Improve customer satisfaction – By gaining valuable insight into what your reputation is, you can be proactive in changing areas of your company or operations that are receiving negative publicity.  While there are all sorts of negative comments out there, companies such as Apple have incredibly positive comments about them floating about.  So not everything is negative.
Increase perceptions of brand – By seeing what customers and potential customers are saying about your brand and the brand(s) of competitors, you can improve upon perception.  It’s almost like free market research.
Maintain shareholder Value – By decreasing risk by having ears close to the ground where opinions about a business are being formed and propagated.
Engage in more effective public relations by understanding who the real influencers are.
Gain understanding – Scores of companies spend hours, dollars and other resources attempting to discover where their strengths and weaknesses are, at least in terms of what customers perceive.  The relationship between user generated content and traditional forms of online media, e.g. news, print, etc. has a wealth of free information if you know how to read it.
Provide early warning systems for reactive and defensive PR.
Reduce marketing costs – Learning to act and react cheaper is a necessity in today’s economy, and effective relationship management can produce procedures and processes that will evolve the way you market.
Reduce internal costs – Employing services which save time and money can make or break a company.  Online reputation management can achieve just that.
Help identify gaps – Gaps related to products, services, attitudes, relationships and more.  These can be developed for profitable niche markets.
Gain insight into online networks and keywords and key phrases found in user-generated content, which can help to bolster natural search results about the person, product, or business.
Having quality online reputation management is obviously an important part of any modern business.  This isn’t just a matter of making sure everyone likes you and/or your product, it really is focusing in on how to best craft the messages being sent around the Web.  The information is out there, you might as well have a say in how it’s viewed.

For more information visit www.reputationmanagementllc.com or call 866-530-7703.

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For more information visit www.reputationmanagementllc.com or call 866-530-7703.

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Monitor Yourself
There are also various monitoring tools for you to see what’s in the news about you, including:  Google News Alerts, Yahoo News RSS Feed, BackTweets, Google Blog Search and more that are all free.  With so many reputation management tools at your fingers, there’s no reason you shouldn’t know exactly what’s being said about you on the Web.  They’re free, easy to use and provide excellent reputation management with minimal investment.
Search out reputation management tools which work for you, or hire a company that can provide excellent reputation management services.  Improving your image is key, especially in a day and age where we know the ring size of celebrities.

 For more information visit www.reputationmanagementllc.com or call 866-530-7703

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It’s important to be media friendly.  Being media friendly involves being responsive, listening, answering questions and simply being available to the media should they call or contact you.  If you can position yourself as a resource, meaning if you can position yourself as someone who not only wants to get into the papers, but who can also offer important information on other stories, you can go a long way towards helping build trust with the media.

You should also be sure to give you media person or contact the tools to be helpful.  One thing the media hates is a press person who is basically a glorified receptionist, simply answering phones and passing messages along.  Having someone with quality communication skills and who has the knowledge to at least give the media a taste of what they want will make you and your company a far more attractive target for quality stories than the alternative.  Most people overlook their public relations people, but good public relations can benefit you, and offer quality reputation management.

Probably the most important tool for reputation management  today is the Internet.  Using your Website, e-mail and other Internet tools will give you quality reputation management at a relatively inexpensive price.  Offering quality information on your Website, using your e-mail quickly and effectively and utilizing other Internet tools such as Digg, Twitter, Facebook and others will give you the kind of reputation management that will benefit you in the short and the long term.

You should also embrace a policy that increases your transparency.  The media loves to report on stories where a company is seemingly hiding something, even if that isn’t the case.  If it seems like you’re unwilling to answer questions, or that you are trying to keep certain stories from hitting the press, the media will pick up on that and sometimes create a story out of thin air.  This will obviously damage your reputation.  Good reputation management sometimes involves commenting on your own mistakes and errors, and allowing your staff to admit mistakes and apologize when appropriate.  This isn’t always easy, and every once in a while someone may say too much, but if there’s nothing being hidden you won’t have to worry about a 20/20 exposé. 

For more information visit www.reputationmanagementllc.com or call 866-530-7703.

