Reputation is often taken lightly until your brand becomes embroiled in a controversy. It can be a simple tweet that people didn’t consider appropriate or the way you advertised a product. Once people join in to talk about it, it is downhill from there unless you immediately start doing something about it. But this is only possible when you have a backup plan to protect your reputation. If you don’t, you might scramble and things can go from bad to worse in hours or days. People will notice your every single move, so online reputation management or ORM is a necessity for every brand.
No one can forget the short video clip of a United Airlines passenger who was forcefully removed from the plane in 2017. The airlines received a lot of flak because of how they managed the situation. The response from United Airlines the next day didn’t help as it further angered people on social media and showed that the company doesn’t care about its passengers. This affected its stock price, and United Airlines is still working on its reputation to this day. The lesson to learn here is to never take matters of your reputation lightly and to avoid getting defensive in the process.
If you have been in the middle of a social media storm, you know how bad it can be for your online reputation. If one customer complains, chances are other people will chime in even if they had avoided speaking about the issue publicly on social media platforms. Before you know it, a whole bunch of people are after your brand, and your reputation has gone down the drain. Your first instinct might be to immediately remove negative links from Google search, remove negative news articles, and remove negative content. While these can be the answer when you objectively look at the matter and realize that you are not at fault, other strategies can provide long-term benefits.
What should you do when there is negative feedback, review, and news? Whichever medium you find the criticism on, the key is to be careful when you reply to them. If you find out that the mistake was from your end, then apologize and do so sincerely. This will garner positive attention that can be great for your brand. If it wasn’t your fault, then respectfully state so. Not every feedback and review out there will be genuine, so figure that out first before you respond.
If the negative reviews and negative press about your brand are ranking high on Google search, you should do something about it. People search for everything on Google, and ranking high with content created by you is the best way to maintain your reputation. If you realize that there are scathing reviews and exaggerated comments, then it is time to do something about it. You can speak to the author directly by replying to their post to get in touch to understand the problem. Else, if the author just did it to tarnish your image, then publish press articles in favor of your brand, so they rank high on SERPs. This way, positive reviews, and content will be at the top where people will see it first.
Conclusion
Online reputation management can be overwhelming for beginners, which is where a media PR agency can help. A digital PR agency can provide you with digital PR services such as online reputation management that ensure your brand has a desirable public image and maintains it. With ORM services, you know that the positives about your brand will be at the top search results when current and potential customers search for your brand. An online PR agency has experts who are there with you every step of the way, so if any issues related to brand reputation arise; they can be resolved immediately.