Online reputation management

Why Online Reputation Management is Important for every Business. Whether your company is a corporate brand, a personal brand or an established enterprise level brand, online reputation management, or ORM, is now more important than ever for your business.

2. What is Online Reputation Management
Why is ORM Important to your Business?
Why is it Important to Monitor & Manage
How do I Monitor
How do I Manage
How to Lower down Negative Reviews

3. Your online reputation is your image on the Internet. Online reputation management (ORM) is
about improving or restoring your name or your brand’s good standing. This is by countering,
weakening or eliminating the negative material found in the Internet – defeating it with more
positive material to improving your credibility and customers’ trust in you.
Potential customers change purchase decisions when they see bad reviews, negative blog posts
and comments which can spread in various channels such as in search engine results and in
social media networks. These can gravely affect your brand and your business. That’s why it’s
important to have your online reputation monitored and have these negativities mitigated—while
proactively building positive reputation.

4. If you do not control your brand online, someone else will.
It’s a means of defense and best practice for every business
The Internet & Search Engines provide a platform for information search
to be made available
People are always searching to learn more about you
Online Reputation Management is always closely linked with Search Engines
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important tool in reputation management
You cannot remove negative comments but you can bury it in Google
search through a steady stream of contents
Coupled with the power of social network sharing – Viral
Impossible to hide a company’s mistakes or customer dissatisfactions
Your Reputation will always precede you.
Bad Reputation = Poor Profits Bottom-line = Company’s Credibility
Listening is Crucial = Proactive Actions to curb Business Storms, You are
in Control
“Prevention is better than Cure” – I t takes a long time to build a reputation
but it takes overnight to destroy it

5. You can’t be everywhere at the same time
Purposes of these tools are to help you:
Keep up with all the relevant social media activity and happening
Check what people have to say about you or your company brand
Analyze the ROI (return on investment)
Design the steps you need to take to improve your reputation
Make your customers happy
Monitor your competition
List of Monitoring Tools in the Market
Free and Paid Tools

6. Monitoring what’s being said about your business helps you keep track of your
online reputation, respond to comments in a timely manner, and improve your
products, services and customer experience based on the feedback you receive.
Negativity spreads like wildfire, especially in an environment that’s open 24/7.
Any online content, positive or negative, impacts how people view your business.

7. 1.Google+
2.Radian6
3.Addictomatic
4.Social Mention
5.Steprep
6.Trackur
7.Sysomos
8.HootSuite
9.Beevolve
10.HowSociable
11.Buzzlogic
12.Seesmic
13.PostRank
14.SocialSeek
15.SocialPointer
16.BoardTracker
17.Blogpulse
18.Board Reader
19.Technorati
20.Backtype
20.Alterian SM2
21.Tweetdeck
22.Lithium
23.Reputation Defender
24.Brandwatch
25.Alltop
26.CoTweet
27.Facebook Search
28.Icerocket
29.Klout
30.NutShellMail
31.MentionMap
32.Samepoint
33.Wildfire Social Media Monitor
34.Topsy
35.Meltwater Buzz
36.TweetBeep
37.Google Alerts
38.Google Reader
39.Yahoo Alerts
40.Twitter Search

8. 1.Remember the Social Network Sites are not boxing rings or a
political debate. Keep arguments and fights out.
Spoken words can be easily erased but printed words can’t. They can be shared and
passed on.
2.Handle all issues offline via phone call or craft a well thought
out letter or email to address the problem
3.Avoid forceful or angry language. If need be, use it in a private mode
of communication where it cannot be spread.
4.Don’t assume that negative comment is bad for business
Don’t panic when you see a negative comment or criticism
Customer complaints in social networking sites can bring out your brand defenders to
your rescue
Constructive criticism can be feedback leading to positive change in the company or
improvement in the service
Do not react immediately. Keep Cool. Think through the most effective strategy to
handle it.

9. 5.Don’t insist that you are right (if you are wrong) or threaten
legal action
This will cause trust issues and lead to potential liability issues
Always deal with it offline and never on the social networking sites or any public
space in the Net
6.Don’t comment on anything negatively without any concrete proof or
evidence
This will lead to defamatory and potential liability lawsuit if you are found to be
falsely leading the public
If found guilty, you can be made a public example. The table is turned.

