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how to calculate severity of an online reputation issue: do negative links fluctuate?

How to Calculate Severity of an Online Reputation Issue: Do Negative Links Fluctuate?

Negative Links Appear Prominently in Google Searches A potential online reputation management client reached out to me asking for help. They are an art dealer (although I’ve seen the same exact issue crop up for CEOs, high-level executives, law firms, mid-size businesses, financial advisors, doctors, etc.) who have several negative links appearing prominently on the first page of Google searches due to damaging posts created by a disgruntled previous work associate.  Sadly, this is all too common. Issue Evaluation  During the initial consultation, we evaluate the online reputation issue together. I do this right at the start before going any further because there are times when I have to turn down cases due to the scope, lying outside my expertise, or is just a bad match. If I don’t think I can solve their reputation management issue, I honestly say so.  If it is something I can help with, I estimate what it takes to solve. For example, would it be a relatively quick case, lasting a month, or does it require a year of sustained work? And related, how much does it cost–a $1,000 flat fee to remove a false review or $5,000 per month? How to Calculate Severity of Reputation Issue There are several factors that go into calculating the severity of a reputation problem. These include: Each of these items have their own significance, but I want to focus on the last one–”movement”.  Are Links Moving Over Time? Do the links gravitate upwards over a period of time or tend to shift down? Detecting trends is an important way to assess the reputation damage and the effort required to fix it.  So with that in mind, let’s go back to a real-world example–my potential client. Their issue is four negative links written by a disgruntled ex-employee, which were stable. However, not moving at all might not be a good thing (but it could have been worse). During the last three months, I’m told the damaging posts did not shift at all in any direction; rather, they still showed up on the first, third, fourth and fifth positions in searches.  My sense is that the reputation case would be a bit more complex and difficult.  Links Tend to Rise–Not Fall In most cases, links tend to rise over time and unless online reputation repair tactics are applied, they rarely fall. The main reason is because as people see damaging links, they tend to click out of curiosity. This in turn makes them ever more prominent, causing a vicious cycle: the more they are clicked on, the more they move up. It also means that the link(s) stay where they are for a long period of time and rarely move down on their own.   So, if you have reputation problems developing but are still buried on the third, fourth or more pages of Google searches, monitor the situation because they are probably on the rise. If you see any movement, be preemptive and start building a positive online reputation. This in itself is a long-term process, often taking six months or more for most cases, but it’s much easier to stop bad content from moving up rather than trying to push it down.  

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a brief online reputation management blueprint: content sources, potential clients, and tasks

A Brief Online Reputation Management Blueprint: Content Sources, Potential Clients, and Detailed Tasks

Reputation Pathway Here\’s a short online reputation management blueprint, including content sources, ways to connect with potential clients, and specific daily, weekly and monthly tasks. Content Sources Discover content sources. Build them around developing key search phrases your prospective clients or potential employers are interested in. Focus on authors, thought leaders, institutions, blogs, publications, but occasionally add fun-related topics. Take these and compile them into a list; review and tweak frequently. Find key search phrases and list: \”Search phrase 1.” “Search phrase 2.” “Search phrase 3.” “Search phase 4.” Identify and read authors: “Author 1” “Author 2” “Author 3” Follow key thought leaders: “Leader 1” “Leader 2” “Leader 3” Track institutions, organizations, and businesses: “Institution 1” “Organization 1” “Business 1” Read essential blogs and publications: “Blog 1” “Blog 2” “Publication 1” “Publication 2” Content Workflow Gather content sources. Take the researched list above and selectively add it to Google Alerts. Then, review relevant articles as they come out, and share in real-time on LinkedIn, YouTube, X (Twitter), and Facebook. LinkedIn is a great content source as well, so when reviewing your feed, find and share other articles to Twitter and Facebook. Google Alerts. Add to Google Alerts the list of search phrases from the above list. Open and review articles as they happen. Post to Facebook, if applicable. LinkedIn: Connect to authors and businesses from the above list. Find relevant articles. Post to Facebook, if applicable. Videos: Search for the phrases, authors, and businesses from the above list. Find appropriate videos. Post to Facebook, if applicable. Key Content Creation Tasks At least monthly, but more frequently is better, generate new excellent content focused around key search phrases already developed. This should be in the form of videos, blog posts, and presentations. Remember to share these on social media too. Make one or more videos; add to YouTube. Write at least one targeted blog; post on the website and Medium.com. Create one presentation; upload to SlideShare through LinkedIn. Summarized Daily Actions Do these tasks daily. Essentially, continue to find good content through Google Alerts and other sources such as LinkedIn and share on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Be sure to engage with other Followers and add new ones. Daily Facebook actions, all focused around the list created above: Follow several key influencers or Groups. Share a few posts. Like several articles and Posts. Post content you own, such as blogs, about one in ten times. Daily Twitter actions, focused around the list created above: Follow several vital influencers. Tweet on critical topics. Share one tweet from Followers. Post content you own, such as blogs, about one of ten tweets. Daily LinkedIn actions, focused around the list created above: Request a Connection to several vital influencers. Share and Like a few posts. Make a Comment. Post content you own, such as blogs, about one in ten times. Summarized Weekly Actions Be active weekly on these social media platforms weekly. Pinterest: Pin images; create one new Board; best if used on the weekend and evenings. YouTube: Follow related videos; create a new Playlist. Academia: Search for crucial articles; save and share. SlideShare: Follow an Author; Like critical presentations. School Alumni Site: update and find others. Medium: Follow and Comment on a related Article; Follow authors. Summarized Monthly Actions Some tasks are more critical than others, but try to be active on a few platforms per month: Instagram: Upload images; Like and Follow others. Soundcloud: Search for crucial posts; Like, Repost, Share; Follow People. Google Business Site: write one local review. Reddit: Upvote and Comment on related posts. Behance: Search People and Projects and Follow and Save; Upload one image. Flickr: Search People and Projects and Follow and Save; Upload one image. Vimeo: Follow others. Yelp: Write one review; Follow other Authors. Crunchbase: Follow Business; add a link to newly written articles. Quora: Search topics and Follow; Share. Google Books: Search topics and Follow; Share. MyHeritage: Add photo; find others.

