The best reputation defense is good offense, they say. But how can you exactly reclaim a tarnished reputation using a good offense?
As a business owner, you try to do everything to protect your online brand and grow your consumer base. Yet there may come a time when your brand would be hit with online negative reviews, blogs, and comments which are either a work of a pissed off consumer or a competitor trying to pull you down. With damaging content lining up on your search engine results page (SERP), what’s a derailed business owner got to do? Your default move is to call an online reputation management (ORM) expert for help. This is highly recommended, especially if your brand’s negative associations are unfounded and you want to prove that to your online audiences.
In case your business indeed committed a sin, then you must apply this simple yet all-encompassing commandment: Thou shall not perceive reputation issues as primarily an ORM challenge. The truth will always be your best defense and unless you resolve their root causes, whether be it a faulty business process or a flawed cust0mer service, you’ll just be wasting time and effort on masking evidence which will inevitably come out in only a matter of time.
Upright ORM companies would encourage lasting solutions for reputational issues because this is the ethical and efficient method of maximizing the benefits of ORM services. These companies encourage the ethical use of their practice because they understand that the clients they represent mirror the way they do business and they want to establish the concept of using an objective and proactive solution to reputational issues while focusing on the clients’ welfare.
Some ORM services may be guilty of working with unethical projects but this should not be the case. Clients are advised to assess first their situation using these guidelines from the National Ethics Commission before seeking an ORM service to avoid jeopardizing their brand and the hired ORM firm as well. Though determining how much bad content is too much appears to be a gray area in online reputation industry, ethics remain at the core of ORM practice and clients must take it to heart. After all, you cannot underestimate the power of doing the right thing backed by an efficient ORM support.