By: Dennis Paul | May 4, 2016

A Proactive Approach to Reputation Repair

A Proactive Approach to Reputation Repair

Being proactive not reactive

A Guide to reputation building

In many ways, the entire business of reputation management should focus on being proactive in your approach to reputation repair. Instead of reacting to a crisis situation, be proactive and build your brand or identity.  Be aware that if you are successful, there is a strong possibility that people are talking about you. In fact the more you accomplish the more people will talk about you. What they are saying about you or your business can be crucial to taking steps in the field of online reputation management. One of the biggest issues that companies or individuals face is a lack of preparation to potential crisis management issues.  Taking a proactive approach to reputation repair involves creating an identity online that can reinforce your image or brand and prevent future attacks on your image.  

The very foundation of reputation repair and defense is Reputation building.  To build a strong online presence is a proactive approach to reputation repair because you create brand before having to react to a crisis. Hopefully, nothing will go wrong. No one will say negative things about you or your business and your positive reputation will never be questioned, a proactive approach to reputation management helps create positive content that will dominate the first pages of search engine results.  Look up our CEO, Hersh Davis-Nitzberg online, what you find is an approach to brand that is based upon reputation building not reputation reacting.

How Can I create a proactive approach to reputation repair?

First, know what is being said online about you.  It is impossible to be proactive if you don’t know the conversation that is being held about you or your company online.  Track the conversation online about you or your company.

Second, establish a strong online presence, being able to not to have to react starts with controlling the conversation.  Own the first pages of search engine results by building out your identity and staying focused on what your brand represents.

For a business or an individual build out your social media reach, get publicity and interact with you audience. Good interaction is also called content marketing: these are strategies and techniques that use content and fresh information to keep our audience engaged and interested in your products.  Look at what we do at Repair Bad Reputation, these articles are written to engage our core audience and build our market. When you look up Repair Bad Reputation online you will find our yelp profile, google local profile, facebook profile, and then lots of links to our blog.  This creates authority, it establishes brand, it builds image, and it creates a sense of community. Creating a direct line between companies and the communities they serve will help prevent reputation repair issues and also create brand.  This helps you dominate search engine results page also known as SERP.  themselves and you as a business leader and will give you the opportunity to deal with negative experiences in a timelier manner.

If you are an individual most people interacting with you will look you up online. If they are thinking about doing business with you, they will look you up online. If they are thinking about dating you, they will look you up online. If you are applying for a job 100% guaranteed they will look you up online. If you are applying to colleges they will look you up online. Building a reputation is very important to not having to react to false or negative rumors.

For a company build out your directory listings, establish positive reviews on sites, encourage, but don’t ask for positive reviews. Many review sites do not let you ask for positive reviews, in fact asking for reviews to sites like yelp and google are against policy.  So, as oppose of asking ‘encourage‘.  It is best to encourage satisfied customers to give feedback and if interested share that feedback with the online audience but do not directly ask for reviews.  Don’t think about a proactive approach to reputation repair.

Invest in your reputation management and choose an Online Reputation Management Company wisely.

One of the best ways to be proactive regarding your online reputation is to enlist the help of a good online reputation management company that has a department focused on building reputation. Repair Bad Reputation helps you establish your brand.  Online reputation management when done properly is truly reputation building – it does not react to consumer complaints rather builds brand.

Monitoring your online presence can be overwhelming due to the many locations that information may be posted. It is best that these areas are monitored regularly and this may be difficult to handle inside a company. An online management company can help eliminate the stresses involved with online reputation management.  This is critical when trying to create a proactive approach to reputation repair.

In the long run, your company will be able to save money because proper management of your reputation will help bring in more sales and it will keep you from needing an extensive reputation repair. If you take a proactive approach to reputation repair, when facing complicated issues you will be able to minimize the damage that negative information has on you or your company.

Stop The Negative Information Train Before it Starts

The most important part of maintaining a proactive approach to reputation repair is to address issues as they come up and have a plan of action on how to address any potential issues. For example, if your customer has a complaint about something that has occurred with your products or service and you agree to call them to discuss the issue, make sure that you keep your promise and give them a call. If you don’t, this will only increase the damage that can be created by their complaints.

It is also important that you take the issues away from social media if possible. Continuing a conversation through the internet rather than on the phone or via email is not a wise decision. Politely give the person who has posted the negative information your contact information and ask that they get in touch with you directly.

Conclusion

Don’t be forced to react, control the conversation before issues can start and be proactive about your reputation online. More and more, consumers are relying on information that they find online, either through their friends or other consumers, who have used products and services in the past. This word of mouth interaction is more valuable than advertising dollars so investing in your online brand or reputation is a good way to grow out your brand and prevent reputation repair issues.

Since consumers are relying less on information provided by the company and more on the information provided by the company’s customers, a proactive approach to reputation repair is becoming more and more important in today’s business world. This process can help you save money, gain new clients, and bring new customers to your doorstep.  It is important to take a proactive approach to reputation repair.