THE IMPORTANCE OF ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT(ORM)

Online reputation management (ORM) makes you look better online. It is the essential personal branding tool of our time. ORM involves placing new content online that pushes old or unwanted content lower in search results. It can also raise other online content higher to displace unwanted material. Once successfully arranged, the results must be maintained. Otherwise, the unwanted material may resurface at the top of Google search results usually within three to six months. New content does not automatically appear at the top of search results. The key challenge of ORM is to create content that search engines will rank highly. That involves an understanding of search engine algorithms as well as, increasingly, the ability to create high-quality content.

Managing your digital footprint

ORM consists of monitoring, improving and maintaining the publicly available online information about individuals, businesses and organizations. Today, it is also used to ensure people and organizations can be found online and that the information about them is accurate, up-to-date and authentic. ORM helps you create and maintain a positive online image so that any attacks on your image are easily deflected and minimized in prominence. It helps remove personal addresses and other data from public databases, also known as “people search” databases.

Management, repair and monitoring

Managing the information that is publicly available online about you or your organization allows you to “take ownership” of your reputation. When you don’t take an active role in determining what biographical and professional information about you appears online, others may make that decision for you. “Others” include automatic programmes (“bots”) that continuously collect and index publicly available information online. Many focus on personal data, which can include your age, home address and family members’ names.

That’s why it’s important to take the first step of knowing what information about you exists online. You can’t control what people say about you in articles, blogs and online forums. But you do have control over such items as professional biographies, company profiles (often compiled by sources other than your place of employment) and other types of content.

The more you contribute to the body of information about you that is online, the more you will sup­plant inaccurate and unwanted information that may surface about you (or someone with the same name). Having a significant body of factual information about you online also ensures you have a presence in the wider community.

Online Reputation Management: Why Is It Necessary?

Online reputation management is necessary because anyone can say anything online anonymously, posing as an expert or as someone else. As mentioned before, bots also continuously locate and publish any data they locate from public records found on the Internet.

Creating your own online image with information that accurately profiles your career, business and other relevant endeavors is the best strategy for counteracting and possibly replacing inaccurate online information. LinkedIn and Google+ profiles are among the essential ORM tools to build such an image. Blogs, Tumblr sites and Instagram are also useful tools if your content is high-quality. If not, they won’t be an asset to your image, online or off. Such content is especially important because third-party sites often republish information and pictures they find online. Publishing your own content helps ensure that the material they publish is yours instead of content you have no control over.

Online Reputation Management: The Importance of Branding Yourself

Many damaged reputations occur when people, businesses and organizations don’t manage the information available about them online and haven’t put any general information about themselves online. When such resources aren’t established, material from public records, old articles, Facebook sites and a myriad of other sources can easily rise to the top of search engine results…and stay there. That is why branding yourself online is so important.

Creating a personal brand is the first step in reputation management. This brand establishes a foundation for showcasing your value, differentiating you from your competitors and affirming your reputation. Many people have built notable careers without intentionally branding themselves. At some point, however, even they may find it helpful to rebrand themselves or establish their brand on a more visible platform.

Don’t leave the creation of your brand to strangers

Without a current, clearly identifiable brand, you leave the interpretation of your achievements, skills and identity to other people. That interpretation will usually be based on incomplete, and sometimes inaccurate, information. Part of establishing a brand is building a strong presence online. As mentioned before, a common reason why people suffer online reputation damage is that they lack a strong “digital footprint” a significant, informative and current body of material about them on the Internet. Without that reputation insurance, anything that anyone posts online about you (or even someone who shares your name) goes straight to the top of results and can stay there when anyone searches for your name.

How do you brand yourself?

The primary branding tools are factual information and a new photograph. Both should be updated once a year. Consider creating a website or blog as the central platform for your online brand. Also look at social media sites such as Twitter (definitely reserve handles corresponding to your name, if they are still available). Google+ profiles are also increasingly useful. The more bios you can place on social media platforms that are appropriate for you, the better.

Establish a series of benchmark goals and implement them until you have a strong, authentic brand identity. The more well-established your brand, the better your ability to build consensus, make an impact and attract opportunities. As you begin to “own” your identity online you become protected from many forms of online reputation damage.

Online Reputation Management’s Four Tools

The four main tools of ORM include content, platforms, search engine optimization (SEO) and strategy.

1. Content. The most effective content begins with information-rich text that is not duplicated elsewhere online. It is helpful, relevant and well written. It can be augmented with video, photographs, podcasts and most anything else that can be placed online. SEO, platforms and strategy can only take you so far without continuously updated, quality content. That is why the best ORM campaigns have a content plan at their center.
2. Platforms. Platforms are the online sites where content is placed: websites, blogs, micro blogs, forums, directories, news sites, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and hundreds of other outlets.
3. Search engine optimization. SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines using frequently-searched-for words, inbound links (links to the site from other sites), effective meta tags and other techniques, including the way a website is structured. Google’s Webmaster Tools is an invaluable resource with extensive (and free) best practices guidelines to SEO. There are two types of SEO used in ORM: “white hat” and “black hat”. White hat methods conform to search engine guidelines and do not involve deception. Black hat techniques attempt to improve rankings in ways that are disapproved of by search engines. If search engines discover sites using black hat methods, they often penalize them by removing them from search results or by dropping their search-engine ranking so low they are effectively invisible.
4. Strategy. Every online reputation is different. Managing them requires a goal, strategic plan and timetable. It is well worth the effort.