Nearly everyone is aware of online reputations and how valuable they are; but company online reputation management needs to go far beyond the basics. Read on for a few amazing things you might not have known about how important online reputation management is.
Everyone Needs It
Company online reputation management isn’t just for local Calgary companies or small-time institutions. Everyone, from the biggest Fortune 500 companies to the smallest local plumbing service provider, has to keep an eye on their online professional history.
Online reputation is mostly about managing your company’s digital presence. Depending on the situation, you may need to deal with old personal information about someone integral to the company, a bad review, or even issues that seem to have nothing to do with your business. It doesn’t matter if this information is obsolete and irrelevant: if it’s online and linked to your company, you need to stay on top of it.
You Might Not Be Doing Enough Company Online Reputation Management
If you think you’re safe because you don’t put out photos of yourself or your employees, your view is shortsighted. You shouldn’t think of the digital space as just a negative to manage and avoid. It’s also a positive to embrace.
The Internet can work for you, and by embracing what it has to offer and taking proactive charge of your online reputation, you can build your own reputation and get ahead of negative reviews.
It’s Almost Impossible to Erase a Bad Review
One of the first things people ask when they see a negative review is: “how can we erase it?” The glorious, and terrible, thing about the Internet is that you can only rarely erase anything. The Internet is a positive, free space where everyone’s views and opinions can be expressed. Even going after someone with a lawsuit is unlikely to work: in fact, it might very well backfire.
That doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do, however. The good news is that once you’ve buried bad publicity far enough that it disappears off the first page of a Google search, it is, for all intents and purposes, gone. Online reputation management can make that happen.
Reactive Is Not Enough
Many companies think they’ve done enough when they respond quickly to bad publicity. While that’s important, it’s the proactive reputation management that makes the biggest difference. For one thing, it costs a lot less to prevent problems than to erase them. For another, prevention and a proactive online presence solidify your brand equity and say something significant about who you are what you value.
The law is still working out what is in the “public domain,” who has access to that information, and what to do now that anyone can easily access nearly any information online and say anything they want. In the meantime, online reputation management can broadcast the values you want associated with your brand instead of leaving you to desperately react when something happens.
You Can Build Trust: Even With People You’ve Never Met
Decades ago, the only way to build trust was to interact personally with consumers and trust that they would talk to their friends and family about you. Now it’s possible to do so much more. Instead of hoping that satisfied customers might talk about you, you can talk about yourself.
You have to do this the right way, of course; but assuming you do, online reputation management gives you the power to get your own message out there instead of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best.
Grab Control of Your Online Reputation
Your online reputation isn’t out of your hands. You can stay in control with the right digital media marketing company on your side. Check out Digital Marketing Collective today and see the benefits of working with a local Calgary area digital marketer committed to making your online brand all it can be.
