How to Build a Proactive Reputation Management Strategy

The internet makes it easier than ever for someone with an agenda, legitimate or not, to damage your reputation, eviscerate your sales, and ultimately, destroy your business.

All it takes is for one person to post on one of the “review” websites, like RipOffReport.com, and your name will be tarnished, potentially for years to come, any time prospective customers search for your company in Google.

You might be under the impression that it could never happen to you because you always go out of your way to satisfy your customers. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always prevent reputation management problems. Perhaps there is such a deep personality conflict that you can’t reconcile with a dissatisfied customer. Maybe they even intended to rip you off from the beginning. Or worse yet, a unethical competitor can’t compete honestly, so they resort to defaming your company to steal business away from you. It wouldn’t be the first time.

No matter the reason, the end result is the same. Your reputation is damaged and prospective customers are reluctant to work with you.

You can reduce, or even eliminate this risk by taking a proactive approach to reputation management, though.

It will take a lot of time and hard work, and if you plan to outsource it rather than doing it yourself, a considerable amount of money, so you might be tempted to wait until the problem arises. That seems logical, right? Why spend time, effort, and possibly money if you don’t have to? That line of thinking will get you in because one of the factors that Google and other search engines use in determining ranking is the age of a page. All other things being equal, a page that has been around longer will rank higher than a newer page.

This means that if you wait until after someone has published negative information to start creating the pages and social profiles that you want to rank for your company name, those pages and profiles will likely rank below the negative information.

Buy relevant domains (within reason)

You probably already own the .com domain of your company name, but what about the plethora of other extensions available today? At the very least, you should invest in the .net and .org, but be sure to look at other domain extensions that may make sense for your company. There are over 1,000 available, so be thorough but don’t go overboard.

Next, look at domains that could be used against you. For example:

CompanyNameSucks.com
CompanyNameComplaints.com
CompanyNameReviews.com

You don’t have to put websites up on these domains right now—you’re just purchasing them to prevent others from using them to harm your company. You can just forward them all to your main website.

Social profiles

If you haven’t already, register a profile for your company on all of the major social networks. Your profiles on social networks should include all applicable information, such as hours of operation, phone number, address, website, etc., and should be branded to match your company website, utilizing your logo, custom colors, and header images. The info makes it more valuable to the search engines, helping it to rank higher, while the branding increases engagement with real people. (Which, coincidentally, helps increase exposure and ranking.)

Facebook (Page, not personal profile)
Twitter
Google My Business (Covers search, maps, and Google+)
Instagram (IOS or Android)
YouTube (Requires a Google account)
Pinterest
LinkedIn (Company Page, not personal profile)

You don’t have to do everything all at once. In fact, you can’t do everything well all at once unless you have a massive budget.

I recommend starting with Facebook, Twitter, Google My Business, and LinkedIn because you can create a following and engage in one centralized platform within Hootsuite. (If you don’t already have an account, be sure to check out their free trial.) Obviously, you should share links to your own articles, but you should also share relevant info from other sources within your industry—and don’t be afraid to share content from your competitors. Sure, it will give them a little exposure, but you are also showing that you’re confident enough in your own products/services that you’re not afraid to share the spotlight.

While I don’t recommend trying to utilize every social network at once, you definitely should secure your profile on every network so that it’s available when you’re ready to use it.

Free blogs

These are free blogging tools that “live” on the provider’s domain, rather than your own, which enables you to leverage their domain authority to secure another spot for your company name in the search results. The key is to make sure your company name is in title on all pages/posts on the blog, is mentioned once or twice in each post, and is included in image alt tags where appropriate.

WordPress
Tumblr
Blogger (Requires a Google account)
Medium
LiveJournal
Potasch.io

This isn’t a set-and-forget tool. As with your main blog, you will still have to produce quality content on a regular basis, and earn links and social shares if you expect it to rank for your company name. It’s important not to simply use it as a copy of your main blog; instead, you should post:

short excerpts of your own posts linking back to the original post on your main blog
short excerpts of relevant posts from other sources, linking back to the original article
posts that don’t quite work for your main blog because of format, length, or subject matter

Industry websites

You are presumably an expert in your industry, right? That’s why people are willing to pay money for your products or services. So why not use that to take control of your online reputation by publishing articles on authoritative websites within your industry?

Everyone who runs a website understands the value of high-quality content—and it’s even more valuable for larger, prominent websites that are expected to churn out a metric ton of it on a monthly basis.

So you’re going to contact the editor of the top 5-10 websites in your industry about submitting an article for their website, but before you get worked up like a teenage boy on prom night, answer these questions so you can get your pitch right:

Who is their target audience?

Do they market to other folks in your industry or to the end consumer? That makes a big difference in deciding what type of content will work best. You would develop a very different article when writing for your peers compared to writing for potential customers.
Why does your opinion matter?

Everyone has an opinion on almost everything, and most of those opinions range from average to useless. What in your background qualifies you to opine on a particular subject? Do you have a unique degree or certification, loads of experience, or an innovative idea?
What will the reader gain by reading your article?

Your article needs to offer deep insight, explain how to do something, or provide a useful resource unavailable elsewhere that their readers will appreciate. Save the shameless, self-promotional “5 Reasons You Should Hire XYZ Company” type of articles for your own blog. The website publisher wants to keep his readers coming back, and they’ll only do that is they gain something from the content on the website.
How will you bring your article, the website, and the reader together?

