Despite the fact businesses are living and breathing entities that interact with the world around them, most companies do not monitor their online reputation or the corresponding online conversation discussing/judging their brands.
The situation has fundamentally changed; we now live in an era in which consumers express their opinions constantly on digital platforms. From product launches to customer feedback on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, blogs, review sites, streaming platforms and more – there’s now no shortage of people engaging in discourse about you and/or your organisation online.
Maintaining a positive reputation has significant advantages, including increased exposure, brand image, trust, search engine rankings, talent attraction, and ultimately improved sales; a bad reputation will have the opposite effect. It’s essential to protect your brand, and our team of experts can help you do just that.
How Does Online Reputation Management (ORM) Work?
The term reputation management describes the process of managing a company’s image or brand. Reputations are built and destroyed by actions, events, products, services, people, organisations, etc., that occur in the world around us. The goal of reputation management is to protect an organisation from negative publicity while promoting its positive attributes. ORM is the art and science of building and maintaining favourable public perception.
Propagating a positive first impression is imperative to your success; you need to keep a constant eye on all aspects related to its digital footprint. That means constantly monitoring what is being said about your business online.
Online Reputation management means controlling the online conversation; it is the process of managing online discourse about you or your company. An effective ORM strategy ensures people who search for you find not simply what they are looking for; instead, the techniques employed by ORM experts such as Prohibition ensures discoverable information represents your organisation favourably. This creates balance, counteract misleading trends, and allows you to put your best foot forward.
Your reputation is the most critical aspect of your business. It has always been, and in this digital age, it’s under a magnifying lens that was never before possible. That means online business reputation management isn’t an optional extra anymore—it’s essential.
Prohibition’s Online Reputation Management services will help ensure that only positive results appear when potential customers search for information about your company or products.
Safeguarding Against Reputation Attacks?
Reputations are vulnerable to digital attacks, which can take many forms. Attacks are by their very nature indicative of malicious intent – causing damage to a person, business, or entity by creating detrimental content that becomes publicly available.
Reputational attacks can range from a simple disgruntled customer to organised highly sophisticated and coordinated campaigns.
An attacker can be a journalist, blogger, consumer, competitor business, or another PR agency hired by a competitor.
Avoiding The Streisand Effect
Sometimes removing information, attempting to hiding it, or censoring it has the unintended consequence of making it more public. This phenomenon is known as the “Streisand Effect”, named after the American entertainer Barbra Streisand whose 2003 attempt to suppress photographs of her residence inadvertently drew more attention.
Without a comprehensive investigation of unforeseen consequences, the pursuit of a reputation management solution can result in more detrimental outcomes than those of the problematic source of information.
Our team has years of experience handling public relations crises, and we’ll do everything in our power to make sure yours never becomes one. Contact us today for more information about how we can help!
Dive: Online Reputation Management Services
There are countless reputation attack vectors including but not limited to:
Social Media
- Influencers
- Review sites
- SEO
- News/Media
- Blogs
- Video Streaming
- Hate Sites
- Smear Campaigns
- Forums
With our organic and personalised approach, we combine Prohibition 360 social listening technology and our in-house expertise to ensure that every client’s reputation strategy is perfect for their specific needs.
The advantage of a bespoke online reputation management strategy is unmatched in the industry because it truly fits your needs as an individual or business.
Brand Reputation Marketing Explained
A brand marketing strategy focuses on communicating the value of a product, service, or brand to customers to promote further or sell that product, service, or brand.
- Marketing campaigns carried out at the right time and in the right way can prevent damage to a brand’s online reputation.
- Negative reviews and editorials may result if a company fails to live up to its marketing messages.
- An effective brand reputation marketing campaign can thwart the damaging effects of a negative online reputation for a brand.
- The well-engineered, integrated reputation marketing program is an essential part of any business’s online presence as a growth strategy.
Prohibition’s team of experts will help you build and maintain your online presence to ensure the right people find you at the right time. You can rely on us for all aspects of your campaign, including SEO, social media, content creation and more. Contact our team today to learn how we can help grow your business!
