The internet is a savage place where a person’s image can be ruined in a matter of hours. Whenever it catches the scent of something it doesn’t approve of, no matter whether it has the full story or not, the internet will attack. And if you’re a victim of a slander campaign like this, the consequences can be dire.
If you run a business that’s being slandered you will need immediate online reputation repair professionals to intervene. Without people to take back your image, you can lose more than your audience. If people don’t trust you, they may refuse to do business with you and that will cost you revenue.
Personally, people may find the lies woven by a slander campaign before seeing anything true about you. That can cost you many opportunities for everything from jobs to interpersonal connections. A person’s and a business’s online presence are a vital part of who they are, and how the world sees them.
That’s why need to protect it. Keep reading below to learn how an online reputation repair company can help, and how to find the one that’s right for you.
Online Reputation Management is Cohesive
When most people think about what goes into their online reputation, they usually think of social media. To most people, their reputation comes down to a matter of what they post and the communities they post in. Yet, everyone’s online reputation is more than that.
Your online reputation is a combination of your offline reputation, the people you associate with, and much more. It takes a team of professionals to adequately manage it and account for all its different moving parts. Keep reading below to learn what these companies focus on when they try to repair your online reputation.
Your Online Image isn’t Static
The most important thing to realize about your online reputation is that it changes. The way people think about you today may be completely different tomorrow, and you can’t do anything about it. All you can do is prepare yourself and attempt to control how people see you by identifying the narratives people tell about you.
A post that may resonate with people one day may backfire the next, and you may never even realize it. Change is integral to the internet, and to truly maintain a good online reputation, you need to change with it.
See the Difference with Good SEO
Your social media posts and your website are all just facets of your online image. When people search for you or your company, they may find news stories or competitor websites trying to damage your reputation. The only way to guarantee that people see you for who you are when they search for you is to develop an effective SEO strategy.
With search engine optimization, you can have a say in what search engines display about you. These strategies depend on making content that is developed to rise in Google’s search results, to eventually reach the top spot. Since the top search result usually gets around 33 per cent of search traffic, you can have full control over your online reputation with it.
Crisis Situations are Just One Specialization
Most people only think about hiring an online reputation repair company if they’re facing a crisis. The time to hire a reputation management company isn’t when you’re facing a horde of angry clients or internet users. The right time is months in advance so that the company can avoid the crisis altogether.
Although most online reputation repair companies have some way to help during a public relations crisis, it’s not what they’re there for. Instead, they exist to help ensure you avoid those situations entirely.
Online Reputation Repair Takes Professionals
One thing you should never do is try to repair your reputation yourself. Although it can result in a dramatic change of heart throughout your community, the chances of that happening are low. Instead, it’s more likely that people won’t believe you when you try to change, and you’ll be more vulnerable than ever.
That happens because convincing people that you don’t deserve the criticism they give you takes more than changing the way you communicate with them. There are factors to consider that often go beyond most people’s heads. An effective repair takes a deep understanding of the situation and people’s perspectives on it.
That perspective can be determined by using a variety of measurement tools most people aren’t familiar with. Metrics like website traffic or engagement time mean different things to professionals trying to repair your reputation than they may mean to you. Always check to make sure the company you go with uses the right tools, so you can tell if you should trust them.
Only Let People You Trust Handle Your Reputation
Before you ever hire an online reputation repair company, you need to be able to tell if you can trust them. And learning if you can trust a company takes a lot of work on your part, but it’s worth it. Going with a company you can’t trust will cost you more than just money, it’ll cost you your reputation too.
The first step is to research the company, and that means doing more than just Googling it. You need to comb through their social media posts and find out the things people are saying about it. These companies specialize in manipulating the information people see, so be sure the information you find is true.
Next, you need to be careful not to fall into marketing tricks. Most of the time, reputation management companies will try to instil a sense of urgency or make promises they can’t keep. Nothing is certain on the internet, so if they guarantee anything, you should be wary.
Finally, you should look into how they expect payment. Be careful around companies that expect wire or Paypal transactions up front. There’s always a chance they may take your money and never deliver the results you need.
You Have a Right to Your Reputation
As a company and a person, you have a right to control your reputation. The courts have even determined that people have a right to their own reputations in the same way they own their own property. Only, a person’s reputation expands beyond just owning property.
It’s how companies and people make their money. It’s a vital part of what makes any organization what it is, and an attack on it can have dire results. An attack on a reputation is like an attack a person or a company themselves.
That’s why you need to protect it. And for that, you need an online reputation repair company you can trust. Get started with us, and we’ll make sure people see you as you are, not how your competition may want people to see you.
