Online reputation management might be the newest online marketing strategy on the block, but it’s certainly not a new idea. Before comparing online reputation management to the offline world, it’s best to define the exact goal of online reputation management. The idea is to fortify the search results for your brand name with positive web assets in order to leverage the organic search traffic. By positioning positive web assets in the top 20 results and taking control of these results, you will likely be able to bump down negative content. Recent trends are showing an influx of online consumer activism. Websites like The Rip-Off Report, Pissed Consumer, Consumer Affairs, Complaints Board and My3Cents are channels for consumers to use in order to turn a complaint into a thorn in the side of the targeted business. Thus, fortifying your search results becomes increasingly important to building business.

Sample of a bad / negative result for a major keyword or search term

With this new ability for consumers to speak out, there are those who take advantage of the system. Disgruntled employees and competitors can easily post a negative review about a business and before long, the negative post is ranking in the top 3 search results for the targeted brand. Or, a company who has served 249,999 happy customers but didn’t do so well with one customer, finds this customer venting frustrations online. We’ve seen losses reported as much as a 10% in revenue as a result of the negative content.

Now that the importance of positioning positive, meaningful, business producing web results in the top 20 search results for your brand is understood, how does it relate to the world as we’ve known it for the past 50 years; before the Internet?

• Before the Internet, angry customers picket in front of your business for days at a time warding off customers from entering. This practice still goes on. However, angry protestors go away once the dispute is settled. These days, an angry customer can post their frustrations in one of many online consumer forums. When it comes to negative posts on sites such as the Rip-Off Report, this content will linger for years and years.
• Before the Internet, negative press would show-up in the daily newspaper or nightly news and then go away. These days, in the unfortunate scenario of receiving negative press, the press sticks with the business forever by showing up in search results. It’s difficult to shake the negative story associated with your brand if there is relevance from the perspective of the search engine. (Read When Bad Reviews and Complaints Attack to learn more about this.)

Online results don’t go away until you take action and engage in an online marketing campaign with a company like Brand Titan.

The importance of online reputation management

Search traffic is happening now. People are searching for your brand. Doesn’t it make sense to position or fortify your search results with positive, business generating web results? Next time you search for a well-known brand, take a look at the top 10 search results and determine if they’ve made an effort to leverage or funnel in the natural search traffic for their brand. Most of the time, we do not see companies investing in what seems to be one of the most important marketing strategies there is. More often than not, the main website will show-up at the top with 9 random web results following. Even worse, one or more of those results might be a negative press hit, consumer complaint or even a competitive website.

Comparing again with life before the internet, have you ever noticed how Macys or Nordstrom’s invests heavily for street side displays for the window shoppers. It’s the same idea. There is foot traffic walking by the building so why not capture that traffic and lure them in to the store by creating a beautiful fashion display. Natural search traffic can be captured in the same way.

The point is, whether a business has negative search results or not, leverage the search traffic for your brand by positioning positive, meaningful, business generating web pages in the top 10 – 20 search results for your brand. Take advantage of the window shopper. Leverage from the foot traffic. And, most of all, prepare for the next strike. Don’t let the protestors with picket signs run off your customers. If you already have online “protestors,” then it’s not too late to engage in an online reputation management campaign.

Contact Brand Titan to fortify the top 20 search results for your brand. It’s smart marketing protecting the most important asset you have, your brand.

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