How does reputation management work

It's even possible to delete some negative reviews. The actions that you undertake as a business leader do shape reputation in some way. If, for example, you decide to embezzle millions of dollars, put cyanide in your donuts or openly support weapons smugglers, these actions will have a marked impact on your reputation.

There are some active steps you can take to attempt to control what people see about you online. In an effort to maintain a positive online reputation , you can:. Even if your actions are cautious, circumspect and limited in their scope of impact, your reputation takes on a life of its own in the public mind. Your competitor across the street often has more sway over your business than you do fake reviews for example. One day, you serve a customer your tastiest spaghetti dish at the normal serving temperature of degrees.

The customer, unfortunately, was expecting their plate of noodles to be degrees. Early in life, they had a horrible experience with colder-than-expected pasta, a memory that is now mixed up with being cut off from their family, experiencing poverty and losing their hair.

The customer rises up from the table in a rage, accusing you of being the worst spaghetti restaurant in the entire Western Hemisphere, spitting their spaghetti back into the dish, and causing all the other restaurant patrons to gaze at their own noodles with horror and revulsion. Even if the other customers enjoyed the dish, their experience at the restaurant is forever tainted by the customer with some unfortunate life experiences and maladjusted expectations.

Your reputation may suffer. Take another example — the explosion of an engine on a Southwest aircraft. The incident tragically resulted in the death of one passenger. Upon investigation, it was found that the faulty engine was compromised due to metal fatigue, an issue that was beyond the scope of even the most rigorous routine inspections.

Southwest experienced a surge in negative public interest after the incident. What did people see when they searched for information related to Southwest? Search results like these are obviously not beneficial to a brand because they damage reputation capital. But how much control did Southwest have over the entire affair — from the metal fatigue to the tragedy itself, to the ongoing investigation and fallout?

Very little. You can see how the communication of a reputation could easily go off the rails at any point in the process. But there's good news, soon after the incident it will mainly reside on the servers of Google, Bing, and YouTube where a reputation manager can do her work by decreasing visibility. Search engines and social media act as the public memory, and they can be manipulated to some degree. Therefore, reputation management focuses on what people see.

Can reputation be managed? What you can adjust is what people see, which then affects how they perceive you and the reputation they form of you. Here are some of the sources of reputation problems that reputation management does attempt to deal with:.

Search results can linger for years. It lingers, that is, until something changes it. Using techniques from the field of search engine optimization , cognitive psychology, user behavior, and human-computer interaction HCI , reputation management companies can restore equilibrium back to search results, review sites, information portals and other sources of publicly accessible information.

Reputation can be managed. But we can control what people see online to a large extent, and that can go a long way toward preserving a positive reputation and keeping a business alive. Reputation managers give your business a voice and an opportunity to be heard online. They address complaints, remove harmful comments, track potential issues, and provide strategic guidance on how to manage your business online. Your reputation manager may also engage your audience by participating in discussions about your brand online.

There are many different reputation management strategies that will allow you to maintain or improve your online reputation. You may choose to manage your reputation on your own or with the help of a reputation management company. Either way, you will work to monitor and improve your reputation over time, often starting with improving your search engine results.

Setting up Google Alerts is a great first place to start monitoring your reputation online. You will see when negative news articles, blogs, reviews or images are posted, and what people are saying about you on social media. Luckily, reputation can be improved over time. But it takes a lot of hard work and consistency to achieve results.

If you are facing a full-blown crisis or a bout of negative publicity, there are steps you can take to turn your search results around and rebuild your online reputation. The road to reputational recovery can be simplified into three steps:.

A reputation management company can help improve your reputation faster and more efficiently than if you were to go it alone. Reputation management is more necessary today than it has been in the history of humankind. With the proliferation of review sites, news media and twitter, information can spread in a matter of seconds and can linger for years.

The answer to this is probably not complicated. It will likely be someone from your marketing or customer service departments — whoever is in charge of your social media accounts. If the comment is good, your response might lead to a retweet or share. Occasionally there are tough questions or harsh criticism that your social media or customer support teams are not prepared for.

You need to set expectations for the kinds of comments that they are free to respond to, and those that require advice from management.

Who knows what position the company should take regarding potential issues or questions? It could be their direct manager, someone in communications, or even the owner of the business. Make sure you know who will take responsibility when the time arises. Chances are, this will be the same social media or customer support person from the first question. But, depending on the scope of the issue, it may require an official spokesperson or even the CEO.

What do you do when you get that one-star review? Responding also gives you a chance to clear the air.

As Jack detailed in the webinar , tone is always important. Instead, keep a level head and try to get to the heart of the issue. Even better, name the person responding. Reputology finds that response time is one of the most important factors in recovering from a harsh review. It makes sense, really. Often that first comment is made out of frustration or anger. Customer complaints can almost always be used as a lesson.

To repeat, your product is only as good as people think it is. So if people think it needs improving, it probably does. Jack gave the example of The Grove , a shopping center in Los Angeles:. They received numerous complaints that their parking lot was too small. To solve this issue they partnered with Uber and offered free rides home for anyone who spent over a certain dollar amount.

Try to find a balance. This includes situations that start out negative but where you were able to win a disgruntled customer over. If the complaint is too severe, or if the individual in question is past the point of winning over, ask for an email address or phone number and smooth things over privately. These are the posts that actually enhance your online reputation. You thank people for their kind reviews and hope they share your response with their friends.

Add pictures and encourage them from your community , share great content, and make your brand seem more appealing to those who just found you on Google. If negative, the manager will then work to hide or eliminate the content. If positive, the manager will attempt to spread it further and have it be readily available when someone goes to research said group or individual.

On certain occasions, reputation managers will even reach out via email to promote more people posting their positive reviews. Reputation management is crucial because it impacts major decisions, whether for one individual or a giant corporation.

Looking for a job? Applying to college? Trying to jumpstart your dating life? Well, all of these will be a lot easier if there is nothing negative circulating about you. A common problem people face in these endeavors is what happens when people put their name into a search engine, or into social media.

If it is easy for a company to find a picture of you on Facebook passed out after a night of drinking, odds are they are not going to want to hire you. If someone puts your name into a search engine and the first thing that appears is a mugshot, odds are they will not be quite as keen to go on a date with you, hire you, or accept you into their school.

This is the case even if the mugshot is not yours, but someone else with the same name. So, reputation managers work to have these types of negative content removed or at least suppress them in search results so that they will not hinder your success,. This is especially important as approximately half of adults in the United States admit that their results in Google searches are not positive. For companies offering products or services, reputation management is extremely important.

Would you rather go to a doctor that you heard was excellent, or one your friend had a bad experience with?