Reputation Management Strategy

Reputation Management for Google
Google is one of the top needs for Reputation Management Strategy. This requires a keen understanding of SEO and how Google decides to display rich snippets with review stars. Our strategies for Google Reputation Management will often include classic SEO such as technical seo on your own website, link building tactics, and on-page optimization as well as the development of testimonials, public relations campaigns, legal counter-measures, and an online review strategy.

Reputation Management for Amazon 
Amazon has become the world’s top ecommerce website where merchants sell their products to consumers. This has attracted the more seedy side of the internet including spammers posting fake positive and negative reviews. This can tarnish or destroy a brand or product’s reputation both online and offline with deep financial consequences. Thankfully Amazon has become very proactive in eliminating fake reviews. To protect your reputation or improve your reputation on Amazon we often recommend a customer outreach program focused on recognizing buyer’s from Amazon and activating those with a positive product experience to post reviews.

Reputation Management for Facebook
Facebook is a platform where it’s easy for someone to fake a brand page and hurt your reputation, however, it is also fairly easy to combat with Facebook’s tools and resources. Most often Reputation Management on Facebook will utilize legal resources to combat fake brand profiles, social media customer service tactics, and a social media content strategy to highlight the brand’s page in Facebook search results. This also frequently helps with any issues inside of Google or other search engines as well.

Reputation Management for YouTube
Anyone today can make a video with their cellphone and post it immediately to YouTube from their smartphone. This can lead to bad consumer reviews going viral across the platform very quickly. There is no stopping this behavior and trying to do so leads to additional issues. Instead of YouTube Reputation Management Strategies typically include focused video creation to develop a relationship with brand advocates who use the site frequently. Our goal is most often to engage those with a positive brand experience so much that they will help nullify the negativity of viral events like this in the future, help promote positive messages, and notify the brand when events like this occur in the future allowing the brand to make a swift response to the video poster.

Reputation Management for Other Websites / Apps / Communities
Your reputation could be negatively portrayed on a variety of other websites, social media platforms, inside of various applications, and in niche communities. It is important to approach each of these separately and craft messaging as required. It is also import to know when to respond to piece of negative content or commentary and when to ignore it. Often times replying in haste only makes the problem worse attracts more attention to it. Other places you might need a reputation strategy for include Twitter, Reddit, Imgur Tumblr, Facebook Groups, Web Forums, Google News, SnapChat, Instagram, Industry news websites, Local news websites, CNN Comments section, and independent blogs.

How To Remove Bad Reviews Online
If the reviews in question are defamatory in nature or absolutely false you can engage with an attorney familiar with libel laws and attempt to have the false reviews removed by the publisher. It can be difficult to do this and you must have a preponderance of evidence that the review is fake. Most often you will not be able to simply have a negative review removed and instead we recommend proactively gathering positive reviews to counter the negative reviews that appear online. The easiest way to do this is to identify consumers that are happy with your product or service already and request that the leave a review for you on the same site where negative reviews are hosted (if possible).

Does Reputation Management Work for Celebrities?
Yes. There is a great example of a well-known athlete that had some very compromising images of him circulating the web. That athlete photo-bombed some fans a few months later and the coverage of that moment almost fully countered the original negative images which no longer appear for that athlete’s name and must be specifically sought after to be found today.

What is the Streisand Effect? Is it real?
The Streisand Effect is when an attempt to take down content from the internet to protect someone’s reputation or to simply censor the information the users of the internet respond by distributing that content to even more websites and drawing more attention to the content perpetuating whatever negative issues were caused by the original content often times magnifying the viewing of content by tens or hundreds of times. It is a very real effect that has impacted major celebrities such as Beyonce, Government’s like Tunisia, and Groups such as the Church of Scientology.

This socialogical effect is similar to the Hydra Effect and the Cobra Effect. We recommend reading more about it on Wikipedia.

If I Successfully Have A Negative Review or Article Removed Is It Gone Forever?
In most situations that answer is no. There is a non-profit entity called the Internet Archive. This group, located at Archive.org, crawls and copies webpages on a frequent basis. Most of the internet’s text-based content is archived here on this website. If the content you had removed was a video, image, flash, or other rich media there’s a chance it is gone forever or simply lurking on the dark web waiting to reemerge.

If I Build A Microsite Will That Fix My Reputation?
Some times this tactic works, some times it does not. It really depends on your situation, why you’re building the microsite, and what other resources you have available.

Should I Buy Different Versions Of My Brand / Trademark As Domain Names To Protect My Reputation?
We strong advise every brand own the most common .COM domains that a competitor or other entity might use to attack your brand. These include:

• [Brand]Reviews.com
• [Brand]Sucks.com
• [Brand]Ripoff.com
• [Brand]Scam.com
• [Brand]Lawsuit.com
• [Brand]Fails.com

Additionally you should consider purchasing other domain variations and extensions such as .NET extensions of the above listed, [Brand]Foundation.org, Buy[Brand].com, Rent[Brand].com, [Brand]Service.com, and any relevant .gTLD’s

If Someone Is Using My Brand As A Domain Can I Take It From Them?
In some cases yes, you can obtain a domain using your brand name by filing a UDRP complaint with ICANN. This is often easy if you have a registered trademark and is even possible with a common law trademark. ICANN is the international body that oversees domains on the internet and they have a policy known as the Uniform-Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) that offers a way to dispute and gain control of offending domains on this page.

Essentially the UDRP states that you can file a complaint and claim a domain if these three elements fit the situation:

1. The domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which you have rights; and
2. The person who has registered the domain have no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name; and
3. The domain name in question has been registered and is being used in bad faith.

The final element is often called the Bad Faith Clause. It must be present for you to get ownership of the domain name in question. ICANN stipulates that these following 4 things definitively show Bad Faith in a domain name registration.

• Circumstances indicating that you have registered or you have acquired the domain name primarily for the purpose of selling, renting, or otherwise transferring the domain name registration to the complainant who is the owner of the trademark or service mark or to a competitor of that complainant, for valuable consideration in excess of your documented out-of-pocket costs directly related to the domain name; or
• You have registered the domain name in order to prevent the owner of the trademark or service mark from reflecting the mark in a corresponding domain name, provided that you have engaged in a pattern of such conduct; or
• You have registered the domain name primarily for the purpose of disrupting the business of a competitor; or
• By using the domain name, you have intentionally attempted to attract, for commercial gain, Internet users to your web site or other on-line location, by creating a likelihood of confusion with the complainant’s mark as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement of your web site or location or of a product or service on your web site or location.