Five Steps To Managing Reputation Management

Last week’s reputation management post brought several emails about how to go actually go about implementing a reputation management program. With that in mind here are five steps that you can take to manage your reputation online (and control the search engine rankings also).

Create and manage a profile on all the major social networking sites
You do not need a profile on every social network, just on the more prominent ones. Reprise used 13 social networks and I think that is a good number to start with. Two things to keep in mind when doing this. One is to use the name of your brand/company/product as your profile name. The second is to make sure that the profiles are linked together to create your own reputation network.

Build a Wikipedia page
Anything on Wikipedia dominates the SERPS at the moment. Build out a Wikipedia page for your company and link out to positive resources about your products and services. Not sure how to do this? Here is a quick guide from Search Engine Guide. Conversely, if you already have a page on Wikiepdia you should be actively monitoring it to make sure it is not being changed.

Use your media assets
If your company has video assets, then go ahead and create a YouTube channel. If you don’t use video, then create the equivilent on Flickr. With universal search you will see more and more search engine results include videos and pictures from sites like YouTube and Flickr. Having a visible presence on these two sites will help push negative content about you further down the page.

Participate in active discussion boards and blogs within your industry
Yes this is not a Web 2.0 solution, but it still holds true. If you are active in discussion boards and blogs within your industry then you will have a forum (for lack of a better word) to tell your side of the story if any negative news arises.

Build a company blog
A well developed blog that is full of new content is one of the best defenses against negative comments. A blog should be the cornerstone of your online reputation program. It can link out to your Wikipedia page, social network profiles and YouTube video’s.

A good reputation management process works best when all five of these tactics are employed. Think of reputation management in social media as an interactive extension of your overall public relations strategy. Damage control is one aspect of this strategy, but it is important to note that reputation management is most effective as a proactive measure rather than a reactive one. Being heavily connected to the social media landscape is a great way to put your brand in a position of control, as opposed to the ad hoc approach of chasing after and squashing various dissenters.

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