Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Protecting Your Brand Name and Reputation Online

By Nicholas Ruiz


One of your primary goals as a business is to make sure that you keep your reputation solid and untarnished. With the existence of different forms of media and broadcasting, the most harmful way to hurt your reputation is through cyberspace. A simple article posted on a blog, a simple video uploaded on YouTube, a review pasted on a website - these are just simple forms of providing your company with defamation of character. If you are not cautious enough, your business is simply bait for those who are willing to taint your reputation through slander and libel.

So question is who could actually do this to your company? Honestly, anybody. These hurtful comments could actually come from people you know. A former employee perhaps. Or a customer. Even those companies that you are competing with. With a simple click of a button, you are basically vulnerable to character defamation.

This is why it is very important for the company to manage online reputation. The managers behind the scenes combine forces and wits so as to come up with a brand protection campaign. A simple blog circulating online and describing your product and your company negatively could damage your good name.

Firstly, some of the offensive contents many not even land on the first 5 pages in a search result so you can be less concerned that they can do any damage. You can ignore them and you can hope no damage is done. But that's a nonchalant way of dealing with the situation which no responsible PR manager should even consider. Also, it would hardly bring any alleviation to the damage.

Another method is to bring the case to the courts. A lawsuit would be a good idea if you have the funds and all the time in the world. If the lawsuit is won, you can receive money as payment for damages, and the offensive content will be taken down. However, as mentioned earlier, it simply is too expensive and it eats up too much time. You also do not have the assurance of winning the case.

Lastly, you can go by the way of reputation management. Use the same techniques by your competitor and try to beat them at their own game. These methods are called search engine reputation management.

If search engine optimization provides you with the option to ensure that your presence in cyberspace is felt by snagging the topmost search ranks for that particular keyword, search engine reputation management goes further than that. It knocks a specific search results downwards so it cannot be seen by someone who is searching for that keyword. You can do this to sites that have made derogatory comments about your brand and your company. Drag the site, the article, the blog post, down to the bottom so it won't affect your brand. Since this requires an expert, you can tap a company that specializes in reputation management repair services. These professionals will do the job for you.

If you think that online image and brand protection is not important, then think again! It's one of the things that can make or break the business you've worked so hard to build. There's no perfect time than now to have a contingency plan so you can keep your reputation intact and protected.




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