With the advent of universal internet usage and particularly social networking, the dangers of loss of reputation online is increasingly coming to the fore. With the internet, the potential impact of negative publicity is multiplied to the enth degree – and without accountability. People often feel they have no recourse to internet service providers to remove incorrect information and as there are no laws that adequately govern speech on the internet, how can this be controlled.
Many companies, especially newer ones, have a major focus, that is lead generation to increase their success and sales and increase the knowledge of their business generally as far and wide as possible. However, they may not have the knowledge needed to ensure that they can manage their online reputation. If lots of complaints are received (perhaps from just one person but many times over), this means that by increasing their on-line mentions the company name goes higher up the search engines lists – even though most of the comments may be unfair complaints.
Human nature being what it is, people will complain vehemently if something goes wrong for them, but will rarely commment if everything goes well and to plan. Online feedback, blogs etc give an opportunity for immediate comment and then complaint portals can pick up these comments and so the issue goes far and wide. It appears that these complaint portals have a tendency to rank higher in Google than in any other search engine.
VANATGEX TIP: – To ensure you notice comments, posts and any updates on the internet concerning your business you can set up Google Alerts which will email you with any mention of your business name, brand or particular keywords you decide.
When people are first confronted with a false complaint on a third party site, they often feel it is no big deal, and that reason will prevail and the site owner will just remove the complaint on request. In most cases this is not the situation, and a complaint listing may have be on a high ranked page which is seen on customer searches.
VANATGEX TIP: – Respond to complaints, don’t ignore them. Set up a formal online complaint procedure and respond to the owner of the comment and post a comment if placed on a blog. EG "We are currently investigating this complaint and will ensure that a appropriate steps are taken…etc"
If you know the web site owner writing or housing the negative comments, email them (written record) and request removal of the content. Another way is to simply lower the complaint on the search results by increasing positive information and comments about your company. (Advisors suggest that 90% of the people who Google do not search further than the first page in the search results and that 97% do not go past the first two pages.) Increase information generally about your company (several times a week if possible) and see your company becoming higher on the search engine.
If you need assistance about ways to do this, our marketing and business experts can assist you further.
