How reputation management forms the first line defense of your company

Building up your company's reputation might have taken many years but a few negative consumer generated media buzz can damage it very badly. With the online shopping options getting more popular, customers browse through online posts and forums to find out the good and the not so good companies and products. Posts that are placed on blogs, forums, and social media sites reach large audiences in no time. Viral in action these negative blogs or comments can do a substantial damage to the brand repute and the painfully built up reputation. In many cases these could be scandalous posts made by an unhappy customer or your ex business partner to settle scores with you.

Statistics show that around 80 percent of adults are more likely to buy a product based on online comments or recommendation and an overwhelming majority of customers trust the reviews and feedbacks of other users. 87% of people believe that the reputation of the company plays a decisive role while availing services or buying products. Should the customers find negative content while searching, it could have a disastrous effect no matter whether the complaint is genuine or not . Considering the ease of posting such defamatory content and the viral nature of its propagation it has become critical for companies of all sizes to implement reputation management tactics protect their brands.

Most of the customers seldom go beyond the first two pages of the search engines while searching for information/ products or services and if bad report come popping up in these pages chances are that the customers will never bother to come back t you again. It is estimated that On RipOff Report there are more than 300,000 complaints filed and these get a preference on search engines and enjoy priority listing, which makes it all the more important for companies to resort to fool proof reputation management techniques to ensure that their brand is not vandalized.

How quick can Online reputation management be?

Online reputation is the buzz word in the virtual world these days. Businesses, celebrities and even ordinary mortals have been under the scathing attacks in the cyber space these days. A few defamatory remarks are all that it take to ruin their carefully built up online reputation. Professionals or businesses that have been under attack by defamatory remarks will be eager to regain their lost reputation at the shortest possible time. Online reputation damage could mean loss of revenue, a slump in sales and above all an erosion of the customer base, which could have long term adverse effects in the prospects of the organization.

To even off these negative effects, companies and individuals opt for reputation management strategies that would remove the negative publicity and portray a favorable internet reputation to the public.However, online reputation management could be a time consuming process. It will depend on the amount of negative content posted against the concerned company or individual. By systematically posting SEO articles, and blogs the negative content will be pushed back to the inner pages of the search engines that would remain out of the glances of the discerning customers thereby ensuring brand protection.

Realization of positive results may take time to materialize; so the safest option would be to monitor your online repute and brand image regularly by using tools like Google alerts that would help you to keep a tag on what is being said about you in the virtual world. As you get the wind of the adverse comments in the air, you need to get on top gear to face these comments head on. Timely trouble shooting is the golden rule in reputation management. Never ignore these bad posts and forum postings as it could snowball into a major scandal in no time. Virtual world is viral and it wont take much time to reach these bad posts into your customers as well. The mere fact that over 86% of internet user depend on online inputs and feedbacks while shopping for products and services, would drive home the significance of online reputation in present day business scenario.