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Coronavirus Can Impact Your Online Reputation. Here’s How

6 Ways Coronavirus Can Damage Your Online Reputation What happens–God forbid–if someone in your business comes down with coronavirus after a client meeting? Get help, of course. I live in New York, and yes, COVID-19 is a natural, scary thing happening right now (a colleague I know in New Rochelle could be sick).  But, what next? Businesses need to survive and people need to live. Do you shut down the whole office? Should you warn everyone you met?  What happens when word of this spreads–hide it or share it openly? Pondering the larger ramifications for a moment, COVID-19 coronavirus can damage your online reputation in ways you’ve probably never thought of. Here’re six ways how. 1. Someone Gets Sick in Your Office If you or someone in your office is sick, I hope they get well, since this is paramount. However, after health is taken care of, consider how this might impact your online reputation. Instead of LinkedIn profiles, Wikipedia articles, awards, white papers and other positive links, a client or prospect searching for you in Google now could instead see references to coronavirus. This could swiftly wipe out any positive web presence that’s taken years to build. Further long term harm might come in the form of an online stigma linked to your business or brand.  Be transparent at all times. 2. You Do Nothing No one wants to contribute to expanding coronavirus but doing nothing can make things seemingly worse. What I mean is if everyone is telecommuting for example, but you are keeping the status quo, it could be perceived that you don’t care about your employees or your business.  Ignoring COVID-19 could make things seem worse. Instead, be proactive and convey what you are doing–just like you should be doing at all times online. 3. Your Name Is Related It might be more of a long shot, but something to consider is if your name is related to “coronavirus”. A beer brand comes to mind, but other name variations could be directly or indirectly problematic. This includes brand phrases, online nicknames or other commonly-used terms that you might post online but could seem inadvertently insensitive or worse. Consider pausing them. 4. Tone Deaf Messaging or Worse Your social media posts could be indifferent, tone deaf or simply wrong in response to the virus itself and the news surrounding it. Don’t post dystopian views with cutesy/snarky captions; avoid the mention of “viral marketing”, for obvious reasons; be mindful over everything you put online.  Even if you have no relation at all to coronavirus, your online reputation could be damaged by posting the wrong thing. You might have to change how you do business, unfortunately, for weeks or months. 5. Not Preparing Well For Coronavirus Purposely ignoring CDC COVID-19 recommendation by announcing team-building gatherings and sharing this online is not a good idea, since it could be seen as irresponsible (something you shouldn’t be doing in the first place). Of course, don’t mock or belittle someone else’s suffering. Use common sense when sharing on social media: if not you risk the wrath from others, which might be justified. Now is the time to review your online reputation strategy. 6. Your Online Reputation Building is Paused Your reputation building strategy might be paused during the coronavirus crisis. Don’t let this happen, if possible, at least during the long-term. Continue carefully posting across social media platforms, writing blogs and uploading images as you’ve always done, just be a bit more careful not to say the wrong thing.