Yes, you can contact us via phone for a free, no obligation quote. Our service is guaranteed to be hassle-free, cost effective, and at your convenience.
SEO and Online Reputation Management
Online reputation management is, or at least should be, SEO-driven. A business or individual assumes that the content displayed on the first (or maybe second) page of a search engine is vital for public perception. Without search engine optimisation, a reputation repair campaign will fall drastically short of its goals.
Controlling the entire first page of search results takes an understanding of all the factors involved and having the resources and means to carry it out.
Through a combination of link building, content marketing and user experience optimisation, the objective of SEO is to move a specific webpage from a position of obscurity to the top of the first page of Google (or any other search engine) for a desirable keyword.
Online Reputation Management on the other hand, on the other hand, is the art of moving 50-60+ web pages above any posts/sites containing negative sentiment.
The desired outcome is to have web pages with positive sentiment take precedence over pages that portray the client’s brand negatively and are visible within search engines when users enter keywords related to the brand/product/service.
Brands That Trust Us
The importance of Public Relations in ORM
Public opinion and perception can often be strongly affected by press releases, news stories, and media editorials. In the case of a reputation problem, the press can serve as the primary source of that problem or serve as part of the solution to that problem. The content of online news websites can negatively impact both businesses and individuals if they are not monitored and managed. Prohibition’s public relations strategies can enable press and journalism to become a powerful channel for fortifying a healthy online reputation when applied with proactive strategies.
To promote your brand, our reputation management specialists leverage the power of the media and publish press releases on authoritative websites while suppressing negative content in search engine indexes, e.g. hate sites, sites with negative intent such as smear campaigns.
Crisis Management
A reputation crisis must be managed promptly in our always-on, hyper-connected world. In response to a reputation crisis, one has to question not whether it will occur but when and how well they will handle it.
A brand reputation crisis can be divided into three phases: How to prepare, what to do, and what to do next?
- Avoiding social media disasters by avoiding them altogether.
- A brand reputation crisis can be prevented from escalating by preventing it from escalating. To secure a better outcome, it is essential to act as quickly as possible when a crisis occurs.
- Dealing with the consequences of a full-blown brand reputation crisis. Although all precautions can be taken, there are times when the crisis comes out of nowhere. The worst-case scenario is the one that you have to prepare for.
The question is not if the reputation crisis will strike, but when it will hit and how well are you prepared to handle it.
Prohibitions team of experts will work with you to create a plan for handling your negative reviews, social media complaints, and other public relations issues. You can rest easy knowing we have the experience necessary to help you get through this difficult time.
Owned Media
Owned media largely refers to the properties that are in your sole control, such as your website, blog and parts of your social media portfolio.
Online reputation management gets easier when you deal with online properties you control, and Prohibition are experts at cultivating these resources to maximise your exposure for branded searches.
Earned Media
The term earned media or earned content refers to any material written about you or your business that you have not paid for or created. Brands can take advantage of earned media opportunities, even though a third party always generates this type of content. Examples of earned media include:
- External articles,
- Press coverage
- Blogs and Vlogs
- Forums
- Reviews/Review Sites
Third-party listings which are industry-specific (Glassdoor, Capterra, Trustpilot all fall into this category). Google My Business is also considered earned media because customers leave reviews for your business without you having any control over them.
Prohibition helps’ you monitor your online presence, getting rid of bad reviews, responding quickly, and building up positive ratings for your business. We also provide training for employees who interact with customers online, so they know how best to handle complaints and resolve issues before they escalate into something worse.
Online Reviews
Online reviews are the new word of mouth. As soon as a business has an online presence, it is likely that there will be some form of consumer review that is publicly visible.
The simple fact is 92% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and they’re driving more sales than ever before.
But what if you could get more positive reviews and mitigate the harm caused by negative reviews?
What if you could boost your conversion rate by getting customers to spread the word about their experience with your business?
It’s not just about the product; it’s also about how customers feel when interacting with your company. That means listening to what they have to say and making changes where necessary.
