Reputation Management Service

Online reputation management (ORM) help you fix PR disasters or completely prevent them in the first place. These services also work to establish and protect your brand once the crisis has been addressed. ORM can have a huge impact on your personal success and that of your business; reputation management goes well beyond simply improving your search results.

Whether you’re an individual or a business owner, reputation management services can help you protect your image. However, you must first make sure you know what ORM companies can and can’t do and what makes a service trustworthy and effective.

Reputation management services are comprehensive, covering far more than just crisis control or negative online reviews. They are able to analyze, establish, protect and restore your brand’s image online through a number of strategies. Here are some of the main features to consider when choosing an ORM service:

Search engine optimization and management. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process by which your online content will rank higher in popular search engines like Google. It encompasses strategies and techniques to increase visitors to your website. Reputation management firms will cover SEO so internet users searching for topics relating to your business will be more likely to find you. SEO can also be employed to emphasize the positive information and relegate the bad to the farther reaches of the internet. If there is negative information about you in your search results, your ORM provider can strategize ways to use truthful, positive content to detract from any negative content by pushing the bad stuff back in the list of search results. This way, people who search for you or your business won’t be immediately greeted by negative results.

Content development and management. To rank well in search engines and build a good reputation, you need to have high-quality content. This involves ensuring your website and blog is well-organized, unique and that the content is well-written. Most reputation management services will help you improve your existing content and create new material so that users will not only find positive results about you or your business right away but will also see that the content you share is relevant and worth reading. This adds more credibility to your brand and your reputation.

Social media management. Social media has become commonplace, both for personal use and business. While such platforms as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram can all help you grow your business or personal brand, it takes only one inappropriate picture or comment to cause a PR nightmare. Most ORM services can help you clean up your social networks to make sure they’re business-appropriate, and ORM services can monitor how your social media profiles affect your reputation.

Third-party website monitoring. Of course, your websites and social media channels are things you can control, but there are also third parties that can damage your reputation without your consent. This includes former employees and displeased customers. Negative reviews on websites such as Yelp and Glassdoor can be particularly damaging. Also, it’s not difficult for a dissatisfied person to create a new website or blog to disparage your company. For example, if one of your employees was to leave on bad terms, there’s nothing stopping that person from writing malicious blog posts or spreading false information about you in reviews. Reputation management services will monitor the internet for this kind of content to see what people are saying about you.

Synthesizing each of these steps is crucial to a successful ORM campaign, so it’s important to choose a company that is able to employ each strategy.

 

A good reputation management service will tell you if it uses white hat or black hat tactics, said Wilkinson. You’ll want to go with a provider that uses white hat tactics, as these are the acceptable techniques that adhere to Google’s best practices. White hat tactics, like those listed above, are completely transparent and rely on having quality content and using proper SEO techniques. Other white hat practices include taking the time to respond proactively to any negative situations and getting reputable websites to write about or feature you or your business.

A reputation management campaign that uses white hat tactics will take a lot of time but will play it safe and provide you with long-term results.

Black hat techniques, on the other hand, may work quickly, but they are aggressive and risky. Search engines may even ban you if they catch on to your black hat tactics. If an ORM service you’re considering uses any of the following techniques, take that company out of the running.