If negative content is published about you, your company, your products or your services, it can reach the first page of search engine results when people search for your brand name. Of course, your Web site will also appear in the search engine results. But, if people see a negative posting about you or your company right below it (or worse, above it!), they probably won’t want to go to your site anymore, and there’s a very good chance that they will never do business with you.
These negative online postings can be very difficult to get rid of. When bloggers use popular sites such as RipOffReport.com to post their rants, they can spread very quickly and gain authority in the search engines.
Consumers, prospective clients, potential employers and anyone else who might look for you online should only see positive information in the search engine results. Reversing the damage from such bad press is a lot harder than preventing it in the first place.
RM in the News.
Do Rep Management Services Work?
What to do when a competitor smears you anonymously on the Web?
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The Power of Search Engine ReputationJuly 28th, 2010Nearly All Consumers Now Use Online Media to ShopJuly 26th, 2010User View addresses issues relating to both reach and frequency of use of a broad spectrum of offline and online information sources. In addition, it uncovers differences among broadband, narrowband and no-band households. User View dives into user comparisons across offline and online information sources as they relate to overall performance for finding local businesses. Reputation ManagementJuly 12th, 2010Online Reputation Management is one of the most significant problems brands and individuals will face over the next 10 years. Search engines, forums and blogs won’t regulate content and will not verify the person who is posting content so it leaves pursuing individuals through litigation a dead end. What will Brands and individuals do to protect their image online? The way it stands now, 1 bad experience with a customer or relationship can have significant damage to you. Protecting your Online Reputation involves several components but all revolves around one thing: Controlling what is on the first couple of pages of the search engines when someone types in your brand. Google the new Credit Reporting Agency?June 14th, 2010I just went through a very interesting experience with a new house. I am going to lease for the next couple of years to wait for the housing industry to settle. My wife and I found an amazing home, really is perfect for our family. I let the owner know we wanted it. I gave him the deposit, and waited for the credit app to come through. I am always a little weary of the credit app as about 6 years ago I was in a bad business dealing and it effected my credit negatively. So I always have to get ready to explain it. Funny thing happened when I asked the owner where the credit app was. He said, “Don’t worry, I Googled you, you seem to be legitimate” Wow, I was floored. Here, he was telling a reputation management consultant that he Googled me instead of doing a credit report. Then I thought about it for a while. Why not Google someone? Google will give you a much more accurate depiction on if someone is who they say they are than a credit reporting industry. But this does impose a huge problem for people not active in making sure their “Online Credit” is up to snuff. Make sure to get active and stay active as who knows, one day, people may use Google more than Experian for credit-based decisions. Pringles Salmonella Recall that didn’t happen – Google causing reputation management issues?March 11th, 2010The image below is a prime example on why you need to control your reputation online. There has been a Beef Taquito and Cheese Quesadilla recall that is posted in Google News today. The issue is that the Google Spider decided to use a can of Pringles as the image to display. So the first thing that the consumer thinks about is that Pringles has a Salmonella recall.
Now, how can Google not be responsible for something like this? Pringles has nothing to do with this recall and I can guarantee you that they will lose sales and Branding as a result of this ad. Control your reputation! Yelp Reviews have a natural bias – people like to complain!January 21st, 2010Most sites like Rip Off Report, Yelp, Complaints Board are not “review websites”, they are site for people to vent off of. Excluding the hard-core Yelpers that do good, most people go there to talk about a bad experience, because for the most part, people expect a good experience, that is what they are paying for after all. The dental industry is one of the prime targets of bad reviews on Yelp. No one likes dentists, even the best experience would be considered sub-par at best. So is it fair that 90% of the dentists in Yelp have less than a 3 star rating? It would seem to be that these so called review sites could formulate a mathematical equation per industry that calculates the normal % of people that complain versus praise and formulate that into their star rating system. It is only fair. Even winning a lawsuit won’t take down defamatory contentJanuary 2nd, 2010This just shows you the serious nature of defamatory content online and how worried you should be about it. This married couple gets bashed by a disgruntled family member, wins an injunction in court and they still cannot get the internet slander removed from rip off report. The problem still is that the person who wrote the comments are liable, not the website. Judges don’t want to start forcing websites to take things down as it will start hurting the “interactivity on the web”. While I would never want the freedom of interaction to be restricted online, if something is flat out defamatory, and it told so in a court of law, Rip Off Report should have to remove it.
We know first hand how this couple feels. We have also been attacked by a competitor and so called “Spam Complainers” in Rip Off Report. We had to use our tools to fight it so no one could find it.
One day, something will be done, I am sure of it. Corporate Reputation Management in a Google-Dominated WorldDecember 7th, 2009
By now, you have probably been, or know someone who has been, the victim of an online attack, bad review or bad press about their company. What are companies to do when internet users have every opportunity they want to scream at the top of their lungs for the entire world to hear. It is hard enough to build the philosophy and vision of a product or service, it is harder to make certain that one employee, competitor or customer does not ruin your corporate reputation because he or she had a bad day or simply doesn’t care. Google finds everything, and will only get better at it.
Brand Control in the search engines should scare every owner and corporate officer of a company, to the point that they lose sleep at night. What steps is your company taking to control as much brand space on the Internet to defend and respond to future attacks which are inevitably going to happen.
A bad customer experience is the least of your worries. Most of the incidents that we deal with (and have been victim to ourselves) is an aggressive competitor or disgruntled employee that has the passion and drive to make sure your brand is destroyed online. It is free to do and takes a few minutes a day to dedicate to the task. The worst part about it is that the can do it anonymously and almost impossible to find.
Control what Google has to say about your company with these 5 simple steps:
Or of this is something that you need outsourcing, hire a good online reputation management company. ☺
Internet Defamation by Doziers Internet LawNovember 18th, 2009I just ran into a really good video about online defamation, what to do about it, how to react and legal recourse. It is 5 parts, but extremely worth watching.
In this video he brings up some very interest points. One that I thought particularly interesting is the argument that websites are not liable for what is on there website. They are all hiding behind the communications decency act which was originally too broad to begin with but that the Watch it! |
