All these facts make reputation management important for brands. Search engines pull up all information related to the brand once customers hit a search. These portals do not see whether the information pulled up is accurate; algorithmically-calculated relevance is the only factor in consideration. If potential customers have access to positive information, it serves the brand best…but vice versa also applies.

Online reputation management is built on establishing trust online. Search engines like Google and Yahoo have become the sacred book for customers who are confused with the number of brands ruling the consumer world. Until your brand earns their trust and positive news is spread, you are doomed.

Manage online reputations…
There are several ways to do this:

• Try and build trust among customers
• Try to be a name that they feel they can rely on
• Be accessible (when people feel that they can reach you at any given point of time, there is a feeling of security that sets in)
• Use client testimonials (it will ultimately act as word-of-mouth publicity for your customers; that, your brand has been used and is preferred by others, assures them to a certain extent about your quality and credibility)
• Publish photographs—be it of your organisation, key leaders, the CFO or the team, photographs are a face to the name online. With the increasing number of impersonators in the cyber world, customers are not to be blamed for doubting your credibility, if you have not taken the trouble to build that essential rapport with them.
• Make yourself easy to contact–provide phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses

In this new age of customer reviews and blogs—about almost all things in the world—it is highly necessary for you to manage your reputation by constant monitoring, analysis and influencing of online content. Statistics prove that only the first two pages of what search engines pull out is viewed by the average searcher. Hence, if you can monitor negative news or complaints about you or your brand within this space, you’ve already gone a long way in safeguarding yourself.

The ideal way to tackle negative content is to respond promptly and address the issue—either through an apology or through an explanation. This way, you can create enough positive content to push these negative comments down the line. As a rule of thumb, avoid any kind of defensive attitude while on the Internet—this will only let loose a tornado of negativity your way.

Active participation helps propagation of good news of your brand–do not think you are above the level of being an active participant in social media. Reviewing  the stream of blogs and customer reviews written in response to you helps to have a clear understanding as to how your brand is perceived by your customers and allows you to take informed, effective steps to handle the situation. Google alerts, Technorati and Twitter are real-time tools that help in monitoring online content. Technology today demands brand owners to invest in their online identity and maintain a stable credibility with their online customers for the company’s existence.

If you have an online business, your online credibility is one of the most important matters that you should give due consideration to. It is this factor that makes  people register for your services, click on ads or just keep coming back to your site—and to your services. It is almost synonymous with the idea of a successful business.

How Crederity helps…

When you have a Crederity verified seal on your web page, you demonstrate that you are a verified, reliable and credible company or person. Crederity verifies a plethora of information regarding a person or a business: identities, background check, references, experiences, and much more. This is all information that, when verified by a trusted third party authenticator like Crederity, puts your audience more at ease, helping them to initiate or participate in a relationship with trust and confidence, both online and offline! We encourage you to join Crederity to invest in yourself, and to invest in trust!

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