Deliberate carelessness. That’s the best way to describe that comment, article, or tweet that destroys years of reputation construction and development in a matter of words. Those few spiteful phrases have the power to wash away the years spent growing and nurturing your reputation and worse still, that handful of measly words have the power to spark a forest fire of controversy and slander.
But fear not, there is hope for you in the battle against the digital demons. It is possible to remove, de-index, and bury slanderous content, but you must be equipped with robust strategies that not only eliminate the content but repair and rebuild your reputation. With the boundaries of the World Wide Web constantly expanding, it is always possible for a few defamatory words to slip through the cracks, or for the odd ‘bot’ to cling to content and splurge it across another site, making it difficult or downright impossible to eradicate completely. So how, you may ask, can you keep those pesky bots at bay?
The lingering scent of defamatory content
Even years after an accusatory article, bad blog, or vicious video is posted, it can have an extremely detrimental effect on a reputation. With many mainstream platforms such as Google, Yelp, and YouTube being open for just about anyone to voice their opinion, it is becoming less and less effective to simply block and ban the content. We have now entered a time when it is not enough to simply initiate damage control strategies, but look to counteract the slander and beat the trolls at their own game, and that is what we at LegUP are experts in.
With digital footprints becoming progressively more permanent, it is proving to be more effective to not only target the source of the slander but to bury it beneath a collection of contrary content that reflects the true ethos of your brand. For instance, let’s say you Google the name of your organisation, and to your surprise, a plethora of defamatory content rises to the top of the search engine results page.
Alarmed by the results, you look to remove the links and posts from the online eyes and carry on as if nothing has happened. But can you really be sure of how far this content has spread? Who has seen it? What conclusions have been drawn? The answer to all of these questions is Online Reputation Management (ORM), a proven way to not only eliminate the content but divert attention away from any lingering residue and draw it to information that accurately represents your brand.
Pull Up Push Down: SERM
Search Engine Results Management (SERM) is the optimum way to negate defamatory content, and LegUP have developed a series of proven techniques that make this process accessible, simple, and effective. Our SERM strategies keep defamatory content where it belongs, as far away from your brand as possible, buried deep within search engine results pages.
The main ways to successfully implement SERM are:
– Identify the slander.
– Stop it in its tracks with legal techniques.
– Suppress the residue content and push it down the search engine results pages.
– Publish contrary content that accurately depicts your brand.
– Promote the content using SEO techniques to the top of the search engine results pages.
The Road to Reconstruction: The LegUP method
Suppression aims to reconstruct the first search engine results page to provide relevant and helpful information to online searchers. However, first and foremost, this information must be representative of the subject’s motives. Content suppression is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal as it allows you to carefully sculpt an online persona that is accurate, concise, and memorable. Still not convinced? Here are some of the other benefits that LegUP’s suppression and SERM strategies can provide your business:
- Know your rank. LegUP is able to constantly compare your site to those of your competitors, through ranking distributions and reviewing performance indicators.
- Pump up your ranking. LegUP’s SEO and keyword search suggestions are used to lift you to the top of the search engine results pages.
- We put you first! Not only is protecting your business our business but so is providing you with an advantage over your competitors. Our SERM techniques, expertise in content development and promotion makes this possible.
- Know your competition. LegUP’s tools can identify which websites are your direct competition and highlight rivals who are attempting to attract a similar target segment. From this, relevant keyword search suggestions can be made.
- Know your consumer. LegUP can monitor your domain’s visibility, ranking trends, and estimated traffic to identify top-ranking SEO keywords and boost low-performing search suggestions.
- Adapt to market trends. Our data collection techniques allow you to monitor shifts in your market to stay current and constantly innovate your product and services.
- Go global. Compare your platforms and services with competitors from other regions and locations to improve upon your services.
- Attract your money makers. LegUP’s SEO techniques allow you to improve your website to target consumers who will generate the most profit and be most valuable to boosting your reputation.
LegUP, your ORM experts
Online Reputation Management (ORM), is concerned with enhancing, controlling, and developing a brand’s reputation. Developing comprehensive and effective ORM strategies is no small feat, nor is it one that should be tackled alone. A shocking number of companies neglect reputation management and push it to the bottom of their to-do list – that is until they find themselves caught centre stage of a scandal. By this point, the damage is done and instead of employing measures to protect their reputation, organisations instigate a panic response, providing sloppy results and stirring further controversy in the online community.
Despite the urge to panic, it is vital to stay calm, assess the problem, and look to develop effective and consistent reputation management strategies that factor in crisis management. A recent analysis of businesses revealed that online-sourced sales for those implementing ORM programs grew 24% faster than for those not actively engaged in ORM activities (Source: Reputation.com), indicative of how ORM is not only a precautionary measure but a profitable long-term investment for any brand or organisation. With years of experience and a wealth of resources, LegUP are experts at implementing rigorous action plans that provide robust reputation management that pre-empts and tackles problematic external forces head-on.
LegUP’s services are completely adaptable to the needs of our clients. What remains consistent, however, is the thorough and pragmatic approach that LegUP adopts to really understand the root of the issue and identify how to best optimise a clients’ reputation. The key is to not only focus on how or why a reputations’ growth has stalled but identify where vulnerabilities stem from and predict how external forces could manipulate them. With the use of proprietary tools, algorithms, and an extensive network, LegUP can identify these weaknesses’, monitor consumer patterns, and develop plans that look to not only pre-empt potential threats but grow a reputation.
A combination of LegUP’s services, such as SERM and ORM techniques, provides the opportunity to promote an online presence, grow a reputation and then lead the online conversation afterwards. Although the outcomes may not be seen overnight, the longevity of these techniques is non-comparable.
Public Perception Management
The practice of handling public opinion consists of three key functions: organising your data, engaging customers online, and optimizing the customer experience. LegUP’s comprehensive services simplify these processes and condense consumer feedback, reviews, social media stats, and data into a single report, making it easy to analyse and develop strategies to strengthen public perception management.
When it comes to online customer engagement, a rookie mistake that many brands make is waiting for the reviews to roll in without taking the initiative to spark consumer interest in promoting your brand for you. However, there is a fine line between engaging your customer and pestering them to perform reputation promotion on your behalf. In order to generate genuine and influential review responses, LegUP ensures that review requests include multiple response options such as mobile/SMS streams, as well as more traditional approaches such as online forms and email methods.
Furthermore, consumer response strategies are devised that provide prompt responses to customers that accurately represent your brand and leave your customers feeling valued and heard. Even if a consumer review is negative, it is vital that when formulating responses, a high level of professionalism and care is maintained. This reduces the risk of further controversy being sparked and ensures that a valuable customer is not lost due to poor communication.
Overall, the analysis of consumer activity is key to successful public perception management as the tracking of trends, consumer engagement, and behaviours not only forecasts potential reputation threats but highlights areas for improvement which are necessary to innovate customer experience and marketing efforts. These concepts may seem intricate and complex at first, but the good news is that the LegUP team are experts in this field and are standing by ready to help!
The bottom line is that coherent and consistent online reputation management is vital to improving your bottom line. ORM is an impactful way of controlling defamatory content, leading the online conversation being had about your brand and, engaging current and potential consumers, with the aims of helping your brand to innovate and thrive within a constantly changing environment.
Understanding how LegUP can transform your business outcomes is just a conversation away. Our consultants are standing by ready to develop a customised plan to fit your business needs. Protecting your business is our business, we measure our success by your success, so let’s start succeeding together.
To schedule a consultation with one of our experts, simply fill out the contact form below providing us with a brief outline of your reputation needs, or email us at info@leg-up.uk
We look forward to helping you!
Sebastian Paradis