Generally speaking, your reputation is created and altered by what you do and what everyone, including you, says. Unfortunately, perceptions are not always based on fact, but on opinion, conjecture and rumors. Look no farther than Michael Brown, former head of FEMA, who was lambasted for the lack of government response to Hurricane Katrina. Arguably the administration fall guy, Michael Brown spent months repairing his damaged reputation through tireless interviews and appearances. OnScreen Technologies, a manufacturer of LED display systems, recently took a chance on Michael Brown and hired him to help sell its RediAlert portable signage product. An avalanche of press coverage and online buzz has since erupted, which has necessitated an online reputation management (ORM) program.
Today, there are millions of people surfing the Web for news and information about people, places and companies. If you “Google” yourself or your company today, do you like what you see? When I Google my own name or that of my company, the top 10 results include links to our blog, articles I’ve written, press coverage and conferences at which I’ve spoken. These favorable results are no accident…they are the results of a consistent search engine marketing effort including press release optimization, article syndication and related PR activities.
If you didn’t see anything too scary in the search results for your name or company, that’s certainly not a bad thing, for now at least. If you’re unsure of what a “bad” set of search results look like, try a search for “Starbucks.” You’ll see more than a few anti-Starbucks sites, including a hate site, gossip blog and local coffee shop locator. While large corporations like Starbucks, Wal-Mart, automakers and airlines are constantly targets of disenfranchised employees and customers, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t care about how these sites are negatively impacting their brand or stock price.
It’s not a question whether or not you should be managing your reputation online, it’s a question of how. Just because you haven’t drawn fire from detractors online yet doesn’t mean it won’t happen. And when it does, you better be ready for it. Organizations and individuals alike should consider developing a search engine reputation management program as standard protocol for the 21st Century.
