Corporate online reputation management is critically important in today’s age and time when people are becoming more and more online addicts.It is therefore imperative that every corporate house needs to monitor what an online search reveals about them.It is an undeniable fact that in present times, every prospect first looks into what Google and other search engines comment about you before doing business with you.Once they read any remarks – even remotely negative – they turn away to do business elsewhere. Hence, corporate online reputation management has assumed critical importance as never before.
Some of the key factors corporate online reputation management has to constantly deal with are –
- Adverse news coverage
- Negative blog posts
- Unethical disinformation campaign by competitors
- False customer complaints,
- Unfaithful product reviews
- Intentional smear campaigns
Presence of untrue information online about your corporate is only too likely in today’s global economy where competition is getting more and more acute by the day.Again, people who are searching for your products/services online are not bothered to ascertain whether any of the information is true or false – they straightaway sideline you.
There are credible surveys to show that just a single negative online review can cost your company, nearly 10% of your corporate annual revenue. This is a clear indication how critically important is corporate online reputation management is.
Please also remember that search engines are not unduly worried nor undertake any investigation if some adverse information appear about your corporate identity online. If there are disparaging blog posts or reviews about your company, the search engines will merely present them to anyone who searches for your company online.
Your online management service provider understands the seriousness of it all and will ensure that that all your positive comments and reviews are ranked higher and made more visible and the negative reviews/posts are relegated to the bottom.
Corporate online reputation is indeed priceless and should not, under any circumstances, be neglected or underestimated. It is for this reason that many corporate PR managers are seriously concerned about their online reputation and hiring ORM (Online Reputation Management) agencies to monitor and manage their online corporate image, products and/or services.
Your Turn:
What is your corporate online reputation strategy for businesses ? We’d love to hear your thoughts.