RSS feedMarch, 2009
Reputation Management Monitoring
By Reputation Management
We offer Comprehensive, Automated Monitoring for our Reputation Management clients. Please email or telephone for a quote.
Learn who is talking about you, your brand, company or products on websites, videos, news, blogs and social networks.
Contact Us
US / Canada: 1-877-355-6410
International: 001-321-945-7973
Email: reputationprofessor@gmail.com
Online Reputation Management
By Reputation Management
by Jak Smith
It has become common practice for people to surf the web for news and information about people, places and companies. Researching new products and services is commonplace. It is expected that a prospective employer will conduct a thorough online search of any serious candidates for employment. Google has become the online manifestation of Orwell’s imagined “Big Brother”. If the algorithm has dealt you a bad hand, it is best you learn how to confront it rather than hoping it will disappear by itself.
As a service to the companies and individuals for whom a search yields negative results, or may suffer from this precarious condition in the future, we offer insights into the world of online reputation management.
You are Not Alone
With the advent of bloggers, RSS feeds and web sites, anyone can define a person’s or company’s identity and challenge a website’s reputation and integrity. The rise and expansion of consumer generated media offers the public an opportunity to express their views. And this is being done at an unprecedented rate. People are expressing their views unabashedly, often with no regard for the consequences of what they are writing, and with little for concern for the veracity of their comments.
The more a product, brand or company is exposed to public attention and scrutiny, the greater the likelihood that someone will want to challenge its reputation. This can include dissatisfied clients, customers and competitors, who may have legitimate complaints or rumor mongers and vindictive web site wizards, whose sole purpose is to challenge another website’s integrity. For example, 29 of the Fortune 100 Companies have at least one negative postings when “Googled”. These postings range from bad business practices and discrimination, to accusations that companies are connected to paramilitary death squads.
Negative postings are not only surfacing on large or even medium corporate search results. Stories, rumors and press accounts that date back a decade or more are also traumatizing ordinary people. Seemingly innocent pranks and mischievous adventures that college students may have engaged in, have appeared in top positions of search engine listings seriously damaging their reputations, careers and lives.
You Can Take Charge
Combating the tribulations of a negative Google listing means taking charge of the search results that come up for your name, company, etc. If left to the vagaries of the search engine’s algorithm, you can easily fall victim to the whims of arbitrary conjecture, opinions and rumors. When you decide to take charge, you need to confront the search engines in a proactive and forthright manner, rather than adopting a passive or defensive posture.
Online reputation and search engine optimization professionals will tell you that it is no longer an issue of “if” you should be managing your online reputation, the question is “how” you should be managing it. And don’t assume that just because you are happy with the results of your own personal search today, that situation will continue indefinitely. Being on guard means:
1. knowing that the situation can turn against you and
2. having the ammunition to combat the rumor mongers when they strike.
Like the proverbial lawyer who, when deciding to represent himself, discovers has a fool for a client, most people, even those who are comfortable in the world of the internet, are not competent to deal with the major league players when it comes to online reputation management. When you are up against a challenger that has Google on its team, you don’t want your teammates to be from the minor league, even if they can boast a relatively high batting score.
Working With a Pro
Successful ORM, focuses on having sufficient links to blogs, articles, press stories and allied web sites so that when a search is run for your name, all of the material you have positioned appears. The problem starts when a stubbornly entrenched negative press story or blog, appears on your page, and it overpowers all of the listings you have put in place, how do you dislodge it?
Measuring Success
Regardless of who actually manages your ORM campaign, what is required is distribution of positive content and strategic participation in online discussions which results in the creation and posting of positive content on your site. A successful search engine reputation management program ensures that those looking for information about you or your company will see favorable content wherever your name or your company appears as search results.
Online – Reputation – Management
By Reputation Management
Online Reputation Management involves both marketing and public relations along with search engine marketing. Visibility and high search engine indexing with good publicity which displaces negative publicity is the goal. This results in a increase in positive web presence, helping you own top spots in search engine rankings. Online Reputation Management enables you to protect and manage your reputation becoming actively involved in the outcome of search engine results.