Prohibition’s team of experts will work with you to develop a strategy that’s tailored to your needs. Whether it’s generating positive reviews or managing complaints by contacting existing customers and soliciting feedback, we have the expertise necessary to make sure your business thrives in today’s competitive marketplace.
Yes, you can contact us via phone for a free, no obligation quote. Our service is guaranteed to be hassle-free, cost effective, and at your convenience.
Shared Media
In addition to your website, your social media accounts across various social media platforms are the online version of your business card.
Complaints that go unanswered, negative comments on Twitter and a low star rating on Facebook can seriously damage your company’s reputation and turn potential customers away.
Social Media Management (SMM)
In cases where a social media presence is a choice or an essential component for a business’s success, having a proactive social media management strategy is crucial.
Maintaining a positive online presence often begins with managing audience communications and sentiment on social platforms. A social profile without monitoring and management can become a severe reputation liability. The presence of unnecessary, negative, and unsupportive user-generated content on a business’s social media profile can turn it from a valuable resource to a rampant, sometimes viral environment that decreases brand loyalty and inhibits business growth.
Paid Media
Paid media involves channels like Google Ads, social media ads, sponsored posts, or promotions by influencers. Unlike earned media, paid media can support an online reputation management strategy on two fronts.
You have greater control over perception and conversation when you use owned media. Secondly, paid channels help drive more brand engagement, resulting in greater brand awareness and earned media.
Prohibition can help your business control its online narrative. Contact us today to learn more about Prohibitions services or schedule a free consultation with one of our team members!
Defamation and Cyber Investigations
Defamation (Libel) is the legal term for any written false statement that damages another’s reputation.
Defamation online often occurs when unscrupulous individuals-often Internet trolls, business competitors, ex-employees, or former romantic partners-intentionally ruin someone’s reputation by posting negative content.
Defamation online often occurs when unscrupulous individuals-often Internet trolls, business competitors, ex-employees, or former romantic partners-intentionally ruin someone’s reputation by posting negative content.
Attack vectors can range from negative reviews, hate sites to coordinated automated attacks that flood the internet with negative sentiment.
Damaged reputations can have serious, lasting effects, from difficulties getting a job to reduced business revenue.
If you want to keep your online reputation in check, contact us today for more information on how we can help! We offer free consultations, so there’s no reason not to reach out and see what we can do for you!
Content Removal
Removing negative editorials, reviews, or blog posts is a rare accomplishment in the reputation industry, but it is possible. Even though these rare instances are present, one shouldn’t expect success and base their reputation strategy around the hope of having content removed. Content removal or deletion is unlikely, demonstrating the importance of other strategies, such as search engine optimisation for suppression campaigns.
Legal Avenues: DMCA Removals/Right to Be Forgotten
Although it may not be possible to remove content from a specific website, you can force Search engines to remove offending URLs from their index (dependent on circumstances).
The US Digital Millennium Copyright Act criminalises access to copyrighted works. If copyright, trademark, or other protected intellectual property is infringed, takedown requests can be sent to Google to have the URL removed from its index.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is another legal avenue that states: “You have the right to request a data controller to delete your personal information if your personal information is no longer necessary for the purpose it was collected for.”
This also provides a means of removing content from a search engines index.
Monitoring
Burying negative sentiment doesn’t mean it’s gone.
- Upon successful completion of an ORM project, efforts should be made to monitor search results.
- If left unchecked, URL’s containing negative sentiment have a habit of reappearing over and over again.
- Every now and then, Google makes algorithmic changes or improvements to its search engine. Some techniques used to suppress search results may become less effective over time or even stop working altogether. Additionally, a suppressed URL can become more authoritative for any number of reasons and gain rank as a result of this.
- In the case that an undesirable URL resurfaces or starts climbing, it is important to act swiftly.
With our organic and personalised approach, Prohibition ensures that every client’s reputation strategy is perfect for them.
The advantage of our personalised online reputation management strategies are unmatched in the industry. Prohibition’s online reputation management strategies fit your needs as an individual or business. Our carefully crafted strategies are tailored to you or your brand, which means they are more effective than automated plans deployed by other agencies.