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7 ways to gain clients using online reputation management, recover reputation

7 Ways to Gain Clients Using Online Reputation Management 

Build Your Online Reputation To Gain Prospective Clients Want to get clients? Build a great online reputation. People search on Google before, after, and during connecting with you to see what kind of experience you have and if you can solve their problem. Having a strong web presence generates trust, leading to converting prospective clients into paying ones. If the first page of Google searches is full of positive articles and links, prospective clients see you as trustworthy. This helps close the deal. However, if something negative appears, potential customers just move on to someone else–a competitor. Almost as importantly, if minimal information shows up in searches, you might appear unreliable or not real, also causing prospects to move on. Understand Your Client An online reputation should resonate and align with your clients’. But in order to do so, you need to know precisely who your prospective customers are. Research them thoroughly. Without an ideal customer composite, it’s difficult or nearly impossible to know where to start building an online reputation that resonates with clients. Understand who to target, think about what drives them, then present clear solutions that help. To completely grasp your clients’ needs, analyze them by drafting a detailed and comprehensive profile. This persona drives all content creation, marketing messages, and sales conversations. Gathering and sharing this targeted content allows you to speak directly to the wants, needs, and desires of your ideal buyer. Also, it crystallizes the kind of companies you like working with and what their pain points are. You can then craft the exact solution that they need. For example, if your prospective clients are a professional urban New York-area couple in their 30s and have a joint salary of $300K, then your reputation approach needs to appeal directly to them. Deliver Trust and Solutions Potential clients seek out a business that seems trustworthy, effective, and fixes their problem. An accomplished online reputation draws in prospects naturally and turns them into paying customers. Businesses often neglect to align their offers with what their clients really need the most and instead focus on what they want to sell. You should deliver solutions that your clients really need. Many times, however, clients think they need one solution but you, as the expert, know they need another. Be ready to explain the advantages of your approach. This continues to build trust. Continually building a positive reputation is key to reaching new customers. Once you have a comfortable connection, educate them on recognizing the superior value of your service. Overdeliver For All Clients, Especially the Best Ones Do really great work, naturally. This earns referrals and builds a reputation of excellence. Craft well-researched strategies, offer pinpointed analysis, answer questions immediately, give effective solutions, and be extremely professional–always. Very satisfied clients generate positive feedback that influences and encourages others to use your business. Existing clients bring business partners, friends, neighbors, or even their own professionals that they deal with (dentists, accountants, etc.). These satisfied clients can–and should–be used as a part of your reputation marketing strategy. Since nearly eighty percent of most business income comes from about twenty percent of their clients, this all makes sense. That’s why keeping current clients happy matters so much for building a positive reputation. Excelling for every single client all the time, while admirable, is not realistic or productive, however. Over-deliver for those best customers, but focus on delivering extraordinary service to the twenty percent that brings in the most business. Focusing on your best consumers results in retaining them, generating excellent recommendations, and most importantly, builds strong online and offline integrity. Blog Like Crazy What is one of the best ways to build or boost your reputation? Write. One of the best tools in your online toolkit is crafting well-made blogs. Writing great pieces not only brings eyeballs online to draw in potential customers, but it also highlights you as an industry expert in your niche. Everyone is looking for solutions on Google. For you to be discovered in search results requires the creation of truly exceptional work. Writing excellent blogs increases the chance of being found on the first page of Google, which leads to visibility, more clients, and a trustworthy reputation. Think of it like this: if a prospective client is searching for your business online and sees the first page filled with positive articles and links, they probably would pick you over a competitor who has minimal (or negative) information. The key is drafting the best blog possible. But a blog can be nearly anything: articles, audio recordings, videos, presentations, white papers, photos, infographics, graphs, and even memes. Another powerful feature of blog posts is that they generate “backlinks” or ties that connect to your content, which Google considers as an important page-ranking signal. Each time a new blog post is published, a new searchable article–and backlink–can point back to your website. If a blog piece is published every few weeks, that means several dozen new links potentially create many new ways to be found, leading to new sales opportunities, and more chances that you’ll be seen as an expert. But while frequent publishing is important, paramount is producing high-quality content. Have a Search Engine Optimization Strategy Being on the top of Google search results means business. Search engine optimization (SEO) helps drive prospective clients to your website and is a crucial part of an online reputation strategy. Since about 95% of clicks occur on the first page of searches, having a presence there builds trust and substantially helps in closing deals. High-quality content along with leveraging SEO builds an online reputation that strongly increases the chance of being seen first on Google, which leads to visibility, more clients, and additional online confidence. Google uses many ways to determine where to rank a website. While this is a massive topic in itself, to be found predominantly in search results requires the creation of exceptional work, such as high-quality blogs and some behind-the-scenes technical work, such as backlink creation

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