Dear Dan: Our business often gets reviewed by customers online. Most are good, but I worry that there are so many sites, and people can say anything. How do we monitor our online reputation? – Reputation at Risk
Dear Reputation: “Internet reputation management” (IRM) scarcely existed a few years ago but has become a critical management task and one of the fastest growing new small business services.
Gartner Research, a highly-regarded opinion leader, calls IRM an emerging Internet technology with major implications for even the smallest companies. Basically, IRM is a proactive process of tracking and responding to threats, as well as opportunities, to your company’s online image. That may include references to your business in traditional media or the profusion of “social media” Web sites and blogs that encourage comments about a product, service or business, no matter what the size.
Companies have been known to post a competitor’s credit report online. Spurred joint venture partners have struck back via the Web. A disgruntled dry cleaning customer’s online attacks lead to a lawsuit. And a single blogger’s negative post about a doctor’s line of health products was the top Google search result under the doc’s name.
Web sites where anyone can post reviews of products, services and businesses are everywhere. In addition to well-known sites like Yelp and Angie’s List, there are thousands more, from personal blogs to giant yellow pages Web sites.
Several factors have made this a big deal for small business, including the ability of people to post comments anonymously, the explosion of social media sites and instant access to information via search engines. In the future, your business may even get an Online Reputation Score that will follow you anywhere.
Reputation management has also been called “reputation repair” or “bad news burial.” But it’s much more than simply patching up some bad PR. Your online reputation can include dozens of components that extend well beyond customer comments. And the Internet can essentially make the information instantly available forever.
As with other Web services such as search engine optimization or search marketing, you have two basic choices: do it yourself, or hire help. Either way, the key is to take proactive steps toward building and maintaining a good online reputation, and to monitor what’s being said about your biz online.
One important player in the IRM space is a site called RatePoint.com. The RatePoint site is basically a way to gain a little more control over your business’s online presence, and perhaps engage unhappy customers in a positive fashion. •
Daniel Kehrer can be reached at
editor@business.com.
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