This is a Guest Post by Mike Zammuto, the COO of Reputation Changer. The company provides services for Online Reputation Management (ORM), which in turn gives individuals and businesses full control over their online search results.
Reputation Changer hears stories like this one all the time, coming from professionals in the fields of medicine and law, financial management and small business ownership: Several years ago, an attorney was briefly suspended from the practice of law. Of course, there are two sides to every story, and once his was heard, his practice was reinstated. To this day, however, an unflattering news article — one that mentions his suspension but not its lifting, and not the actual details of the case — remains positioned in a highly visible online location. In fact, when you Google the man's name, this article is among the first links to appear.
As one might imagine, this has not done this attorney's practice any favors. More and more, new clients are using search engines to scope him out before visiting his office, and as such, he is losing business by the droves. What this attorney has is an online reputation management problem — and he is not alone.
The Basics of ORM
Things last forever on the Internet. A consumer complaint, an unflattering news story, an allegation of criminal activity — all of these online listings can linger in the search engines indefinitely, causing immense reputational damage. The first thing that professionals need to know about this is that there is nothing that can be done to outright remove these damaging listings. Unfortunately, there is no “delete” key on the Internet.
This hardly means that professionals, like the attorney cited above, are powerless to protect themselves against online defamation. The key is to realize that, while unwanted search results cannot be deleted, they can be suppressed — pushed out of the public eye and replaced with more positive, brand-enhancing information.
The Monitoring Process
Reputation management firms recommend that professionals begin by implementing some online reputation monitoring techniques. Knowing what's out there on the Web is important, as is being alert to any new, potentially damaging listings as they appear. The first part is easy; taking a few minutes to Google and Bing one's self is a critical way to understand one's current online standing.
From there, putting some reputation alerts in place is important. Google Alerts and Bing Alerts are good options, but using tools like the ReputationChanger.com Command Center may be better. Not only is it free, but it also scours the Internet for online mentions with unparalleled comprehensiveness. It goes where the search engines do not go, even into social media conversations!
Social Media and Online Reputation Management
Speaking of social media, one of the best ways for professionals to clear their online search listings of unwanted articles is to replace that unwanted content with something more positive. Social media sites are a great way to do exactly that — and there are two social networks that no professional can be without.
LinkedIn is the first one, and for obvious reasons. This is a social platform that allows professionals to put their career history on full display, and to control the ways in which their working life is depicted on the Internet. What's more, LinkedIn is one of the most SEO-driven of all social networks, which means that a LinkedIn profile will often “rank” very high on Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
The other social network that ORM companies recommend is Completed. Though it is still a fairly new social network, Completed.com is a non-negotiable for anyone keen on reputation defense. The social platform essentially functions as an online bragging platform; professionals can list all of their individual accomplishments, both in their work life and their personal life. Those accomplishments are then broadcast for all the world to see; even more so than LinkedIn, Completed.com provides strong, stalwart Google search rankings.
Professional ORM
There are other tactics that a professional can take for developing a strong, authoritative online brand — starting a blog, for instance — but for individuals like the attorney mentioned above, negative search listings may be so thoroughly entrenched in Google's algorithms that these DIY reputation management tactics prove ineffective. In these cases, enlisting a professional firm becomes necessary.
A professional reputation management company can harness SEO-fueled content to provide search engine suppression that no individual could muster. A professional ORM agency will actually have its domestic journalists create authoritative and positive content about the client in question, and then distribute that client through international news syndicates and influential blogs — covering the first page of search engine results with positive information, and ensuring that listings like the one facing our attorney friend are removed from the public eye, if not totally removed from the Internet itself.
Negative online listings can prove detrimental to any working professional; with that said, no individual is without ample options for online reputation management and defense.
