"Prevention
is better than cure" - as it clichéd as it sounds, there is truth to this old saying. In the
ealm of Internet, your online reputation is always at a risk. The infamous hack
cases of Sony Pictures Entertainment and JP Morgan (two of many instances)
proved that data breaches have unimaginable consequences. These cases show that
the image of businesses would be compromised and affected if their online
reputation were not protected. Public opinion could be turned against you on a
dime, damaging your businesses in the process.
Digital crisis management plays an important role in safeguarding the name and reputation of your company. Individual and corporate digital reputations can greatly impact financial growth and overall success, hence it is essential to actively build up and manage your online assets as they are keys to protect your company from any catastrophic repercussion. As written by Carol Ruth below, her article talks about the significance of protecting your online reputation before it’s under attack, and how you can make preparation for it.
Everyone knows that businesses need to manage their
reputation when something bad happens, whether it’s a negative Twitter comment,
a poor Yelp review or something on a bigger scale. However, when crises
strike, there is no magic pill that will save your online reputation.
That’s why you need to take a proactive stance when it comes
to digital reputation management. Your first impression online or any negative
perception, whether accurate or not, can jeopardise your company’s
appeal to current and future customers and partners, ultimately impacting its
growth.
The court of public opinion is not fair but often
final. To that end, here are a few steps that can you can take right now to
make sure that your business is well protected when it needs to be.
Your first step to managing your company’s reputation is to
create online content, and a lot of it, while you control the narrative. Grant
Greenberg, director of digital reputation management for Lumentus, a DRM expert
firm, says, “The key is for companies and executives to start building their
digital fortress now, before a crisis occurs. By proactively telling your
story, you can tell your own story instead of letting others tell it for you.”
By building up this digital fortress of sorts, you have an
opportunity to own a large chunk of your search results. Plus, as Greenberg
mentioned, it makes it much easier to push down that negative story in online
search rankings, if and when a personal issue, legal affair or cyber
hack it happens.
To build that fortress, create and submit compelling and
relevant content to blogs and websites. That does double duty, first by
providing customer referrals but also adding DRM protection. Greenberg adds,
“90 percent of people don’t make it past the first page of search results, so
you want to be sure that you and your company’s great work is the first and
only thing that people see.
Optimise your content
To be great, content it must be optimised. Greenberg
advises his clients to answer questions like: “What are the relevant search
terms associated with you and your business? What insight can you offer?”
Whether it’s on a timely topic or your take on a passion project, you need to
establish your credibility as a thought leader in the field. This optimization
will also help to put your good credentials in front of breaking news online in
times of crisis.
Realise that you don’t fully control your privacy
There are certain industries, including financial services
(think investment banks, hedge funds and private equity firms) that try to
remain under the radar for a variety of reasons, from eluding the competition
to the low profile preferences of their executives. However, whether your
company likes it or not, people are now searching about a business and its
executives before deciding whether to buy or take their business elsewhere.
Trying to stay anonymous can backfire. If something goes
wrong, or is even perceived to have gone wrong, perception will
become reality online. Your desire to be anonymous can lead to
negative press controlling the narrative about your company. Instead, be
proactive instead of private.
Focus on management, too
An analysis by the Lumentus SEO team found that from July
2014 through July 2015, searches for executives by name were up 50
percent from prior years. That means that managing the online reputations
of individuals associated with your company, especially key management,
is just as important as the management of the company’s reputation.
“Companies and their executives must own all of their
digital assets,” says Greenberg. “Even if they aren’t active on social media,
they should own their handles, have profiles on company websites and work with
their teams to create relevant content.”
If you are a solopreneur, you are the company and your
profile will have a major impact on your business, too.
Enlisting a DRM company to help you to create policies,
evaluate the online footprint of your executives and create thought leadership
around key management will pay off both offensively and defensively for
your business.
Think beyond business
When thinking about building a content trail, it often makes
sense to think about content other than purely business. For example, “Many
business and executives have charities they care deeply about and are heavily
involved in,” says Greenberg. “Talking about those passions is key to
humanizing a company and engaging the potential customer.”
From charitable associations to hobbies and interests,
adjunct content creation can bring another element to your business. Just be
careful and stray away from polarizing issues like politics that can end up
doing more harm than good.
Taking control of your digital reputation today is not just
good business, but it’s a form of insurance for when that negative story
inevitably happens. Your positive content will continue to rank high and push
the negative stories to the ladder pages of search results, while also working
to prevent old news from creeping back up to haunt you.
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