly over the online space. In fact, you are far more likely to be bullied and slandered online than you would be in the physical world. People like to slam you when they can hide behind a screen and they can live on guilt-free since they did not have to look you in the eye. They would never even have to explain to you why they did what they did so you would not know how to change the image they gave you. It can even be you who would want to get rid of a reputation that you gained online which can be bad for your business. There are a plethora of reasons that might compel you to improve your online reputation. Because this does happen often enough though, it is always a smart idea to have a go-to list of trustworthy and professional online reputation management companies beforehand as then you may not have enough time to do the research and look for one.

So, what is reputation management?

Reputation management is the process of tracking and monitoring the online appearance of a person or a business. It is not only to be reserved for eliminating negative reviews though – an ideal case of reputation management would be to simply boost your online status to a point that negative reviews do not appear at all. If you manage to attain a good online reputation, it can help you to build trust and increase sales, provide you with invaluable online insights which you can use to better serve your customers and more. It goes without saying that a poor online reputation can do the opposite and even destroy the image you set for yourself with excellent products/services.

Many people try to promote their personal brand all by themselves, but it is hard work and cannot always be done by someone without expert knowledge of public relations. Especially if you need to deal with sensitive situations like lawsuits, past affairs, DUIs, fines, or bad press – you will definitely require a mastermind who knows how to handle such matters professionally. Any of these cases, even if they were not criminal offences, can damage your reputation. Basically, reputation management is the process of seeing yourself as Google sees you and working to optimise that perspective so you can effectively influence your target market in a positive way.

What does a reputation manager do for you?

A reputation manager is a PR specialist who essentially monitors and controls the online activities of a brand and all its sub-brands. He/she has a deep understanding of search engine behaviour, social media, forums, blogs, ratings and reviews, etc. Since in today’s world social media posts and comments, and internet search results are at the core of your company’s reputation, they make sure that favourable opinions about your company come way before unfavourable ones using search engine optimization. Reputation managers build, maintain, recover, and promote your online presence. He/she mixes public relations and technology, accentuating the positives and downplaying the negatives. For example, a CEO may want to highlight their company’s charitable donations but hide a decade-old mugshot.

A reputation manager can assist you in this. In fact, anyone can benefit from having a reputation manager to represent them. It’s not just for CEOs; but celebrities, politicians, Fortune 500 companies, job applicants, doctors, college applicants, small businesses, and people with no online presence – a reputation manager can help everyone.

A good reputation management team will –

• Perform social media analytics and similar processes to capture the current image of your brand in the public mind and design an approach for a more profitable campaign,
• Regularly monitor all social media conversations related to your product/service and plan out an efficient social media policy for the company,
• For an individual, regulate all social media representations in a strategic way,
• Suggest effective alerts for company mentions in the online space,
• Promote your company honestly, implementing customer experience management (CEM) practices and actively engaging with customers online,
• Write reviews, and answer to customer complaints in a delicate manner,
• Manage various forums where they can discuss your product/service on your behalf to help you reach a more targeted audience, gaining insights about their requirements as well as collecting feedback,
• Interpret feedback to provide the company with a better and more competent strategy,
• Write technical blogs and help you reach industry-specific sites to gain you more dedicated and retainable customers,
• Make focused advertising campaigns,
• Create strategies for customer retention,
• Use SEO to improve ranking on the search pages,
• Seek out opportunities for your reputation to be used against your business and limit them,
• Handle controversial situations gently and professionally,
• Handle difficult situations such as internet blackmail and ethical manipulation of search engine results or reviews,
• Diagnose and suggest appropriate compensations for affected parties,

and MORE.

No matter what you hear, online reputation management is not all about burying negative feedback or presenting a fake image of perfection to your customers; but it is about ensuring an accurate, fair representation of your products/services. More importantly, it is about giving you a chance to take responsibility for your business’ mistakes in order to correct them and move forward towards a more successful future. If you are not in the position to lead damage control or do not have a piece of thorough knowledge about proven tactics, do not attempt it. Truth be told, trying to undo online damage has a higher chance of resulting in further harm if you do not do it right. You want yourself out of danger, or do not ever want to be in one, you need a specialist to hold your hand and guide you. Call One Stop Media on 1300 305 619 for more information today.