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I wrote to the google that the statement has no legs but I have not seen anything done yet. It needs to be known that the false info, is just that... false.
I know it is dramatic and it is always difficult for me to recommend, but oftentimes people who actively seeking out online reputation management help are in very, very bad situations. I don't know of anything else that could reasonably be done to help - in some cases. If you do know of anything to help in the "impossible" cases - please feel free to add your ideas below!
One note on changing your company name. There's nothing to stop a determined detractor from targeting the new name. My advice is to stay with the current name. :-)
I would guess this is of little help if the situation has ended up in court already.
1) if you register a new domain its going to take a long time to start ranking, during this time anybody who comments about your brand will rank higher and you will effectively go go backwards.
2) typically bad ORM problems source from particular service/marketing problem and unless these are resolved the problems are just going to follow one - no matter what your company name is.
Its really unfortunate but true :(
Great post!
I would never say a situation was truly impossible either - that's why I enclose "impossible" in quotes. But I have been approached by several situations that are more or less "impossible" for the "average company" or individual to afford to manage. I want to help but know I don't have the resources to help them as one person, and I know of no way to affordably make a team and scale a quality services. It would be too labor intensive and require too much expert internet marketing talent.
As for changing the company name, I agree that this is probably not a good idea if you have a determined detractor or 'reputation assassin' - but I still DO recommend it if there is some lingering old news coverage or government site coverage that is out of date - facts without a lot of negative charge or passion behind it. I frankly don't know anything else to recommend in some situations. I can't think of anything they could afford or reasonably accomplish themselves to mask the negative information.
@Mindy,
This is a great point. If you "make it right" for a disgruntled customer, they are more willing to bury their grudge and remove feedback on a case they feel has been well taken care of. Better yet, make it right "right away" - before the person has any desire to post anything.
@Tim Shier,
I would agree that bad customer service and business practices are one of the quickest ways to get into reputation trouble, but they are not the most common reason people need online reputation management help. Most of the people I have spoken with are dealing with: 1.) a news story 2.) a somewhat irrational attack from a competitor/former employee or someone with a vested interest in defaming them.
In short, a majority people who have contacted me seem rather "innocent" and undeserving of ongoing bad coverage. For instance, one guy's name got irrationally picked up by a spam script and was getting inappropriately plastered all over there web. But yes, there are also a number of cases where they clearly burned people and "deserve" the bad publicity - and I decline to help in those cases.
-- Glad you guys like the post. Please subscribe to the RSS feed and check out the rest of the ORM articles on Copy Brighter!
In the case that they do pay you 5 million, I'll be your lead ninja!!! I'll burn down that google data center for a cool million! :D
It's great to know there are true ninjas like you who can be called on in times of need. ;)
Although the blog gets only a few thousand visits a month, and the offending page probably is viewed only by my client and a handful of others I was asked to keep trying. My latest suggestion was to make an offer to purchase the blog. If successful the page will be removed and the site itself will eventually be killed.
When all else fails throwing enough money at the problem may work.
Yes, this is good thinking. I have toyed with the idea on several cases before, but I have never tried it.
You should be extremely careful when trying to buy a site not to open yourself up to extortion or a situation that makes the problem worse. I recommend contacting them under a pseudonym and trying to buy the blog for reasons other than the reputation issue. Test the waters first.
Regards,
Bob
These reputation crisis are really hard to repair but, are they so difficult to prevent?. I mean, the question could be why we don't focus our efforts in avoid the crisis instead of hide bad results. Is prevention possible if big companies measure risks before, and they monitor social and mass media then?.
We could make this if we build webs and links related to the target before (adding also terms as 'bad', 'problems', "fail", etc.) and then we try to talk fast with people is complaining. If mass media wants to destroy the brand there is nothing to do, but maybe we can reduce costs in other cases, and get more work in not so impossible ones.
I believe repairing can be the last option to online reputation managers, and SEO tactics are not our main tool. How to sell ORM services before crisis?
The best and only way to fix things is to open the ears, fix the reason the company was negatively pressed and make it publicly known, because positive press travels slowly.
It isn't about Google, more about the company, really.
There's no way I could post the name of this individual, or even hint at it, as all client inquiries and projects are 100% confidential. There's a lot of stuff that I come across that would be very interesting to blog about, but I can't.
I agree that reason can be a good way of going about things in some cases, but oftentimes, reason = FAIL.
Rep Managment is important especially for public figures.
my brother just ran into an online shop. the online shop is offering wide variety of discounted italian clothing. the store is selling the products with almost 75% discounts. my dad really needs to get a pair before the holiday but not confident that order is gonna be brought in right on time. I am thinking to order those prada shoes but not sure yet.
just wanted to share with you everyone.
thx dudes.