Cleaning Up Your Online Reputation

By: admin@repairbadreputation | March 14, 2022

Cleaning Up Your Online Reputation

A lot of people argue that the word “cleaning” sounds better than the word sanitizing, but we beg to differ. Cleaning, we believe, only takes up in removing the dirt. Meanwhile, the word sanitizing means to deeply clean, removing anything and everything that can cause harm.

But because sanitizing means removing dirt using chemicals, we decided to stick with the word “cleaning up”.

We believe that the process of cleaning online reputation should be the focus of online reputation management. Of course, while it is nearly impossible to really erase any and all traces of negative mentions, efficient online reputation management dictates that there should these small “traces” should have little to no effect at all when it comes to the reputation of the brand or company.

That being said, how does one sanitize online reputation? How does one pick up the pieces, move forward, and make sure that no negative mention can hurt the brand anymore?

Disinfecting the Cause

Just as one would treat wounds, the first thing to do is to disinfect the cause of the issue or negative mention.

Do a search online for your brand; put your name on Google, Bing, Yahoo, or any other search engine or social media platform that you can think of. Learn exactly what people think about you or your company. Even do a Google images search on your name!

All these things may seem basic, but these steps are the first things that you should do in order to learn what are the things being said about you.

When you discover negative mentions about your company or brand, learn what and who is triggering the negative mention. Is it an ex-employee that you fired due to negligent work? Or an ex-partner who got angry because he got voted out during the last corporate meeting?

How about a dissatisfied customer who got irate because one of your managers snubbed him during his/her latest visit? Learn everything you can about these things so that you can start planning on what to do the next time these issues reappear again.

Delete and Remove

Now that you know the extent of the damage, it’s time to start removing and deleting those negative posts, stories, newsreels, videos, images, and even internet memes that can trigger an event called a negative storm.

A negative storm is what we’d like to call a cataclysmic social media event where a single meme or image may trigger an outburst of negativity towards your brand or company. It jumps from one social media platform to another, so don’t be confident that an outburst of negativity towards your brand on Youtube will simply remain there!

To prevent such an event from happening, you need to remove anything and everything that can trigger this storm. Images in Google can be easily flooded with positive social media posts, images, and blog posts. One can also request the people who posted about you to remove the particular post from their pages.

Quietly unfriend and disassociate yourself from people who are probably going to post negative stuff about you. If it’s possible to block them so that they can’t tag you anymore, then do so quietly. It is also possible to send a message to any publisher who released negative articles about you to remove the said articles. Not everyone is going to cooperate, yes, but at least you’ve tried to do so.

Restrict your Brand and Website

Most companies are usually dependent on having their profiles open to the public to encourage anyone and everyone to follow and like the content the brand is sharing. However, in times when there is a lot of negativity going on around your brand, the time is right to restrict your social media accounts and your website.

If needed, it’s time to remove your old accounts and profiles. Start off with new Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin accounts and ask people who can bring in positive comments and reviews for you to like and comment on your new page. Meanwhile, ban or block anyone whom you believe is going to ruin your new page’s starting reputation.

Post only positive comments and good news on your new social media profiles or website. Post only positive comments about your customers or business partners there. Create a new Flickr or Instagram account and share the latest products that you have. Create new emails and subscribe to programs that will help you monitor your online presence. We want to make sure that all your new social media profiles and accounts are no longer ruined or attacked by trolls.

Planning on commenting in online forums because of a blatant attack against your business? Be sure to create a private account to respond to these trolls as you don’t want to get yourself exposed while replying to them.

Seek Professional Help

If you’ve already done everything mentioned above and yet are still struggling to clean up your online reputation, then there is no harm in stopping and seeking professional help. Nowadays, there are a lot of online reputation companies that are more than happy to help you.

If you’re going to get assistance, remember to relay every last bit of information that you think is vital for cleaning up your reputation. Don’t hold everything back!