Online Reputation Management

The best way to avoid an attack on your online reputation is to be proactive and take measures to continually monitor your internet presence. What do you do, however, if you are beyond that point and are facing a public relations nightmare in the form of bad internet publicity? Here are some ways you can combat the negative press:

• First determine if the negative comments are true. This happened to Facebook in 2007 - they were accused on a leading tech blog of censoring polls on their site. As it turns out, it was true. As soon as the company heard of it, a representative responded to the blogger in the comment section, saying it was a bug and would be fixed. This prompt response turned a crisis into a non-issue.
• If it is true, respond immediately and seek to rectify the problem. Does a customer have a problem with faulty products or poor customer service? Correct it quickly.
• Issue a statement responding to the problem and your solution on your company website. Don't hide. This makes you look guilty and bloggers will love that.
• Consider hiring an online reputation management firm to help you overcome this obstacle.

What to do if it is not true can require a little more work. First, determine whether the negative content presents a threat to your business. If so, then proceed:

• Contact the blogger or site owner and request he/she remove the false content. Be aware, though, that anything you write is fodder for further posts. Provide the correct information. Do not threaten or berate the blogger or site owner - it will weaken your stance.
• Add a statement to your website concerning the original complaint and your response.
• You cannot eliminate negative comments from the web once they have spread past the original source. What you can do is try to increase your own sites' search engine rankings. This pushes the negative material down through the results, where their efficacy dramatically fades. You can do this by optimizing existing material and adding new, positive content (blogs, social networking profiles, additional websites, etc.)

Ben Franklin said, 'It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.' As true as this was two hundred years ago, it is even more relevant in today's internet-saturated world. Online reputation management is an important function of any business in today's environment, and we can help. Contact us today.