Let’s face it; in today’s world, reputation management is hardly a massively arcane topic that few people can understand. Anyone who has ever observed what might feel like a politician or celebrity’s carefully “stage-managed” response to a controversy or scandal, will know something about how reputation management works.
Effective reputation management in the 2020s, means paying attention to SEO
Still, there’s no doubt that the hugely online-oriented 2020s presents a much different reputation management landscape to the situation back in, say, the 1980s or ‘90s, whether the reputation being managed is that of a person or a brand.
Within mere seconds, something can be said about a particular individual or business on Twitter, Facebook, or in an online review on a platform such as Tripadvisor, that attracts quick responses and travels fast.
And if that “something” is about you, and it is less than complimentary, it could end up surfacing in unwelcome positions on the search engine results pages (SERPs) whenever someone performs a Google or Bing search for your brand.
So, you can probably begin to see why, in this decade, online reputation management (ORM) cannot be entirely detached from search engine optimisation (SEO). They are two fields – and processes – that very much work hand in hand for a responsible business like yours.
Recent search-engine features pose new challenges for reputation management
The reputational peril might be especially great for your organisation – or for you, personally – given such contemporary Google features as “featured snippets” and the “People also ask” section.
You will probably be familiar with these from many a SERP, and they can provide powerful channels for damaging your brand’s reputation – particularly if such phrasing as “Why are people boycotting [your brand]?” and “Is [your brand] a scam?” starts popping up on that all-important first results page.
After all, your business might be very far from a “scam”. But if people are even feeling the need to ask this question, it could influence how your brand is perceived by many of your target customers.
So, what can you do to better manage your brand’s online reputation?
In an age in which many people, when they want to learn more about a specific brand, might not even look at that brand’s website or social media profiles first, but will instead perform a Google search, it really is crucial to be proactive with your organisation’s SEO and ORM.
There are various ways in which you might look to do that, ranging from responding in a helpful and tactful way to any negative online reviews you may see, right through to setting up and optimising a Google Business Profile listing, and even allowing any potentially negative keywords to shape your content creation.
Naturally, the exact best approach to take might not be the same for every individual or business. That is certainly our experience here at Jumping Spider Media, and we are skilled and seasoned in tailoring our reputation management services to the preferences and expectations of our clients.
Hopefully, the above will have got you thinking about the need you might have to get more proactive about your online reputation management efforts – and that’s a great start. To learn more, then, about how our team could help make it a reality, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us today by phone or email.