There can belittle doubt that Internet has made it easier than ever before to get all the information out there and let the world know more about you and your profession/business. Unfortunately, internet has also made it equally easy for people to smear your fair name online.
Hence the compelling need for Internet reputation defense and deft online reputation management. But what, exactly, is online reputation defense? And how does it fit into a larger online reputation management strategy?
Internet reputation defense is essentially the more active part of reputation management – your efforts to preserve your fair name against attempts to smear it by unscrupulous elements. This can happen for any number of reasons – obstructions in your personal life, people envious of your growth, business disagreements, unethical competitors and people that willfully aggravate for their own amusement.
The first step towards online reputation defense is constant monitoring of what is said about you online. It’s crucial to stay on top of what the Internet thinks about you at all times. This could range from somebody venting over a squabble on Facebook, a review article about your business, a comment on a blog, and so on.
It’s important to find each mention about you, and react suitably to it regardless how credible the source may appear, where the statement is located, how high up it appears on search results etc.
Inundate the internet will all positive reviews about you and your business and bury all adverse comments and send them to the fourth or still lower pages of search results.
If the negative comment is an isolated incident, it’s unlikely to make any waves and you can let it go – instead of blowing it out of proportion. But if you perceive a pattern vitriolic campaign emerging, whether form one person or multiple people, then you have to move to the next step, which would be responding effectively.
Response can take a number of forms, but often the most effective way – as stated earlier – is to counter the negative is with the positive: to put positive news about yourself and your company online using search engine optimization, or SEO.
Remember that SEO is the true key to any reputation defense online; it’s economical, faster, and generally more effective than any other method.
If the adverse remarks are a deliberate attempt to unjustly malign you, you can sue the sites or the person smearing you. Yes, know that resorting to legal course cab be a process that can take years with little guarantee of success, and will be expensive to boot.