The Latin writer Publilius Syrus said, “A good reputation is more valuable than money.” And while Syrus was alive from 85 to 43 BC, somehow, this quote is most relevant today.

You’ve worked hard to establish a solid and trusted company reputation and brand with loyal customers. Yet maintaining a stellar business reputation takes vigilance and a concerted business reputation management strategy. 

Negative reviews or missteps can tarnish a business’s reputation. All that goodwill you’ve created over time can be ruined instantly in the age of social media. You may lose customers, revenue, and, most importantly, trust.

In this article, we’ll explain how to keep the great reputation you’ve already achieved. You can also call us at (844) 458-6735 for an in-depth audit and valuable insights from expert reputation managers.

What Is a Positive Reputation?

One’s reputation is often based on external perceptions — how people (including the public, stakeholders, and competitors) perceive you, your personal brand, and your company brand. 

It begins with how you define your business, including your brand’s…

• Core values
• Corporate culture
• Mission statement
• Value proposition

All of these elements should also be shared with and embraced by everyone throughout the company. According to business expert and professor Dr. Gary Davies, a large part of a company’s reputation comes from what its employees think of the brand.

Your core values may include integrity, transparency, empowerment, or trust. These values are conveyed throughout the company in a number of ways, including:

• Branding: Name, logo, tagline, design, company voice, tone
• Marketing: Emails, press releases, social media
• Online Presence: Blog, website, Google reviews and other online reviews

Your corporate communications and customer service play a role, too. Overall, a positive reputation is perceived as trustworthy, credible, reliable, and desirable.

The Importance of a Good Business Reputation

A good business reputation provides you with key advantages:

It helps you build trust and customer loyalty. Customers will continue to buy your products and services even during difficult economic times. Oftentimes, people are loyal to those they can rely on repeatedly and whose company’s reputation is impeccable (or at least close to it).

Customers will become your advocates. Those with a great customer experience will tell friends and family about your products and services. They’re also more likely to write positive reviews and give your company five-star ratings. 

Depending on the type of business you own, customers may even become influencers for you, especially if your target demographic is younger and scrolls through Instagram and other social media platforms day in and day out.

Your company is better able to help your human resources department in attracting prospective employees and retaining top talent. People want to work for companies with an excellent business reputation. Candidates will research your business reputation online before applying for a position to see whether you have a good reputation in the industry.

Here are a few more benefits of having your business held in high regard:

• You’ll gain a competitive edge and strong market value. This will enable you to distinguish your brand from others in your niche industry.
• You’ll see increased revenue and profits. Companies with a positive business reputation and higher ratings online get more business.
• A solid company reputation will help you withstand negative reviews and a potential PR crisis. It will also help you face reputational risk as a result of an incident or mishap.

Take the first step toward fortifying your brand’s reputation. Give us a call at (844) 458-6735 to learn more.

The Internet’s Impact on a Positive Digital Reputation

In the past, businesses communicated and maintained their company’s reputation with television ads, print ads, and, of course, excellent customer service and word of mouth (referrals). But the internet and social media have changed much of this. 

People, of course, still expect and demand excellent service, but they can now access all kinds of information online before deciding to do business with your company.

Businesses are under a microscope, and every action and inaction is scrutinized. Consumers read online reviews, conversations, and negative feedback (about a product, service, or an individual at the company) and visit review sites to gain insight into what customers love about a company and what they don’t like.

A company’s reputation can be damaged easily with one viral social media post or an influx of negative reviews. Therefore, it’s critical to have a solid online business reputation management strategy in place.

Gen Z and Millennials: How Much They Depend On a Company’s Reputation

While everyone wants to do business with a company with a good reputation, this is particularly important for Gen Z and millennials, who rank reputation importance at the top of the list.

Every decision they make involves looking online first, including social media posts and comments. They will check out your company’s online reputation to get an idea of the brand’s authenticity and transparency, along with the business’s ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) initiatives.

If there have been any missteps throughout the company’s history, these generations want to see how the brand managed them. 

• Was the business forthright? 
• Did the business immediately issue a statement that said it was directly responsible for the misstep? 
• Did the business apologize and seek to improve where it may have gone wrong? 

The same goes for personal reputations: Are individuals taking responsibility and explaining the facts around an incident that reflects poorly on them? 

No doubt, in the age of social media and gotcha journalism, a company’s online reputation is critical to its continued success.

How To Maintain a Positive Reputation Online Personally or Professionally

A strong reputation management program can maintain your business reputation. A business reputation management strategy is designed to boost and protect your online reputation. 

An experienced online reputation management (ORM) company can manage your online reputation along with your internal reputation management department, if one exists. Smaller companies that don’t have internal resources should turn to a business reputation management company for managing their corporate reputation online.

The Basics: Online Reputation Management Strategies To Start With

Reputation management in today’s digital era involves the following initial strategies:

Begin by Googling your company name to see what comes up. Note positive and negative results. Are most of the search results positive? Or is there negative information coming up that will damage your reputation?

