Online Reputation Management
has become an important part of any company’s marketing strategy today, simply because purchase decisions made by your customers are influenced by reviews, feedback and other forms of information about your product or company found on the internet.
What is Online Reputation Management?
The act of monitoring, addressing or mitigating undesirable search engine results or mentions in online media for a company or product. Techniques include generating new content and creating posts on existing content. – Defined by Anvil Media in their Search Engine Marketing Glossary.
Everybody has an opinion on just about anything. Thanks to Web 2.0 and Social Media, anyone can make that opinion public over the internet, and a majority of these are not journalistic or editorial in nature but posts by the ordinary Joe on user generated content websites. Some of those opinions might not be too flattering, which in turn can affect your sales.
For this reason, businesses need to manage their reputations online by being a little more proactive on social sites, and would need to make time for search engine reputation management. Of course that also means, you also need to make sure your customers are happy by providing them good service and observing good business practices.
But reputation management is not simply about managing damaging or negative commentary, but ensuring that you are able to get your marketing messages across and they are received accurately by your audience. This will help establish or reinforce your company or product brand, and be key to achieving your marketing and sales goals.
If you have questions or comments about Online Reputation Management, please post them in the comment section below. You can also send me questions through the Contact Form.
——-
You can republish this article on your own blogs and websites, as long as you retain all the links above.
When the Tiger Woods scandal first broke out with the accident at his home, people were not sure what the story was about because Tiger was not saying anything for several days and as we later find out, it was probably what his team of PR people advised him to do, maybe thinking that the story would blow over and be forgotten.
Unfortunately a lot of evidence had been leaked out to the press which had to do with Tiger Woods cheating on his wife, not only once but several times. It is rather difficult to keep a story under wraps today especially with the internet available to so many, who are also able to use easily use social sites to talk about a story. The story of course went viral, FAST…. with his voice mail recording mixed into an RNB slow jam and made into a video on YouTube, plus transcripts of text messages finding their way to blogs and forums.
Another woman has been linked to Tiger Woods and this one is 48 years old. Or as Tiger refers to her, “my senior tour.” – Conan O’Brien
After all that I have seen and heard I have to say, this is one major PR nightmare that might have been quickly managed had we been in the 80s where today’s world wide web were non existent and social sites used as viral mediums of information were non existent. Every little bit of dirt on the story can be found online… and so we ask, can all that negative publicity online be managed?
Interestingly, someone believes so.
I found this article on Online Reputation Management and how the Tiger Woods story was a . The conclusion to the story is, if you have money you can probably manage it, and Tiger does, so he likely can, in fact from what I have been seeing lately I think they have started to do so.
Incidentally here is a story that will answer your question on what .
Image Source: www.wikimedia.org
In the past I have always used Islands Banca Cruises on my blog posts on SEO, online marketing and linking… what can I say.. apart from believing it to be a good product, I also know some of the people behind it and am good friends with Kitchie too!
In fact Kitchie mentioned to me their idea of putting together a website when I was still based in Cebu, and they did register their domain for their website on April 13, 2008.
So, let us say you were someone who knew what you want to do and where to do it… specifically island hopping in cebu. You got wind of it from either friends, or maybe saw a feature on TV, or a magazine. But, you have no idea who to contact in Cebu for island hopping.
So you would likely ask around, OR go to Google and type keywords related to what you want to do… so you would type in keywords like…
- island hopping in cebu
- island hopping cebu
- cebu island hopping
Guess what, the Islands Banca Cruises website ranks at the top of Google for those searches… studies show that the website at the very top of the search results always gets the most traffic.
So from there, as a potential customer you find their website, browse around their site, check out photos, rates, promos and packages, etc. But you want to be sure you are actually going to get good service, and you may have a few doubts about giving your hard earned money to them… I mean, all the information on their website is supposed to sell their service right? So how do you find out if they are the best island hopping service provider to choose?
