Online Reputation Management: Sieving the Good and the Bad

With the volume of internet content ranging from one extreme to the other, negative feedback is not the ultimate indicator of a business’ destiny. All forms of online content serves millions of purposes for millions of users. Businesses should embrace negative feedback as an opportunity; not doing so can and will directly harm profitability. Despite the theory that bad publicity is bound to come with the territory (such as being a celebrity or a renowned brand), their effects are still felt outside the virtual world.

Take Advantage of Social Media Management

When it comes to your business coming entering new markets and finding new consumers, there is much more than luck at play. Social media has made it easier than ever for businesses to distribute information and capture online followers. The trap to this digital asset, however, is lack of control. Social media is at the eye of the democratization of the internet, where comments, feedback, and reviews on blogs are all awhirl.

Taking social media publicity by the lapels requires more than joining the most popular social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter. The complications arise from the volume of conversations taking place. The best monitor for all feedback is still Google, which is not-so-coincidentally where the reputation cleanup should take place as well. As Google reveals results from social media conversations, the deluge of good and bad publicity can be too much for your business to monitor.

Taming Social Media

A targeted social media management strategy should include how to negotiate the maze of feedback and turn viral content to your favor. This strategy should incorporate your company’s marketing tools and promotions, initially to dilute negative feedback, but eventually to pull fresh attention to your brand.

Don’t be fooled, though. The strategy is less about fighting social media and its trolls than it is about fortifying your business presence. The negatives won’t go away, so the point is to relegate them to ambient noise. Simply put, your business’ online presence should speak loudly and convincingly. Being active in industry communities online should channel constructive vibes towards your brand. In no time, you should see the overall tenor of comments change.
Don’t Be Drowned Out

Social media is part and parcel with online reputation management, and it is the most efficient way to keep your Google search results clean. It is necessary to comb out all social media avenues (the ones beyond Facebook and Twitter) in order to take full advantage of this reputation management tool. And in that regard, the internet is quite obliging; there are dozens of influential social media sites where you can build an online presence for your business.

The crowds in Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are awake and reactive, but they can be negated by the calmer environments found on StumbleUpon, Pinterest, and Tumblr. In these sites, content – not comments – rules, so your business can interact with consumers in more subtle, effective ways.