Online Reputation Management (ORM) is the quickest, most effective answer for dealing with bad press that appears on the search engines about you or your company. By pushing negative listings from the front page of Google, Yahoo, and Bing, ORM protects you from the damaging remarks of others.
Negative publicity online has become one of the most annoying challenges for companies. It typically results from anonymous names attached to forum threads, blog posts, and even entire websites; making it difficult to track and address the source of complaints. A lot of the bad press directed at companies is placed on websites that meet key ranking factors in search algorithms. This means negative publicity can climb to the top positions and gain exposure, which in turn damages your reputation. The growing popularity of social networking has made it easier than ever for anyone with a mild criticism to give weight to their complaint. If you, or your company, have been the target of bad press online; it may be time to begin an ORM campaign.
ORM is a strategy that pushes negative publicity from the top search positions. By moving the bad press off the first page of listings you can limit its exposure and its impact on your business.
Elements of an Effective ORM Campaign
The first step is to identify the sites and pages that contain negative publicity about your company and are ranking high for important keywords. Those keywords may include your name, your company, or key employees.
The second step is to analyze sites and pages for individual ranking authority. This helps in determining the tools needed to move them from the first page of listings within the Search Engines.
The third step is to begin a campaign to reduce the rank of negative publicity by using optimized press releases, a new group of competing sites and blogs, social media profiles, and a social bookmarking program. These are all programs that IQnection can help you manage.
Begin Before Negative Press Appears
The best time to launch an ORM campaign is before bad publicity surfaces in the search engines. If you use Google Alerts to monitor when your name or company name is posted on the internet you will have notification of when to launch an ORM campaign. Negative press can spread rapidly as people attach the press to their own blogs, sites, forums, and social media accounts creating a growing range of links pointing toward the damaging press.
Protect Your Online Reputation
It is far too easy for unsatisfied customers, resentful employees, lazy journalists, and cruel competitors to tarnish your name. When it happens it is usually done under the cover of anonymity making the complaint or grievance impossible to address in private.
Launch your ORM campaign before trouble strikes and the damage begins to gain momentum in the search engines.
