subject: The Need For Reputation Management [print this page] We live in a generation where information is right at our fingertips. With a simple click of the finger, we can find an answer to any question. With this constant flood of information, it can be very difficult to regulate its accuracy. Many companies and people have suffered from unwarranted negative attention, coming from hostile ex-lovers to ruthless competitors. Reputation management is designed to make sure that companies and individuals do not suffer because of negative internet publicity.
Billionaire Warren Buffet once said, "it takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it." We all know that first impressions are extremely important, especially when it comes to business. When a potential customer searches for more information on a company, the last thing that company wants is for them to find unfair and negative internet publicity. This negative internet publicity can come in many forms. It may come in the form of bad posting, negative feedback in a blog, an antagonistic testimonial, scam allegations, and forged product reviews--just to mention a few. "There's no policing, no rules, no standards," commented an anonymous lobbyist who had suffered from negative online attacks. She called bloggers "cowboys," and about the internet: "It's the wild, wild West."
Because search engines bring up what is most relevant--not necessarily what is most true--the first results in an internet search may be full of these negative reviews. Statistics show that if a negative result comes up on a search, even if it's listed below the company's official website, 70% of people will click on the negative result first. It is difficult to manage these results alone--which is why the field of reputation management has grown so much in the last few years.
Reputation management companies work by pushing those search results with such negative attention away from the first pages of the search engines. Ideally, false reviews could be eliminated from the internet. In some cases, when politely asked, these false reviews are sometimes removed by their creators. However, these requests sometimes backfire and cause even more negative results. In this case, the reputation management companies work on their own to get more information--true information--out about their clients, so that information will come up first in the search results.
With the growth of the internet and the amount of information available, there is a growing need for reputation management. Because of the ever-changing nature of search engines such as Google, it is something that must be constantly monitored--and that is why this field will continue to grow in coming years.