http://ComplaintsBoard.com, http://RipOffReport.com, http://Complaints.com, http://ConsumerAffairs.com, http://TheSqueakyWheel.com, http://ConsumerWebWatch.org, http://My3Cents.com, http://personratings.com/, http://dontdatehimgirl.com/, http://www.pissedconsumer.com/, http://www.planetfeedback.com/, http://www.ripoffrevenge.com/, http://epinions.com/, http://thegripe.com/, http://screwedcentral.com/, http://www.consumerreview.com/, http://www.reviewcentre.com/, http://consumerist.com/, http://www.check-affiliate-program.com, http://getsatisfaction.com/, http://www.bustathief.com/ http://complaint.tv http://www.merareview.com
Reputation Management News Links
By Reputation Management
Cincinnati Enquirer – Facebook prank turns bad – December 21, 2007
ComputerWorld – Online reputations under threat – December 7, 2007
Kremlin Seeks To Extend Its Reach in Cyberspace – Washington Post – October 27, 2007
Philadelphia Inquirer – New web site is not fair to doctors – October 15, 2007
Washington Post – Ten Ways to Generate Good Web PR – October 10, 2007
Dealing with the Damage from Online Critics – New York Times – October 4, 2007
Office gossip has never traveled faster, ‘thanks’ to tech - USA Today – September 9, 2007
Defending Wikipedia’s Impolite Side – NY Times – August 20, 2007
The Saboteurs Of Search – Forbes.com June 6, 2007
USA Today – Your Internet Image is Everything – USA Today – April 5, 2007
Trash Talk
- Wall Street Journal – March 19, 2007
Harsh Words Die Hard on the Web – Washington Post – March 7, 2007
Your past is lurking online – Boston Globe – Feb 25, 2007
Internet Defamation can carry a Big Price Tag – Asian Tribune – October 12, 2006
Delaware Supreme Court Declines to Unmask a Blogger – New York Times – October 10, 2006
Harsh words Die Hard on the Web – Washington Post – March 6, 2006
Bias, sabotage haunt Wikipedia’s free world – Boston Globe – Feb 12, 2006
Hotel Reviews Online: In Bed with Hope, Half-Truths and Hype – New York Times – Feb 7, 2006
Delaware Supreme Court Declines to Unmask a Blogger – NY Times – October 6, 2005
Using SEO for Reputation Management
By Reputation Management
by Apogee Search
Even after many years of untainted business practices, a single negative event can stain your brand image in the public eye for a long time. Simple things like a negative product review in a blog can be harmful to your brand, especially when competitors are standing close by to snatch up customers. One way to combat that threat is through a reputation management strategy, which can begin with search engine optimization (SEO).First, to understand how negative press can get to the top of the search engines results pages (SERPs), let’s reminisce and revisit the old urban legend of Pop Rocks and Coke. Amidst all the excitement around the popular fizzy candy, in the late seventies, stories began to spread around school playgrounds that, when mixed with soda, Pop Rocks could cause a mini-explosion in your stomach. Teachers overheard and passed on to mothers. The worried mothers then escalated the news to the press, and soon General Foods, the creators of Pop Rocks, had a reputation problem on their hands.
This telephone game of word-of-mouth is replicated online via link-building. First, someone publishes negative comments about your business. As others read the comments, more people start linking to it in blogs and discussion groups. Friends forward to friends, who forward to friends and so on. Next thing you know, the bad press is at the top of the search rankings.
Back in the Pop Rocks days, General Foods responded to the Pop Rocks fiasco with full-page print ads, letters to school principals around the country, and even sent the Pop Rocks inventor door to door to attest to its safety. But what could they have done had they lived in the today’s digital world?
Begin by Analyzing Keywords
If an online reputation disaster strikes you or a friend, the first step in the repair strategy should always entail keyword selection. You don’t want to continue optimizing the same keywords that are used for existing marketing purposes. Different keywords come into play in this case. Negative press usually appears when consumers search for your product or brand name, so focus your SEO efforts on company-specific keywords. The goal is to drive brand-friendly results up in the SERPs, while pushing the unfriendly press down.
You do this by creating more good press and optimizing around those selected keywords. Links embedded within press releases will give sites a ranking boost while the news is fresh and the press release is at the top of the newswire. When you’re embedding the links, don’t just hyperlink your top level domain every time. Instead, ask yourself, “Which links are most important to our situation at this time?”
Experiment with different hyperlinks to different pages and sub-domains of the site, and measure the results to determine which ones will drive your news up the ranks. Always make sure that links are embedded on top of, or near, your brand name.
Bury Negative Press through Link Building
The second step is link building. After all, if the negative press elbowed its way to the top of the SERPs through link building, you can do the same with positive press. It is an SEO ace in the hole, and it should be a major part of any SEO strategy. To counteract the negative press, build links to optimize brand and product names.
Think outside your corporate domain. Sub-domains, including news sites, corporate blogs and other pages outside your website, can be key SEO weapons in your arsenal as they take up more shelf space in the SERPs. Optimize these through link building, and make it a practice to ensure that the content on these sites is constantly updated and is as fresh as possible.
Lastly, go directly to the source of the negative press and request they also include rebuttal links. Ideally, they will publish another link on that post or page to your response (on your site) to the issue in question so that your positive messages are readily visible.
When it comes to the Internet, information is a constantly flowing stream, and it flows rapidly. The only real news is what’s up at the top of the results page, so use something that you know works to manage, control and shape those messages that you care about. SEO has a pivotal role in reputation management, as it can remove negatives and enhance positives on the first page of results, which is usually the only page that matters.
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