New Media Planner

Hi, my name is Sadie. I am new to ViperChill and this is my first ever post on the blog so please bear with me. This won’t be my last post so expect to see much more of me in the future.

It was a warm African night and we were sitting around the fire after enjoying an awesome braai (SA terminology for BBQ), when Glen asked me to make a post on the VC blog. I was flattered yet vexed at the same time; I mean what was I supposed to talk about but (a couple of beers later) it hit me that there are many established companies out there who have lost huge chunks of the potential share of the online market purely due to the fact that they haven’t been properly monitoring their brand online.

The difference between a properly monitored brand and a brand that has been left to float around aimlessly in cyberspace can come down to millions of dollars, especially in the case of large companies who depend largely on popularity and brand loyalty. In the past, print media meant that news travelled slowly and negative publicity would only reach that far, however, this is untrue with today’s lifestyle as the internet has brought upon an entirely new era where news sites like Digg and Reddit mean that news travels quicker and reaches a far wider audience.

There are even sites such as Hello Peter that allow users to comment on service they have received from particular South African companies.

With this in mind, you might be wondering what you can do to ensure that your company’s online reputation remains untarnished by negative publicity. Well here goes…

5 Pillars of Successful Online Reputation Management

1. Taking Stock – Before you can take any effective steps toward ensuring a better digital brand, you will need to monitor the existing situation, i.e. your existing online presence. You would need to know what people are saying about your company, a good way to do this is by setting up Google Alerts for relevant phrases and, of course, your company name. This way, you can stay up to speed about what people are saying about you.You can find more in our post about 5 free Brand Monitoring solutions.
2. Analyse your Online Presence within the SERPS – With the web moving more toward user generated content and search engines which now update their indexes more frequently, it’s not uncommon to find a negative comment or blog post in the SERPS for a particular keyword. Something like a company scandal similar to the Media 24 Scandal can live on the Google front page for months. You therefore need to keep an eye on you and your competitor’s search engine environment.
3. Gain Points with Optimisation – Correctly optimising your site for search engines mean that your site will rank higher for important key terms therefore preventing any negative publicity from rearing it’s ugly head on the first page or the SERPS.A good idea is also to link out to positive resources on your brand to help them rank for your name aswell.
4. Get your Hands Dirty - As a brand, you would also need to actively participate in social networks and online communities through blog posts, forums and social networking sites like Facebook. For example, commenting on blogs will help paint your brand in a positive light as a large percentage of consumers turn to blogs when looking for advice on whether or not to try new brands, etc. This can also help in terms of responding to any negative criticism that has been written about you.
5. Wash, Rinse, Repeat – It should be noted that online reputation management is not a once-off but only effective an ongoing process. Be proactive and understand the consumer’s perception of your brand and your organization when choosing an online reputation management strategy.

To prevent the loss of revenue and repeat business, an ongoing online reputation management strategy should be developed by all organizations. Online reputation management can ensure the ongoing success of your brand and your organization.