Notice I said “when” not “if”.
Given the instant communications and social networking capabilities the web has unleashed on all of us, it is only a matter of time until you or your business experience a PR nightmare.
Here’s a current real example of just how it could unfold — Progressive Insurance’s Twitter PR Nightmare
So, what do you do if this happens to you?
There is a relatively small but rapidly growing sub-specialty within web marketing/SEO (Search Engine Optimization) called Online Reputation Management (ORM). Most ORM projects today focus on the positive side of reputation management by building or growing you or your business’ online reputation. In general, SEO is positive ORM. But there is also a small and growing segment of ORM which focuses on getting rid of the bad press you or your company will inevitably experience.
I won’t go into the details here. It is beyond the scope of this article. Basically, when resolving negative press, ORM looks to de-optimize the negative PR by creating SEO-optimized positive PR to push the bad PR further down in the search engine results. Obviously, the further down we can push it; the better. I often think about ORM in terms of it being the polar opposite of SEO because it looks to de-optimize rather than optimize.
When you or your company need assistance with a PR nightmare, IQnection’s ORM services can help.
