SEO & Reputation Management

There are a number of reasons for using reputation management. Understanding why you need it and what it will be do for you is a prerequisite for enjoying success from a campaign. In this article we outline the reasons for using reputation management.

 

Reputation Management is valuable for the following reasons:

If you trade online reputation management ensures

• you know what people are saying and writing about you, and
• you have a strategy for responding to negative reports on you.

At the end of the day, reputation management cannot distort reality. However, companies can often suffer from outdated commentary on them, from biased reports from disgruntled ex-employees, customers or even competitors. These reports can be months or years old and no longer reflect reality and yet they are often the first comments prospects find on the web about the company.

For many companies, the first problem is where to look and even to be aware of the problem. Typical examples of problems is when recruitment suddenly drops or sales of products miss targets. A single prominent negative report can be enough to impact revenues and targets. Reputation Management gives you a grip on this by reporting and tracking discussions about you online. For many companies this in itself is something of a paradigm change as they look beyond their own website towards the larger ecology.

Paradigms for Online Tracking

Using reputation management changes the way your marketing department works. It draws them away from their "compulsion to collateralize" towards being nimble and thoughtful towards customer responses. The typical marketing wonk sees the market as a wall to paper with his materials on the grounds that customers overwhelmed with the message will succumb to purchase. Online that does not work. Customers "lean forward" into research and rational behaviour. They are considering purchases that they need to trust and complaints resonate. They need to see clear expression of benefits and how others have enjoyed them. Winning companies are highly responsive to customers in this way and think their products through the minds of their customers.

Your Online Store:

Think of yourself as running a shop in the street. If you are a good manager you will spend a lot of time watching how customers walk through the store. If they are always ignoring one of your products, you will know there is a problem.  Imagine further that you sneek a listen to their conversations and one guy walks round telling customers how bad your product is. What do you do?

1. Tell him to leave (and hope that is the end of the problem)
2. Engage with him and change his perspective.

Its your call: but these are two choices represent your choices. Most importantly, you now know you have a problem and know you need to do something.

If you were a bad manager, you would have been sitting in your office and never even have realised. Reputation management gets you out into the store and listening to your customers.

At the end of the day: that is the key benefit from which all others flow.