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For more information visit www.reputationmanagementllc.com or 866-530-7703.

Online Reputation Management / Reputation Management / Online Reputation / Reputation Management Company

For more information visit www.reputationmanagementllc.com or call 866-530-7703.

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Once a company starts developing a presence on these sites, real time search must be implemented to monitor the temperature of the commentary in those networks. Stressing its importance, Scott said, “Real time search is essential for businesses to understand. People are talking about you, your products, and your people right now and you need to know what they are saying,”. “When something is being discussed about your company on Twitter, or blogs, or forums and a big customer calls you or the Wall Street Journal calls the CEO, ‘Huh?’ is not a savvy answer.”

With the evolution of the social networks, the conversational aspect of the web increases in importance by the day. This importance is magnified by the fact that literally thousands of people are engaging in those conversations either as contributors of content or as spectators. Regardless of the level of participation, these people are forming and discussing opinions on companies, their brands, products and services. Real time search is a way to stay on top of all that whether it’s done internally at the company, or outsourced to a reputation management company.

This does not diminish the importance of search engines in terms of staying current with what is being submitted on the web. Google’s crawlers with visit certain high traffic blogs about every half hour looking for new content so in those cases it makes sense to track new pertinent content. The occasional Google perusals, however, will not keep you on top of the game. 

If negative content starts popping up in real time, an immediate reaction can save a lot of pain later. If the commentary is isolated to a single site, rebuttals, etc. can be posted directly to the article. When it looks like the commentary is not fact based and starts posting on multiple venues you’ll be better off going to a reputation management firm to counter the attack.

For more information visit www.reputationmanagementllc.com or call 866-530-7703. 

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* Assertion – Assertion is commonly used in advertising, modern propaganda, and negative content campaigns. Assertion is a statement presented as fact which requires no explanation or factual basis. Statements like “ABC Company provides the worst customer service ever!”, are meant to be believed without any further questions. Often lacking any kind of editorial sophistication, assertions can still incur damage during a campaign.
* The Bandwagon – Identified as one of the seven main propaganda techniques by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in 1938, “Bandwagoning” is used to build the perception that there are masses of likeminded people behind the campaign. Complaints and experiences may be similar to give the impression that the targeted company’s problems are widespread.
* Selective Omission – This is information presented that may contain a certain degree of truth with the omission of important facts that run counter to the agenda behind the story. “ABC Company never refunded my money” has a quite a different connotation than “ABC Company never refunded my money because I never asked for a refund.”
* Plain Folks – The plain folks principle is used to give the impression that the company under attack is somehow mistreating the downtrodden people of the world. “They took the last money we had.” would be an example of the plain folks principle at work. These are often totally fabricated during a negative content campaign,  but if there is there is truth behind the story this principle can be combined with “selection omission” to achieve its goals.
*  Pinpointing – Often combined with “selective omission”, pinpointing is used to simplify a complex issue by taking a narrow view, focusing the negative aspects of a situation while excluding the bulk of the information surrounding the story. By focusing on one or two aspects of a situation the sponsor attempts to define a black and white judgment against the targeted company.
* Transfer – Transfer, as used in a negative content campaign, is the attempt to link the targeted company to a different tainted company that may or may not have an association with it. “These guys are just like Enron.” would be an example of the transfer principle in action.  

An experienced reputation management company will be very familiar with these principles and how to best combat them. As with any falsehood or misrepresentation, often the best counter attack is simply to address the content with the truth, backed by facts.        
 For more information visit www.reputationmanagementllc.com or call 866-530-7703.

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A well organized and funded attack campaign intended to damage a company’s  reputation and branding efforts will normally have at least some elements of search engine marketing. For an attack to be successful, search engine marketing is required to push the content of the campaign high enough on the pages of the major search engines so that it can be seen by searchers. The most effective and damaging attacks are usually sponsored by corporations due to the time, expense, and amount of work involved in the execution of the campaign.   

These sponsored attack campaigns incorporate blogs, complaint boards, articles, and forums into a strategy of consistently posting negative content about the targeted company. That kind of breadth in an attack gives the impression that issues being brought up in the negative content are both widespread and ongoing. The repetition of the theme through multiple venues reinforces the message and over time can convert those that were skeptical of the content at the first exposure.

