By Suzanne Gutierrez


A good reputation cannot be bought. This is why it is important to safeguard it especially in the age of social media. With the free-for-all access to post and comment in cyberspace, your business and your brand reputation are literally at stake. Simply put, if you don't employ the proper reputation management techniques, you are defenseless against slander and libel, which can spread online in just a matter of seconds.

People who want to destroy your reputation could be your business competitors, former employees or even customers dissatisfied with your service delivery or your product. It could also be one of your people employed at your company, or just individuals who enjoy defamation of character for no reason at all.

With these people out there, it is no surprise that brand protection has become a top priority for companies. One well-place article on an influential website badmouthing your company and your brand can throw away the years of brand-building. That is why it is really important to ensure that your brand is well-guarded from defamation slander.

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.

Lastly, you can go by the way of reputation management. Use the same techniques by your competitor and try to beat them at their own game. These methods are called search engine reputation management.

Along with SEO that has kept online marketers busy in bringing their online presence to high gear, there's now the need for search engine reputation management to overtake the page ranking of an offending site. This technique can push it 5 to 10 pages down a search result where they won't do any harm. Take the search engine reputation management initiative and let the offending site owner know you don't take these things lightly.

Remember that protecting your image and your brand online is a must. It is hard to establish a name, much less a brand. If it is not protected vigilantly, you may be undoing years of hard work. Start today and consult a reputation management expert immediately.




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