Online Reputation Management (ORM) is an important part of being online. All businesses who conduct business online, can be subject to bad publicity. All it takes is one negative comment on a blog or website with the right (or wrong) mix of traffic to drive your reputation into the ditch. If you haven’t heard of or are not doing Online Reputation Management (ORM), you need to start.
ORM is, in a sense, public relations. It is the process of following online references to a brand, company, person or service while having a plan in place to deal with any negative feedback. You need to monitor for any references, evaluate them for risk, and be able to act quickly to comment, rebut, draft a formal response or simply ignore what has been said, based on your evaluation.
For Example;
Let’s say you have years of experience, a solid client base, and great relationships with your clients and colleagues. You recently bid on a huge design project with a well-known company and won. One of the other candidates, who was not awarded the job, is resentful. Not only did he put hours into the process, but a friend within the company essentially guaranteed him the job.
Upon discovering that you were awarded the work, the other candidate publicly attacks your character, work ethic and values in his very popular design blog with over 5,000 readers. Unbeknownst to you, one of the top Google results for your name is now this scathing post, which at this point has 35 comments from people who don’t even know you, agreeing with the author. Anyone who Googles you will now see this potentially before they reach your own website.
It takes you two weeks, a drop off in normally steady inquiries, and a call from a long-term client asking for details on the situation for you to discover this post. At this point, you have no way to know how much business this has cost you, but you are quickly scrambling to find all references to this post, and trying to do damage control.
If you had been monitoring your online reputation, you wouldn’t necessarily have been able to avoid this situation, but you could have done a few things immediately to defray some of the damage. The most important part of online reputation management is being aware of what’s being said about you, to whom and why. It also requires that you do it consistently and have a plan in place when action is necessary.
Contact us to put a ORM plan in place for you business.
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