If you own or operate a business, never take for granted that your online reputation is stellar, even if you have never received a single complaint from a client or customer. If you are in charge of your own public relations, make it a point to take the time on a regular basis to research your business on all of the major search engines. You may be unpleasantly surprised at what you find. A customer who is unhappy with your products or services but has never made a point of telling you could be writing some unfavorable content. A small disagreement with a client, customer, supplier, or even an ex-employee could be damaging your reputation without you being aware of the problem until the damage has reached major proportions. If you research your company and find damaging information on the first three pages that appear on a search engine report, you need to do immediate damage control.
There are ways to repair your online reputation, but you must act quickly and devote time and effort to the problem:
Take the Problem Offline
If a single person or entity is doing the damage, try to contact that person offline to talk about what the problem is and how it can be resolved. Some negative posts are done out of frustration and the problem can easily be resolved in a friendly manner. Remember this is not the time to argue or justify, this is the time to make certain that the party who is offended can walk away feeling good about the resolution. Make friends with the person who posted the negative content about you or your company. Once the problem has been resolved, ask the person to delete the posts and also to replace those posts with positive comments about how the problems were rectified.
Remove Posts Whenever Possible
Contact the Webmaster of the site that contains the negative posting and ask to have it removed. Many sites will do so to avoid unnecessary problems. Remember the Website where the negative comments were posted cannot be held responsible for content posted by others and all Webmasters know this. Try reasoning and politeness, not empty threats.
Respond to All Posts
If a negative post cannot be removed, respond to it, online. Always be reasonable, polite, and accurate when responding. Be sure to remember you are trying to resolve and rectify; do not post anything that might make matters worse.
Ask Satisfied Customers to Post Positive Comments
Several positive posts can make one negative post appear petty and insignificant. Offer incentives to your clients such as coupons for those who post their positive comments online. Remember that satisfied customers are the best public relations you can get.
Flood the Web with Positive Posts
Create new profiles for your company and utilize as many social media sites as possible to get your profile updated and visible. Post positive articles about your company on any sites that carry the negative postings to push the negative posts further back in the search engine results. Very few people go beyond the first or second page of search engine results; the further back the negative postings appear, the less likely they are to be seen.
Hire a Reputation Management Company
If you are still dealing with negative information that is easy to access on the Internet, hire a company that specializes in reputation management. These public relations companies specialize in repairing your online reputation and will then monitor your reputation for any future problems.
The Internet is an open book that allows the world to check information about people and companies, both positive and negative. When your reputation is on the line, you need to act quickly and responsibly to save it and to repair any damage that may have occurred. You can do it yourself and hope for the best, or you can spend the money to have a specialist do the work for you. Rest assured that everything possible is being done to save your good name; the choice is yours.
Author Bio: Joshua Turner is a blogger who creates articles in the area of business. This article was written to describe the steps on repairing an online reputation and to encourage further study in this field with a Masters in Public Relations
