A Lost Good Name is Never Retrieved

A Lost Good Name is Never Retrieved

Every single day, each given moment, someone even remotely related to your organization is talking about your brand. It may be your existing or ex employees, competitors, customers, the industry watchdogs and the list goes on. Rumors, gossips, criticisms and unfair opinions are probable results of such discussions. Prior to the advent of the Internet, information usually traveled at a gradual pace and in a methodical manner. This allowed easy monitoring and gave ample response time. With the introduction of Internet and explosion in consumer generated media (CGM) such as blogs, forums and review/opinion websites; information travels at lightening speed and has therefore reduced the reaction time significantly.

Building brand is not a cake walk and requires investment in the form of time and money. It is the most valuable intangible asset of an organization and should be closely safeguarded. Numerous researches and studies have established the fact that though majority of consumers buy offline, their buying decisions are greatly influenced by online research, and reviews and opinions posted by consumers who have used the product and/or service in past. Negative remarks by disgruntled customers or employees, erroneous rumors and competitor action to defame you can severely effect these buying decisions. Customers seeking information on your product and/or service will come across these negative comments which would induce a sense of doubt in their minds, a feeling of mistrust. Internet which works to your benefit, in such scenarios, could blemish what took months to build – your brand. The necessity for online reputation management can not be emphasized enough.

Online reputation management is a judicious mix of public relation and search engine marketing. High search engine visibility and rankings not only helps you to garner more business, but also helps in pushing bad publicity down search engine results page (SERPs). However to be able to do so, you will have to start monitoring your existing online presence, easier said than done. The mammoth size of the Internet and the speed at which information travels makes monitoring a daunting task. To overcome this issue you would require an early warning system, a mechanism that sends an automated alert. Setting up Google and Yahoo alerts for your brand name would be a good start. Additionally you should monitor SERPs on regular intervals of time and keep an eye on blogosphere via Technorati, Feedster, etc. It is also advisable to setup custom RSS feeds and participate in forums and message boards to keep a watchful eye. Several tools are also available to help you monitor the online arena. Certain tools can track keywords across major search engines; while others can help you monitor a host of online media. All of these put together will constitute a foolproof online monitoring system and give you a head-ups, should any negative remark creep up.

Online reputation monitoring is crucial and a useful tactic to help negate the adverse effects of bad online reputation. In most cases, loses in the form of revenue and lost business is caused due to delayed action or inaction in tackling negative online press. It is therefore imperative that organizations develop and implement online reputation management as a strategy and not just as a counter measure. As said, a lost good name is never retrieved.

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