Business and Blogging

Managing Your Reputation Online - Tips From A Professional Reputation Manager

by Laura Spencer on February 27th, 2008

(www.businessandblogging.) As we discussed a few weeks ago, online reputation management is a growing field. Like the seeds of a dandelion blown by the wind, once a rumor starts spreading online it is difficult to stop its progress.

There are some companies whose business is to do just that, however. They attempt to control online rumors and repair reputations. They are the online reputation management companies.

Ken Knorr of Buildtelligence works for a company that specializes in reputation management. He was kind enough to point out the following low cost ways that an individual (it could work for a business too) can manage their reputation online in his comment. I’m highlighting them here in case you missed them:

1. Don’t get into arguments online in forums (as much as you may want to speak your mind don’t unless you understand the potential consequences).
2. If you do get into some kind of conflict, let it go. Don’t continue building more content for the search engines by continually replying.
3. Own your own name everywhere you can. Yourname.com, yourname.blogspot, yourname.facebook etc. etc. Once someone else registers it you can forget getting it later and it may be used against you.
4. If the postings are truly slanderous (absolutely false) and are clearly not opinion. For instance “Bob LastName is a thief” is significantly different than “Bob Sucks” AND you believe you can identify the person who made the posting, seek legal counsel. If they can’t clearly identify the poster you don’t stand much of a chance.
5. On the sites you own/control (yourname.com, blogspot, other social networks) write articles about yourself, for instance write a simple biography under an “about the author” section. Use your own name in the third person. Repeat your name in the article several times (a good rule of thumb is repeat your name 4-5 times in a posting that is 450 words). If you want a search engine result for your name you have to write your name in the posting.

I asked Ken if he’d be willing to share a little bit more about online reputation management, and he graciously agreed. Here is what Ken had to say:

How did you become involved in online reputation management?

We are a search engine optimization company first and foremost. How we got involved with reputation management was that we had a client that was utilizing us for optimization. In the course of working with the client we discovered negative results. We determined a strategy to help the client. We were very successful.

It just kind of grew from there as we did similar work for a few other clients. Before long our marketing team determined that there was an opportunity to provide this as a “published” service and it ballooned from there. That’s how it all started for us.

Can you predict any new measures that the major social networks, such as Facebook or Myspace, may take in the coming year to protect the privacy of their users?

Protecting ones privacy is an educational thing. Sure companies need to do more to protect the information that people give them, but ultimately it’s up to the user of an online service to protect themselves. People are too willing to give out identifiable information. All too often they have no idea “who” they’re giving it to. Anyone using ANY service on the Internet should carefully consider what information they’re giving out.

How much can we expect from a web provider to prevent us from ourselves? If you give out personally identifying information, then you’re playing with fire.

Another major problem is that of “password laziness.” How many people have the same password on their e-mail account, Paypal Account, Facebook login, MySpace, Amazon, eBay etc.? When they create an account with any web site that may be unscrupulous, they use the same password again. Now that site owner potentially has their user name (also reused a lot). In an hour they can have their e-mail and be buying things with “saved” credit card details.

What do you think are the biggest online challenges to a company’s online reputation? Is it the single irate user with a blog? Or, is there something more threatening?

The biggest challenge to a company’s online reputation is what we would refer to as the “online mob phenomenon.” This is where a single post creates a lot of buzz or a mob mentality of attacks that the average person would never have talked about in the first place.

Take, for example, that you went to a chain restaurant and had a bad experience. That can happen for a variety of reasons, bad waiter, the restaurant was unusually busy so the food was slow. The problems can be numerous. You might leave there and think to yourself, “I don’t think I’ll go back,” but that’s it.. it’s over as far as you are concerned. Then you happen upon a post about that restaurant that says how horrible an experience someone else had. You decide to post that you too had a bad experience. Before long a group of people have posted. They have created enough content to get a search engine’s attention and wham - here’s a posting that slams the company that’s landing in the top of the search results.

Personal (non-business) bloggers with positive things to say about everyday things rarely post about them. When they do, they don’t get a lot of additional commentary. Can you imagine a post about the nice service I got from Burger King yesterday? How many other readers would take the time to comment, “oh yeah, I got my burger quick the other day too.” Bloggers are much more likely to blog about negative experiences and they will be a lot more passionate about the subject - this attracts passionate responses.

Companies today need to provide online outlets for upset customers. Most companies today use the Internet solely as a marketing tool. What about that customer “who needs to tell his story” about how upset he is with your product or service. Do you provide a place for that to happen? Do you provide empathetic feedback when they do tell you? Do you try to do something simple to make the customer feel better about your company? If the customer goes out seeking a place to complain and you don’t provide one for them to complain directly to you with a quick and effective response, then the customer feels the “need” to tell someone.

In summary, the biggest threat is the company itself. If a company doesn’t realize that its web presence needs to also provide a place for customers to complain and get some type of resolution, then they can expect that their unhappy customers will complain somewhere else online. That place will usually be a lot more visible. Believe it or not, customers who have had a complaint resolved in this way will promote it for you. If they see a post about “I had a bad experience,” then they will usually speak up and say, “I went here on their website and this is what they did for me.” People naturally want to help people and if they had a positive experience with solving a problem they will share it.

Thank-you, Ken, for giving us insight into one of the biggest challenges that both individuals and businesses face online.

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POSTED IN: Reputation Management