Each element needs to work together the same way coarse salt, a well-marbled rib eye, and a hot cast iron skillet work together to produce a delicious, tender, and juicy piece steak. Your goal should be to serve the reader, then the website, then your own company, in that order. If you fail to do that, your article either won’t get accepted or won’t get read. In both cases, you will have wasted your time.

To make the most of this tactic, you should try to get your company name in the title, once or more in the article body, and once or more in the alt text of images.

Review websites

Since so many people turn to review websites like Angie’s List and Yelp to evaluate a company before handing over their trust and hard-earned dollars, it makes sense to leverage those type of sites to strengthen your online reputation.

Now before you fire up your browser and head over to Fiverr to buy 20 or 30 bullshit reviews, think things through. Fake reviews are nearly always pretty easy to spot, and that will cause more damage to your reputation than not having any reviews in the first place.

Instead, give your customers an incentive to post an honest review on the sites that matter the most to you. For example, a small contractor might want to focus on Angie’s List, while a restaurant may want to put more energy in Zomato. (Formerly Urbanspoon.) You could offer a discount, free products, or an upgrade to customers who post a review before leaving your place of business—you’re only limited by your imagination.

The key is to fully leverage one site before putting your effort into another one, because the more reviews you have there, the more likely that your listing will show up in the search results. Take a long-term approach. You might spend three months encouraging customers to post reviews on Google My Business, then focus on Yelp for three months, followed by three months on The Better Business Bureau, and finally, Yahoo! Local. The next year, you could either repeat the same cycle to further solidify your position on those sites, or pick a new set to broaden your reach.

Google My Business sometimes filters reviews that come from the same IP, so if your customers post there using your WiFi, some may not display for most searchers. (It shouldn’t be a problem if they post a review from their own phone since they wouldn’t be using your WiFi.

Below are some of the review websites that are worth investing your time and energy into:

What do our clients say about Spartan Media?

We could talk all day about how awesome we are, but we know you’d rather hear what our clients think, so here’s what they have to say about what we’ve done for them and the impact it’s had on their businesses.

Kim Kiyosaki

Co-founder, Rich Dad Company

Jeremy’s strength is matching your message with the most effective media outlets and spot on audience demographics. He is very strategic, extremely diligent, does all the heavy lifting, and he makes you look good. If you want PR results that go above and beyond, then I’d definitely go with Spartan Media.

Matt Andrews

Entrepreneur, Investor, Venture Capitalist

I own multiple businesses in the real estate and marketing spaces and the only PR team that I’ll use is Spartan Media. It’s really important that I get exposure in the right media outlets and that’s exactly what Jeremy and the team at Spartan Media help me do. They are the best in the industry and I highly recommend working with them.

Christina Krause

Founder, Postal Impact

I can’t tell you how many times someone has said, “I saw an article about your company and it reminded me to circle back to you.” That has been a really interesting component of our relationship. We certainly have increased our presence, but it’s really interesting how many people we already know that have reached out to do business with us directly as a result of seeing us featured in the media.

Dr. David Phelps

CEO, Freedom Founders

Working with Spartan Media has been a real pleasure. They make the connections, craft talking points, and always make sure I’m prepared—and they do all the heavy lifting to make it easy for me. So we get it together, it’s efficient, it’s dialed in, and it makes me show up as an expert. Credibility and authority is everything in today’s space and Spartan Media does it better than anybody else.

Tatiana Zagorovski

Founder, Trio Realty Partners

Working with Spartan Media has completely transformed the way people see me and my business. They’ve helped me get in front of the right audiences and share my ideas and expertise across the nation—and the results have been incredible. I’m now being recognized as a trusted authority in my industry, and people are reaching out to me because of the exposure and status they’ve created for me.

Jason Keyz

CEO & Principal Broker, KEYZ Group

I don’t have the time to reach out to the media, and it’s one of those things where if you actually tried to reach out yourself, you’d be met upon deaf ears anyway. So working with the team at Spartan Media, that specializes in exactly this and does it on a daily basis, is the best way to go. Plus, their white glove treatment is exactly what you need because it let’s you focus on running your business.

Nicole Espinosa

CEO, The Short Sale Queen

My experience with Spartan Media has been amazing! I’ve been featured in Inman, Entrepreneur, Benzinga, Fox Business, and so many more because of them, and that’s opened a lot of doors for me. They do a great job of positioning you and helping you craft the perfect message. I totally appreciate that because I think as entrepreneurs, we often feel like we know everything.

Trey Taylor

Founder, Trinity Blue Consulting

I love that while I’m focusing on what I do best, Spartan Media is consistently getting me featured in the media. This helps give me more exposure, but more importantly, helps me to be seen as more authoritative in my industry, so more deals come my way and I close them faster and more easily. I feel that Spartan’s PR services are one of the best investments you can make as an entrepreneur.

Ready to get featured in the media?

If you’re already an expert, we think you deserve to be recognized as one—and to be blunt, your prospects deserve to find and work with you instead of your less qualified competitors who just happen to be better at promoting themselves. So get in touch to see if you qualify.