The same principles for conventional optimization apply to negative content campaigns. In situations where companies are under-optimizing their web presence, negative content can be search engine optimized and marketed to the point where it ranks higher than the targeted company. Whether it’s justified or not, credibility increases in the mind of the consumer in a direct relationship with page rank on the search engine pages. If negative postings start getting higher page rankings than the targeted company the damage incurred can be swift and severe. Regardless of how outlandish the negative content may be, its repetition, focus on the message, and high page rankings can make it seem like the truth and steer potential purchasers toward the sponsor of the attack or other competing websites.        

The counter attack to these campaigns will be very similar in design to the attack itself. Starting with a determination of where the attack is coming from, its scope, and where the negative content is being posted, the optimization and marketing strategy and its tactics are put into action. Positive content already on the internet is located and new, search engine optimized content is created. Fact based rebuttals to negative content get posted wherever possible. Links to all positive comment are put in place to add to the credibility of the new content.

Battle lines drawn, the ultimate outcome comes down to three factors:

1) Money – Search engine optimization and marketing requires money and resources. An attacker is likely to scale back or stop altogether if there is a determination that a campaign is no longer cost effective.
2) Discipline – Work has to be done constantly and consistently to determine a positive outcome.
3) Talent – Without it, the expenditures of money and discipline/work are diluted. On the other hand, partnering with a talented and experienced reputation management company can make all the difference. A firm that can deliver quality content, a broad counter offensive, and cost effective results can turn back an attack, preserving a company’s reputation and savings thousands of dollars in revenue that might have been lost otherwise.

Negative content campaigns, if left unchecked can wreak havoc for a company in many ways. Responding immediately with a talented and experienced reputation management partner can keep damage to minimum and provide a huge return on investment.        

For more information visit www.reputationmanagementllc.com or call 866-530-7703.

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Reputation Management LLC has years of experience in establishing and growing brands as well as protecting them when they come under attack. The advantage of working with a company that can build and protect your reputation is much the same as building a fortress prior to being attacked instead of trying to build one during an attack. In fact, the manner in which the brand building process is executed can make a huge difference down the line should the brand and company come under attack.

Including search engine optimization and marketing during the brand building process is a method of fortress building that can stop an attempt to damage a company’s brand before it starts. A skillfully implemented and consistent SEO and marketing plan will ultimately get companies on the first page of the search engines, often with multiple listings. As statistics show, ninety percent of people searching the engines stop at page one. Another nine percent stop at page two leaving one percent for page three and beyond.

By putting a company into a position where it occupies the “real estate” on the top pages of the search engines, an SEO/SEM company can make it extremely difficult for negative content to get ranked on pages where it might otherwise be seen when keywords associated with that company are searched.  Content that can’t make it to the top pages of the search engines is essentially dead on arrival but, having deflected the first attacks; it’s no time for complacency.

Reputation Management LLC  monitors the web for negative articles, blogs, and commentary so that they can be countered immediately. Counter attacks can be deployed using existing content already on the web and the creation of new positive content which is then optimized to bury the potential attack by keeping it off of the front pages of the search engines. Once the identity of the attacker is learned, negative content on the web can also be optimized to put them on the defensive which distracts resources, time, and money away from the goal of damaging the targeted company. Using these methods preventing negative content from seeing the light of day and diminishing an attack protects the brand, the company, and its revenues. 

The key to minimizing the damage that can be done is to be proactive instead of reactive to the possibility that your company is going to be attacked. A campaign of negative content  can always be reversed; it’s really a matter of how much damage is incurred before that reversal is accomplished. If that content makes it to the front page it will be seen by potential visitors and consumers of your products and/or services. If that content is even minimally persuasive, the doubt sewn by it will ultimately cost your company both in terms of money and online reputation. Preventing that kind of content from being seen at all can eliminate those issues and allow you to focus on what you wanted to do in the first place; run your company.   

For more information visit www.reputationmanagementllc.com or call 866-530-7703.