Are you a savvy marketer who wants to protect your company’s brand proactively? Do you want to repair your online reputation? We can help.

Pre-emptive Approach

The Internet is both a blessing and a curse to your reputation. It enables anyone who has Internet access to express an opinion online. Where these opinions are expressed and who says them are important, but the best defence is not offense but pre-emption.

There are many ways to pre-empt negative comments about your name or brand.

  • Domain names. If you are planning to launch a new brand, register it through one of the larger registrars who have a department dedicated to corporate clients. They can guide you on how to preserve the secrecy from the point of registration until launch. They can tell you how many domain names you need for a single brand, e.g. .com, .com.au, .co.uk, .net.au and so on. As an individual, you should register your surname, if still available, or your full name.
  • Corporate Policy. These days most staff members are active online to varying degrees. Clear guidance to staff on appropriate and inappropriate use of the Internet can avoid potential problems.
  • Online Presence. An organisation should have a position on how it intends to have an online presence and how to conduct itself:
    • Primary and ancillary websites
    • Email
    • Blogs
    • Microblogs
    • Intranet and internal tools
    • Media relations
    • Social networks
    • Consumer activism
  • Influencers. Identifying and engaging with online influencers early in a journey can have beneficial effects to a campaign.
  • Be Good. As a catch-all heading, “being good” requires not merely doing all the right things (great products, great service, great civic mindedness, etc), but being acknowledged by others in a visible manner, especially online.

Repairing Your Online Reputation

Unfortunately, many organisations and individuals hear about ORM after the initial damage has been done. We are mainly referring to unfair damage here, where only one side of the story has been told. If your factory has poisoned a river or you have committed a crime, repairing your reputation may take a very long time and may never be to your satisfaction but damage control needs to begin at some point.

  • Silence. In some situations, staying quiet may be a good opening move. The news media usually drops coverage when there is nothing to cover. This also happens in online discussion networks.
  • Search Engines. Search engines, notably Google, have permanent memory. Staying quiet will not make the negative content go away. Expert use of search engine optimisation (SEO) can lower its ranking, so that it is relegated to the second page or lower.
  • Legal Avenues. If online content is proven to be libellous, it can be taken down following the due process of law. This might eventually be expunged from the search engine indexes, but then it might not.
  • Balanced Engagement. Some online communities welcome genuine engagement from both sides of the topic. This needs to be approached very carefully, but it can work out well.

If you need help in any of these areas, please fill out the contact form.