The Effects of Online Reputation Management

The effects of online reputation management are important to the well-being of any company or high-profile individual.  It’s important to remember that in an age where there are countless pages with tons of information about everything from Aaron Burr to ZZ TOP, your reputation is going to be examined thoroughly.Online reputation management offers you the opportunity to control the way you are portrayed on the Web.  We’ve all seen the Internet provide more rumor mills than one could imagine, stating lies like:  KFC changed their name because the FDA says their meat isn’t real chicken; Mountain Dew has a die that impacts the genitals; and Snoop Dog died.  These rumors are all equally outrageous, but unless handled properly they can overwhelm an otherwise stellar reputation.Here are some of the positive effects an online reputation management programcan have:Improve customer satisfaction – By gaining valuable insight into what your reputation is, you can be proactive in changing areas of your company or operations that are receiving negative publicity.  While there are all sorts of negative comments out there, companies such as Apple have incredibly positive comments about them floating about.  So not everything is negative.Increase perceptions of brand – By seeing what customers and potential customers are saying about your brand and the brand(s) of competitors, you can improve upon perception.  It’s almost like free market research.Maintain shareholder Value – By decreasing risk by having ears close to the ground where opinions about a business are being formed and propagated. Engage in more effective public relations by understanding who the real influencers are. Gain understanding – Scores of companies spend hours, dollars and other resources attempting to discover where their strengths and weaknesses are, at least in terms of what customers perceive.  The relationship between user generated content and traditional forms of online media, e.g. news, print, etc. has a wealth of free information if you know how to read it.Provide early warning systems for reactive and defensive PR. Reduce marketing costs – Learning to act and react cheaper is a necessity in today’s economy, and effective relationship management can produce procedures and processes that will evolve the way you market. Reduce internal costs – Employing services which save time and money can make or break a company.  Online reputation management can achieve just that. Help identify gaps – Gaps related to products, services, attitudes, relationships and more.  These can be developed for profitable niche markets. Gain insight into online networks and keywords and key phrases found in user-generated content, which can help to bolster natural search results about the person, product, or business.Having quality online reputation management is obviously an important part of any modern business.  This isn’t just a matter of making sure everyone likes you and/or your product, it really is focusing in on how to best craft the messages being sent around the Web.  The information is out there, you might as well have a say in how it’s viewed.