With real life bleeding more and more into the virtual space in the last ten years, companies and brands have followed their target customers’ trajectories, paying keen attention to consumer behavior and trends on the Web, each pledging their stakes in developing their image digitally.
And while the Internet has infinitely expanded public access to data, it has also provided a free-for-all sounding board for one-sided denigrating feedback and needlessly malicious comments on unassuming, undeserving products and services.
Unbridled cyber-criticism can inhibit your business’ growth and leave a permanent stain on the pristine name you’ve built for your business, both offline and online. Here are good strategies for an online reputation management campaign that addresses cyber negativity from multiple angles.
Socialize
Nothing beats social media for connecting with your target customers in a front-facing, genuine way. Social media’s flexibility allows you to project your desired brand identity via regular updates that are valuable to your audience, and contests and conversations that spur real-time engagement. At the same time, social media provides a platform for transparent interaction regarding promotions, product information, or customer service issues.
You also positively affect the nature of your search engine results page (SERP) using social media; networks that are consistently visible on Google are LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, SlideShare, and Twitter.
Produce content
It pays to regularly generate video, blog articles with photos, or infographics on topics and themes that are relevant to your target customer and to your industry for posting on your website, on your self-titled blog, and for sharing over your social media assets.
Hosting a stream of current, meaningful content on your own domain and other owned media online, and sharing these over your social media accounts increases the proliferation of positive, informative, and brand-preserving links regarding your business and its name, and also leads more traffic to your website for sales, leads, and overall conversion.
Work the back end
Pay-per-click or paid search marketing and link building provide a direct, calculated way of dominating your SERP and cultivating your online reputation. Using Google Adwords and Facebook advertising services and building sound, credible links ensure that searches using your brand or your chosen keywords produce your domains, online assets, content, and other favorable links in the results page. These habits lend you a position of power over any extant online data that may affect your name.