Monday, February 13, 2012

How to Handle Online Reputation Management

By Michael Gillen


As a company, it's pretty clear that since you have an unending torrent of current information popping up every second that online reputation management is a tough cookie. Every second your business can be bombarded with false, harmful info which can, unfortunately, reach a vast audience in this world of social media and instant messages. However, you do not have to give up and let the internet say whatever they want about you; as a company, it's your mission to manage your online reputation and be certain that everything that's said about you is both correct and positive. A social media agency can help in this endeavor.

Generally speaking, a damaged reputation occurs because somebody was asleep at the wheel. Rumors, even online, take time to develop, and, if they are nipped in the bud, they will peter out long before they can do any real pain to your online reputation. If you do not have somebody whose job it is to constantly watch what people are saying about you online, find one.

In addition, my experience has taught that, when the average reputation takes damage, it's because the company did not have a wall of proactive content to serve as a cushion against what it is that the public is saying which, unlike the content crafted by company, can be unfocused, incorrect, or malicious. In other words, when there's a concern about the company, the company does not step in to tell their side of the story. If you are hiding your labor practices, people will assume the worse, even if it's not so. Information needs to be given out frequently; in a perfect world, your customers will never have a question about your company at all.

However, that is not to say that you can't keep things hidden; every business has tricks of the trade which is not intended for public consumption. So, you can still hold onto all of your secret formula and such. You simply must answer any question that you yourself would ask a company.

What I am trying to tell you is that when it comes to online reputation management, you can't afford to respond to things as they take place; if something is already a crisis, you've done something incorrectly. You need to be constantly vigilant in order to monitor and manage your online reputation; if you neglect to do this, somebody else will do it for you, and you can be certain that what they're going to say about you is not going to be good.




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