10 tips to repair your negative online reputation

No matter how excellent your brand is, misconduct and negative comments online can very quickly damage your digital reputation. You might not be able to delete what was said about you, and it is always a big mistake if you do, but there are steps that you can take to minimize the damage.

In our digital business climate today, it’s important to have online reputation management (ORM) processes in place to help you gain a better understanding of your digital footprint, and at the same time, help you see how far your presence travels.

If your reputation has been damaged online with some nasty comments, have a look below on how you can minimize the damage and start repairing your reputation. This is not an instant process that will yield quick results (depending on how negative your reputation and sentiment online is), neither is it the be all and end all solution, but doing it this way can repair your online profile.

1. Research

What was the cause of the negative online discussions about you or your company? What can be done to bring the conversation to an end? The repairing process of your online profile can only start once the controversy ends.

2. Keywords

Compile a list of keywords related to the negative comments. Keep the focus on these keywords to one or two phrases at the most. These keywords can include your company name, your own name, brand, event, etc. This keyword list will be used in your marketing efforts to push down the negative comments from the search engine result pages (SERPs).

3. Identify

Identify key websites, blogs and social media channels that you can use with your keyword list that will be used to displace the damaging stories, comments and articles.

4. Website

Add new content and fully optimise your primary website for your company, brand, and services. This is the one website that you can control and have a say over the content on it.

5. Link building

Create and launch a link building campaign on the websites, blogs and social media channels you have selected in the identifying step. Use the keywords and keyword phrases you have chosen in the anchor text for the best results.

6. Blogging

Create a blog where you have control of the content and publish a couple of blog posts with the keywords you have selected in the content. Use third party blogging networks to promote your content and use your own social media profiles such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. You can also release a couple of press releases through normal media channels.

7. Ongoing content marketing

Google is always looking for new and interesting content. Start with a dedicated content marketing campaign that focuses on your brand, your products and services. The content that you use shouldn’t just be any plain old text book content. It should be magnetic where it draws people in and encourage them to share it with their own social circles. This can boost your online reputation significantly.

8. Videos

Publish and promote videos on popular video sharing channels such as YouTube and Vimeo. Optimise the videos by adding your keywords in the title of the video and tag them with targeted keyword phrases.

9. Damage control and monitoring

Setup a couple of listening processes so that you can be notified of any future negative or disparaging remarks. If this happens, address these immediately and appropriately. To get started with this, create alerts on Google Alerts for your brand name so that you are notified every time Google picks up content with your brand name.

10. Measurement

Constantly monitor the first few pages of Google with the keywords you have selected. Take note of the article positions you want to purge.

Online reputation management should not be seen as an “add on” service to your existing marketing strategy. It’s a reality that your reputation can be made or broken in 140 characters or less.

Image: Myfuture.com via Flickr.