10. 1.Turn Negative to Positive
Respond to the customer online that you are looking into the situation
Provide a deadline but make sure you adhere to it
Ask the customer to Private Message (PM) you with their contact and situation to
take it offline
After a dissatisfied customer is satisfied, get them to comment on your prompt
action in the social network sites (if that is where the complaint is posted)
If not, ask for a testimony for you to post in your social network sites –
“Another Satisfied Customer” column
2.Posting of Negative Contents that are not True
Ask the poster of the negative content to remove the unflattering photo, critical
post or negative comment about your company
If they refuse, ask the Moderator of the social network site to flag the content down.
Condition – you must prove that it is inaccurate or defamatory.

11. 3.Flood your company and other social network sites with good
contents to push the negative comments off the front page
4.Show that Actions are Taken
Most people who complain are only concerned with whether your
company cares enough about them to do something.
Firstly, it’s the efforts that they are looking for to resolve the issues.
Secondly, others are watching you and your actions.
Thirdly, report the positive actions and results. Update the progress.
5. Distinguish between Rants, Reasonable Complaints and Constructive
Criticisms
Always respond to constructive criticisms and reasonable complaints
Thank the other party for the feedback
Take Rants offline or counteract it with good contents. Do not waste time and
efforts on pointless ranting.

12. 6.Have an Online Contingency Plan in Place
Set up a Social Media Crisis Policy on how to Engage with dissatisfied customers
online – how to say and what to say
The rules of Engagement for different Scenarios handling – Common issues, Critical
Issues – The Do’s and Don’ts
7.Have a Social Media team trained and ready to handle all online
mentions
8.Design a Reputation Monitoring Strategy
The Monitoring Tools to use
The Objectives and Goal of the Monitoring
Handling and curbing potential hazards
9.Your Social Ambassadors – Brand Defenders
Identify your online Brand Defenders and build a relationship with them
They will speak for you. They are your best Word of Mouth.
Find them online in the social network sites.
Facebook – regular engagers
Twitter – retweet and mention your posts
Influential Bloggers with quality contents

13. 10.Build Relationship with your online Community
This is built over time, not overnight
Provide Quality, Relevant, Educational and Entertaining Contents
Engage and comment on other Social Network Sites other than your own
11.Engage an External Consultant
Get Expert Help
Experiences as a result of cases handled
They know what to do when crisis hit for they are trained
11.Protect Your Name by Registering your Username
Purchase all relevant domain names
Register your names with the major social network sites to have the same handles
across each of the social network sites
11.Determine the Contents to be posted and be selective of the
customer groups to post those contents. Have a segmented and
targeted message for different groups. Use email marketing system.

14. 14.Be Accessible
Most reputation problems start because you are not contactable
Display accurate contact information on and off-site
If you can’t respond within 24 hours, tell users that you will get to them within a
specific time frame
14.Invest in Customer Service
Build a Web-based customer service portal on site. Use tools like Suggestion Box or Get
Satisfaction
14.Own your Negative Domains so others do not use it against you
15.Last but not least, Get Involved in the Conversation!

15. Here are some of the tactics used for lowering down negative reviews:
Improving the tagging and search engine optimization of company-published
materials, such as white papers and positive customer testimonials in order to push
down negative content via Content Marketing.
Publishing and aggressively managing original, positive websites and social media
profiles, with the aim of outperforming negative results in a search.
Submitting online press releases to authoritative websites in order to promote
brand presence and suppress negative content.
Getting featured on reputed websites. For e.g. Your Story, Entrepreneur, Business
Standard, etc.
Submitting legal take-down requests if someone believes they have been libeled.
Getting mentions of the business or individual in third-party sites that rank highly in
Google.
Proactively responding to public criticism stemming from recent changes.
Image reputation management where photos violating copyright, are embarrassing
or might give the wrong impression to employers, for example, are removed or
suppressed.
Contacting the editor to remove incorrect information about your business in the
Wikipedia pages about your company. Nonetheless, editing your page blindly is not
suggested.