The problem with online reputation management as conducted today is that practitioners aim to bury complaints with positive content. In practice, this “positive content” means little more than just noise. For doctors who used reputation management services, it means biographical information reshuffled many times over to fill page after page of public profiles and thin websites. However, if you think about it, this information isn’t related to reputation at all.
An online reputation relates to how an entity is perceived online, the sum of digital public opinions. Simply put, it’s what others think about you. If you bury negative content with information that isn’t really about public opinion, how will a potential customer relate your brand with a positive reputation?
Search engine users may begin looking beyond the third page in their search for an entity’s reputation. It won’t be surprising if the percentage (~ 90%) of searches that never see page two begins to decline. The negative reviews and complaints that were buried for thousands of dollars will once more come into play. And when people start searching them out online, they will eventually rank better.
Then how should we be conducting reputation management online to enhance an entity’s reputation? For one, the new content created to rank high should promote positive yet objective public opinion. The keyword here is objective, meaning unbiased, true, and without selectivity. Going to your best customer and soliciting a testimonial isn’t going to cut it. We know you’re going to do that anyways. People need to know that your medium or platform is open to negative opinion for them to believe the positive.
You might turn to sites like Yelp, but what percentage of businesses these days have a negative Yelp rating? It’s common knowledge that users affiliated with a company, or specific customers under solicitation, will create five-star reviews to game the system. After all, regular customers don’t usually go handing out accolades online.
The ideal platform to establish a reputation is thru social media platforms like Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn – places where organic mentions can occur. If there isn’t enough being said about your company, you can get involved and engage with other users. Online conversations and social media mentions could then be displayed on new web pages along with articles about successful customer experiences. This is content that people can trust when deciding whether to use your product or service.
Search Respect provides Online Reputation Management for businesses and individuals interested in building a better online reputation.