You either ask friends if they have heard about Islands Banca Cruises OR, go back to Google and do a search for the brand name, Islands Banca Cruises, or Islands Banca Cruises coupled with other keywords such as reviews, comments, good experience, etc. What you are doing now is actually trying to find a reason for you to justify your purchase decision, you already know what you want to buy but might need convincing… and the results you will find will indeed convince you because…
If you take a look at the results for the phrase, Islands Banca Cruises, you will find that the top 10 results are a mix of other people talking about their overall positive experiences with Islands Banca Cruises on their own blogs, there are also website directories where Islands Banca Cruises has been listed and finally a forum. This is a good mix of sites that contribute to an overall positive Search Engine Reputation that help reinforce a positive product perception among its potential customers.. and it is not because of good SEO, but also good marketing paired with good business practice that leaves customers happy, happy enough to voluntarily talk about the experience. Yes, Web 2.0.. social sites, user generated content sites have definitely changed how we can do marketing online, it made it easier.
Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) is a relatively new word that is currently going around in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Online Marketing circles. But before I elaborate on SERM let me tell you a couple of stories.
Tom is a typical internet user. He spends a couple of hours each day on the internet, and does a lot of transactions online such as paying bills, buying clothes and electronic gadgets, purchasing performance parts for his Honda and also buys software and ebooks.
So how does Tom find what he needs online? This is what he does…
- he goes to a search engine and types in a few general keywords
- if he does not find the information he needs, he revises his search and this time becomes more specific with a longer phrase
- if he is searching for answers to a question or a solution to a problem, some of those solutions or answers might be in the form of a product or service
- if he needs more information about a product or service, he would go back to a search engine and again do a search this time using the brand of the product or service, and yet again this time using the brand together with modifier keywords such as “review”, “about”, “prices”, “testimonials”
- the results he gets help Tom make a purchase decision, and the information he has found helps him make up his mind as to what product or service to buy
Tom is your typical online consumer, this behavioral process is typical of most online buyers. If you think that was a lengthy process, that is just an example of buyers who start out researching because they do not have anything specific in mind. There are a considerable number of consumers who go straight into the 4th step because they already have heard about an item, brand, product or service from other channels like TV, radio, magazines or even from word of mouth.
If you were someone researching a product or brand, would you be put off if you were finding too many negative stories, testimonials or articles about it? If you found a healthy number of positive comments and reviews from other people about a product, would that warm you up to that product?
This second story a personal experience.
A few months ago, I signed up to a website that offered a specific service. Paid a fixed amount of about a hundred dollars, for a corresponding set of services. For ethical reasons I will not mention the name of the service or other identifying details. The very first time of using their service, I found that is was mediocre and decided to cancel my purchase, get a refund and not avail of the rest of the services. Note that this is for services, not something perishable or consumable like food or beverages, nor is it clothing or electronics. I had paid in advance for services that I no longer wanted to avail of.
But the website owner did not want to issue a refund.
So I wrote a review about the product, that was of course negative in tone, and today each time the brand name of the service, or brand name with the word “review” is searched for, my negative review is quickly found at the top of the search engines. Of course, the reason it is at the top is because I used my knowledge and experience in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to make sure people find my review.
So if you were a potential customer researching about this product, and you found my review, warning people about the way this website does business, wouldn’t you be a little put off, or apprehensive about using the service?
Here is where Search Engine Reputation Management comes in. Search Engine Reputation Management is often defined as the practice of protecting a brand or reputation from negative feedback or content that is easily found through search engines queries… but in my opinion it is not about simply shielding a brand from negative publicity, but properly managing the image of a brand online and advising clients of best practices in the conduct of their business on the internet. Shielding or protecting a brand from negative reviews or remarks is simply reactionary in nature, while proper online brand management through content that brings out a brand’s uniqueness especially when discussed voluntarily by audiences on social sites or user generated content sites is paramount!
Search Engine Reputation Management is PR management for the internet, and if your brand or product’s reputation online has can be correlated to your bottom line, then you might want to consider actively managing your search engine reputation.
If you have questions or comments about Search Engine Reputation Management, please post them in the space provided below. You can also send me questions about Search Engine Reputation Management or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Reputation Management through the Contact Form.
——-
You can republish this article on your own blogs and websites, as long as you retain all the links above.
Image Source: http://www.hitsearchlimited.com
Recommended Services
