June 28th, 2010 by Nick

In the corporate world, it has always been difficult to manage the reputation of a firm. For instance, it has always been far from simple to maintain the kind of image which impresses consumers favourably. However, the inherent difficulties associated with image maintenance have only been added to by various developments which have made the situation what it is today. These interconnected developments have had the largest impact on online firms.

Globalising Business

Although globalisation is in part driven by multinational corporations and the development of the net and despite the fact that capital accumulation has been enhanced by this shift in many instances, globalisation has not only been uneven, but it has also thrown up new challenges for reputation management. For example, a brand name which is effective in one culture can be offensive in another. Similarly, advertisements which deliver good results in one nation may wholly fail somewhere else.

The Evolving Net

The net has become a more complex environment over time. Despite economic ups and downs, online firms have become more sophisticated in their selling of goods and services. They have hired search engine optimisation outfits in the battle to get higher rankings in the search engine results pages. However, these firms have sometimes performed unethically and users can be suspicious about excessive manipulation of the search engines. Using the wrong SEO firm is easily done, but it can have negative implications with regard to reputation management. Negative comments about a firm can feature high up in the search engine results pages if the correct guidance is not sought.

The Emergence of the New Social Media

The emergence and rise of the new social media has given businesses new opportunities. However, some firms have lacked the expertise to exploit the vast audiences on Facebook and Twitter. Moreover, users of these social networking sites are hard to tempt by traditional marketing methods. In addition, the new social media give disgruntled consumers every chance to air their complaints. Some large and established companies have proven very vulnerable to unexpected attacks in this environment as a consequence of poor internet reputation management. At SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk, we have the expertise to ensure that a firm is not successfully ambushed on this new front.

The Review Problem

It is a great idea to encourage interactivity on a site. It can really develop the community ethos of a firm’s site which means that it can move towards the authority status which is the ultimate goal of many online strategies. If users are contributing their own content, if they are making comments, if they are submitting reviews, something very positive is taking off. However, a clumsy response to a negative comment or a hatchet-job of a review can be counterproductive in the extreme. It may be a deliberate provocation by a rival, or it may be a customer who lives to complain, but the kind of response which makes it abundantly clear that composure has been lost can be verging on the disastrous.

Doing reputation management independently can be a big mistake for a new firm. It takes time to gather experience in this sensitive area.

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