What is Reputation Management?

Reputation management focuses on the process of monitoring and protecting a personal, professional, or brand identity by positively influencing the information in search and social channels as well as responding to any negative public feedback that might exist. In the information age where anyone can easily post a blog, article, or other form of content, unfortunately, there are individuals who advertently or inadvertently post content that can cause harm to the reputation of others. As an individual, business, or brand, it is critical to ensure that a positive message is visible when end users conduct searches for your name. If negative mentions or undesirable feedback goes unaddressed, it is possible that the content could go viral and lead to a major public relations nightmare. Online reputation management involves the optimization of positive branded digital assets that help to push negative content out of prime positions and ultimately out of view.

Who Needs Reputation Management?

The short answer is everyone needs reputation management. Individuals, businesses, and brands are only as solid as their reputation. Any damage to a reputation can give rise to fear, doubt, and in the worst of cases, removal from consideration in the mind of others. Everyone should always be working to positively develop and protect their online identity.

In most cases, those in need of professional reputation management services have identities that are recognizable, experienced some type of negative press, maintain a name that is the same or similar to another person or entity that has experienced negative press, or are in industry that has a lot of critics.

Celebrity Reputation Management – (Ex. Critics unfairly commit personal attacks)
Executive Reputation Management – (Ex. Personal information goes public)
Small Business Reputation Management – (Ex. Bad customer reviews)
Corporate Reputation Management – (Ex. CEO gets into trouble, lawsuits, financial woes)
Brand Reputation Management – (Ex. Brand X has bad customer reviews or a product recall)
Hotel Reputation Management – (Ex. Hotel receives bad reviews or an outbreak of bedbugs)
Physician Reputation Management – (Ex. Doctor caught up in a medical malpractice case)

Online Reputation Management Strategies

There are several effective online reputation management strategies that supportively influence SERPs and interested parties within the context of social and local search properties. These strategies include but are not limited to the following:

On page SEO of all owned web properties with the focused inclusion of identity mentions
Off page SEO that drives traffic and influence to targeted digital assets and owned pages that have positive mentions
Content Marketing that includes the creation and distribution of fresh positive content related to the identity
Social Media Optimization of profiles and creation of additional social profiles on tertiary platforms
Request for Removal of Negative Content that is posted on other sites or within social profiles
Provide strategically crafted responses to negative comments on review sites and optimize profiles on a secondary list of untarnished review sites

Your Reputation Precedes You – Manage It With Care

In business and in life, more times than not, reputation is everything. It is label that is earned and strengthened by long term patterns of consistency and it can be damaged in a devastating manner by one critical mistake, false accusations, or an unlucky move. Protecting the value of a reputation should be foremost at all times. A tarnished reputation or case of mistaken identity that is not addressed can lead to additional perpetuation of bad press, lost opportunities, scrutiny in the mind of the public eye, and negative financial impact. You work so hard to build a positive identity. Given this fact, it only makes sense to invest time and resources into online reputation management. Protect your greatest investment… you.

What is Reputation Management?