By Marcus Fowler


One of your primary goals as a business is to make sure that you keep your reputation solid and untarnished. With the existence of different forms of media and broadcasting, the most harmful way to hurt your reputation is through cyberspace. A simple article posted on a blog, a simple video uploaded on YouTube, a review pasted on a website - these are just simple forms of providing your company with defamation of character. If you are not cautious enough, your business is simply bait for those who are willing to taint your reputation through slander and libel.

Who could these people be who would engage in defamation slander against you? You have your competitors, disgruntled and dismissed employees, and dissatisfied customers. Even one of your own staff under a different name can easily post offending content online that can severely compromise your reputation. Then there are people who simple get a kick out of engaging in defamation of character, whether against people, consumer brands or companies.

It is no wonder that protecting brand and company reputation online has become a preoccupation for many brand managers and corporate PR heads. It only takes a few minutes of offensive online content to be read by millions and unless you are vigilant enough to spot and recognize them, the damage could be done long before you could do anything about it. So what can brand managers and conscious PR executives do to protect and manage online reputation?

Firstly, some of the offensive contents many not even land on the first 5 pages in a search result so you can be less concerned that they can do any damage. You can ignore them and you can hope no damage is done. But that's a nonchalant way of dealing with the situation which no responsible PR manager should even consider. Also, it would hardly bring any alleviation to the damage.

Another method is to bring the case to the courts. A lawsuit would be a good idea if you have the funds and all the time in the world. If the lawsuit is won, you can receive money as payment for damages, and the offensive content will be taken down. However, as mentioned earlier, it simply is too expensive and it eats up too much time. You also do not have the assurance of winning the case.

A final option would be to let the culprit have a taste of his or her own medicine. Attack him at his own game. This can be done through search engine reputation management.

Search engine optimization helps companies and websites boost their presence and rankings in search engines. You can use the same principle for search engine reputation management. What this does is to drag the offensive blog, newspaper article or comment 4 to 5 notches down by flooding the top spots with positive content. This is why when the name of your company is searched, the negative material will no longer appear on top. Opt for this approach and you will be sending a strong message to the people trying to destroy your reputation online that you will do what it takes to protect your brand.

Ensuring that your brand and reputation are protected from defamation slander is important. Thanks to companies offering reputation management repair services, you can do just that without lifting a finger. Shield your brand from those seeking to take it down. Make sure that all the time and effort put in building it are not wasted.




About the Author:



0 comments