subject: Reputation Management Services: When Your Brand Is Under Attack [print this page] The incomparable book The Art of War by the Chinese General Sun Tzu said it best: To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence. Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting. That pretty much sums up with reputation management companies are seeking to do: instead of fanning the flames in case your business is under fire for a perceived or real slight, they work to quell the fire by going directly to the source of conflict.
Criticism and self-criticism
Theres much to be learned from successful military strategies and relating them to the corporate world. In business, you have to defend your brand from external and internal threats or stake a claim to a territory; in war, soldiers are deployed to defend their country or a much higher ideal like freedom and justice.
Internet Reputation Management Companies will only be valuable if they not only help address little problems even before they blow over, but also assist in repackaging your image. It would be very easy to comb the Web for any damaging remarks against your company and make sure those sites are not indexed by search engines. But the trick is not to be always on the defensive but rather to demand from your self the highest standard that outside pressures will pale in comparison.
Lessons to be learned
First, you should be self-conscious. Mega-chains like KFC or McDonalds can afford the few negative feed back over the alleged inhumane treatment that the chickens suffered from their contract supply providers. A small toy business, for example, with very limited resource has no such luxury when somebody accuses its products of posing a risk to children.
Through the help of the Social Media Company, you can check what people have been saying about you on the Internet and make the proper adjustments to respond to their concerns.Creating a blog will also help you explain further your company mission and your product. This is also an avenue to address all the grievances and complaints.
Steps to quashing critiques
If you are at fault, acknowledge the mistake and apologize. Second, respond as soon as you can to the complaint and explain what you are doing to rectify the mistake. Third, respond to each and every personal question or grievance in the forum thread for example. Fourth, listen to the suggestions to make your product or service better. Of course, you can skip all that by just hiring reputation management companies and allow them to do their magic
