Managing Your Online Reputation – Best

Practices
Introduction

A mean competitor, a disgruntled ex-employee or a frustrated customer are all it takes

to mar your online reputation. Blogs, video sharing, social media and customer review
sites give a vent to people’s opinions, accusations and plain badmouthing. Just about
anyone can type anything and publish it on the internet.

56% of CEOs and 67% of non-CEO executives consider online onslaught of negative
remarks about their company as a threat to the organization’s reputation. 1 Their threat
perception is not without a valid reason. Because reputation matters. The way your
company is being perceived impacts the way people interact with your organization.

Since a large proportion of people use internet to evaluate a company, your online
reputation influences the decisions people make about the interactions they are going
to have with your organization. Here are few ways your online reputation can impact
the company.

Managing Your Online Reputation

While it is almost impossible to track every little thing that’s been said about you
online, you can still devise and implement an effective online reputation management
program. Businesses that generate a large part of their revenue from online sales and
those that completely depend on web for their survival need to pay special attention to
reputation management.

An online reputation management program works on three levels – Identifying the

sources of reputation management concerns, monitoring those sources and engaging
them to promote a positive perception of the organization. Reputation management is
1
http://www.online-reputations.com/DLS/RiskyBusiness_WhitePaper_US.pdf
 not a one-time errand but a continuous activity that must be incorporated into core
business processes of your organization.

Conducting an online research and analysis into what’s been said about your company
in the past 12 months will give you an idea of the journey. Search various blogs, chat
rooms, discussion boards, social media sites to find out what your current online
reputation level is. This works something like a benchmark reputation to measure
your future reputation management activities. Such a study also helps you prioritize
the important reputation issues that need to be addressed urgently.

Level 1 - Identify Your Online Reputation Concerns

With a new blog being created every five seconds, it is almost next to impossible to
monitor the whole internet. A lot of web2.0 content does not attract a large enough
audience. All you need to do is to concentrate on few important blogs, forums and
networking sites.

Identify the online places that are most relevant to your business. There will be few
industry-specific sites and forums that are frequented by people in your line of
business. Also check job portals and other networking sites popular with employees
of your industry. Using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques to keep an eye
on the popular pages that mention your company is a necessary component in online
reputation management.

Level 2 - Monitor What’s Being Said about You

Once you identify the digital spaces that have a bearing on your company’s online
reputation, it’s time to monitor them using a well thought-out monitoring mechanism.
Pick the most important sites that have the potential to hugely impact your online
reputation (customer review sites, industry forums and blogs with huge following,
etc) and monitor them continuously.

There are a number of online tools which you can use to monitor the identified
targets. Various search engines and alert services can be used to keep an eye on
what’s being written about you. These tools will scan the net for specified terms,
phrases, and important keywords such as the name of your company, your products,
services, brands, the names of CEO and other board members, etc. Google Alerts is
one such online monitoring tool which is available for free.

Identify some enthusiastic employees in your organization who actively participate in

online community discussions. Use them as your online reputation analysts. These
analysts need to go through the identified content on the net that mentions your firm
and determine if it is positive, neutral or negative.

Greater number of positive mentions is a sign of healthy online reputation. Have your
analysts rate the tone of the content. If there is too much neutral or negative talk about
your company, then it’s time you took notice of it. Such online buzz provides
 important insights into how your company is being perceived by the digital
community.

Categorize online threats according to their severity and potential harm they might
cause. High-risk threats such as corporate website phishing and IP rights violation
need to taken care with utmost seriousness. On the other hand low risk threats such as
poor customer reviews and unfavorable blog posts may not need any immediate
attention.

Level 3 - Engaging Digital Space to Build Positive Online Reputation

Countering negative online perception and promoting positive corporate image are
two elements of building a positive online reputation. Here are some of the best
practices employed by top firms to manage their reputation.

Attract Influential People

Some bloggers, experts, journalists have high reputation online and what they say
counts a lot. Identify the ones most relevant to your business and attract them. By
forming alliances, you can protect yourself in times of negative attacks. They are also
useful in promoting a positive image of your organization.

Plant Positive Content

Engage experts, forum owners, bloggers and industry magazines and plant positive
stories that show your organization in favorable light. Doing this on a continual basis
will develop a reputation shield around your firm. It will also help you guard against
negative online onslaughts.

Buy out Domain Name Variations

Purchase all possible domain name variations of your online URL. There are many
examples of domain name variations being used by net users to launch negative and
spiteful attacks on brands. Domain name variations such as ‘brandXsucks.com’ and
‘brandXstinks.com’ can be potent in marring your brand perception. Since these sites
share the same name, they are likely to rank higher in search engine rankings and
divert considerable amount of net traffic away from your corporate site.

Build Links to Positive Content

Using SEO practices to link relevant and positive traffic to your brand can
significantly improve its online brand presence and perception. You can also manage
to create interlinks among the sites that mention you in positive light. This improves
their rankings and helps you secure the top most search engine results with the
positive content.

Use Paid Search Strategy to Limit any Online Damage

 Media leaks and scandals can take the blogosphere by storm within minutes and
wreck havoc with your corporate image. In such cases, initiate a paid search campaign
and target the most likely keywords used in the negative story circulating on the web.
While this will not completely eliminate the problem, it helps to minimize the damage
caused by the unfavorable story.

Build Positive Social Network profiles

Identify online users who are loyal and sympathetic to you and use them to create and
develop strong profiles and communities in social networking sites to show your
company in positive light. Identify the reasons for negative portrayal of your company
and eliminate or minimize them.

Engage Traditional Media Outlets which have a Strong Presence on the Web

Though anybody can start a blog and write what he or she likes, traditional media
such as newspapers and television have stronger credibility and play greater role in
tilting reputational fortunes. Most of such traditional media also have a strong
presence on the web. Engaging such outlets to publish favorable content about your
firm can do wonders to your online reputation.

Keep a Tight Watch on To-and-Fro Traffic from Your Intranet

Using various technologies, continuously monitor both inbound and outbound traffic
through your corporate firewall to pre-empt any possible media leaks, IP rights
violation and corporate spying.

Continuously Engage the Customers

Implement a robust online customer relationship program to engage your customers

and other stakeholders. Corporate blogs, podcasts, videos, articles, case studies, and
white papers are some of the means to keep in touch with the audience and build a
positive corporate image.

Parting Thoughts

Though organizations are increasingly becoming conscious of their online reputation,

many of them do not pay enough attention toward online reputation management
programs to safeguard their standing. Implementing a robust online reputation
management programs helps you identify the distress signals before your reputation
takes a beating from the forces inimical to your organization.

Use the above-mentioned best practices and integrate both online and offline tools to
engage media, customers, employees, bloggers and other stakeholders to protect your
company from negative campaigns and build a positive image.