Think… what do tech-savvy people like yourself do when investigating a business or researching it’s products/services?
The answer, use a search engine. Check out what is returned during a Google search for “coca cola”. See the tenth result? It is a site claiming that Coca-cola is involved in union disputes that have led to several murders. Interesting, isn’t it?
Besides searching for the company name, people often enter company product brand names, company director or individual names, and website names. If you were spending millions of dollars to brand your business through ads online and offline, wouldn’t it make sense to consider internet reputation management as well?
Here are some of the consequences of businesses that ignore their internet reputation:
1. Small complaints snowball into large problems talked about even appear on major news or authority sites. Like fish tales, the problem gets exaggerated and blown out of proportion quickly.
2. Websites which publish false or untrue statements or comments on blogs or forums about the company are regarded as fact.
3. A complaint by one triggers a ripple of other unhappy/dissatisfied customers to come forward and voice their complaints whereas they previously remained silent.
4. Well-respected and well-known bloggers influence their readers to never do business with the company again based on their own bad experiences.
The bottom line cost to the company is potentially millions of dollars in lost sales. While no company can be completely immune to such attacks, nipping it in the bud early on is the best way to manage these potential issues.
Taking care of negative internet publicity is crucial to overall business success. Search engine optimization plays an important role in reducing potential loss of business from negative websites in the search engine results pages. While PPC ads can help drive traffic away from these sites listed during a search, it’s important to manage the organic or natural results as well. This can be done by pushing negative results out of the top 10 search results of the major search engines. The only way is through SEO services. In the SEO realm, there are many that claim to be a professional SEO consultant but few understand how to manage negative sites in the top 10 results. This can be accomplished only by a conscious effort to push the negative result down the search results and replacing it with another site/page.
If your company site name or brand name is not showing in the top 10 results, consider getting a SEO firm to help you rank for those terms. Not showing up in the results leaves doubts in the minds of a potential buyer as to whether your product/service is up to snuff.
Approached from the right perspective, these complaints can even be turned around for the good of the company. Wendy’s, a large chain of fast food restaurants in the US, encountered a complaint regarding a finger in the chili bowl incident. They took charge of the potentially negative repercussions from the incident and offered a reward for any information on this incident. It ended up being a hoax and the person responsible for spreading the false story was arrested. When the incident was finally resolved, they offered free Frosties to everyone to show their appreciation for their continued support. Facing the problem head-on helped them win the hearts and minds of their customers and at the same time prevented them from appearing as a cold, heartless corporate machine to their customers.
So don’t let negative comments/sites hurt your business. Learn to turn it around and become an avenue with which to win new and existing customers to your business.