Monitor search results for your brand keywords, paying particular attention to new reviews, conversations, and comments. 

Visit review sites to see what customers are writing. Thank those who are saying positive things, and address any negativity.

Regarding negative reviews or comments, address any issues that are causing problems and resulting in dissatisfied customers. Respond politely to negative comments promptly. Don’t get frustrated even if you know what is being said is not valid.

Creating and Marketing Positive Content for Reputation Protection and Management

To protect your business online, a reputational management company will develop a strategy that incorporates developing and marketing positive content. This strategy is employed by many in the business world for the following purposes:

• Impact brand reputation in creative ways
• Avert potential threats you may be concerned about
• Deal with a PR disaster to minimize reputational risk
• Rebuild trust with your target audience

For the purpose of content marketing, write articles — or have articles ghostwritten for you — on topics that are relevant to your business and your expertise. Strive to have these articles published in popular outlets like Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Forbes, and others to establish yourself as a thought leader. 

The more articles you have published, the more positive content will appear in searches. Any negative results in search will eventually rank lower on the page and “disappear” with the right strategy.

More Content Marketing Strategies

Write articles sourcing you as the expert and have them posted on authoritative sites and multiple channels with links to your LinkedIn profile, X account, Facebook, and other platforms.

• Optimize your website, including your About Us page and bio, for SEO keyword phrases.
• Include imagery related to your brand’s mission and optimize the photos with keyword phrases as well.
• Post to your website weekly. This will help boost your search rankings with positive content related to your business. 
• Update your business page everywhere — on Google, LinkedIn, and all social media platforms.
• Post positive things regularly on social media about your company, along with promotional messages that engage your customers
• Ask your happy customers to leave honest reviews on sites that are pertinent to your business, like Tripadvisor, Angi, Google, Amazon, and the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

By regularly creating and marketing content, your customers will learn more about what you are doing and have to offer. You will also drive more traffic to your site. Plus, this is a great way for your own employees to better understand your business and values.

Regular Monitoring and Maintenance: A Good Reputation Strategy Is Ongoing

Keeping your reputation positive is essential to your success, and it should always be a priority. Remember, building a reputation is not a one-and-done deal. Any bad news can ruin a company and its reputation. That’s why you want to consistently be on top of creating positive news and content about your business and engaging with your customers and stakeholders. 

Being engaged means looking at the important facets of your company and determining what you should feature when developing content that resonates. Some tactics come with lower costs than others, like asking your customers for reviews. This doesn’t cost a thing but will go a long way in building and maintaining your company’s reputation.

If you’ve had some bad press, you may consider getting a couple of focus groups together to determine how best to address any negativity via press releases, advertising, social media, and other methods. You may also decide to hold a video conference to speak directly to your customers and stakeholders. Also, since actions speak louder than words, be sure your body language is in sync with what you are saying. Honesty is key.

Reputational risk is a critical issue that all companies need to manage. Without a positive reputation and the right digital tools to create and manage an ORM strategy, your brand could suffer. 

It’s common for consumers and stakeholders to question everything about a business — its products and services, market values, and operations. It’s in your best interest to be prepared with an expert-designed ORM strategy.

Contact ReputationSciences Today

Keeping a good reputation is complex and challenging, whether you are a business owner or an individual. The process has to be comprehensive — you can’t do the bare minimum, hope for the best, and expect your reputation to rise to new heights. 

Your digital reputation strategy must include not just your website but also a variety of outlets (such as review sites) that tend to rank highly across industry searches. 

A reliable partner may be just what you need to get started. From 24-hour monitoring to upscale content creation and promotion, our team of ORM experts can help you create the online presence you deserve. 

Contact Reputation Sciences today at (844) 458-6735 for more information.

The post How To Keep a Good Reputation: Your Guide for 2025 appeared first on Reputation Sciences.

Trust is one of the most crucial characteristics a brand can attain. A company can function for a long time if investors, customers, and employees feel they can rely on it to be fair and honest with them.

In recent times, especially post-pandemic, trust is even more important than ever. Modern brands need customer trust in order to avoid scandals and experience growth.

There are different factors to consider when ranking the most trustworthy companies in the world. Key factors include:

• Brand reputation
• Customer service 
• Employee trust
• Ethical business practices
• Investor trust
• Quality level of products and services

This article includes 15 of the most trustworthy companies in the world. Each of these brands is a global leader that’s worked to earn customer trust by focusing on quality and leveraging its digital strategies.

The way you’re perceived online matters. Find out how to create the online reputation you deserve by calling (844) 458-6735 today.

15 of the World’s Most Trustworthy Companies

Most of these trustworthy companies have been around for a long time now, but some are younger than others. Each brand shapes consumer decisions, acts as a global leader in its industry, brings in impressive annual revenue, and maintains trust for the long term.

Do you need help with your digital presence? Call us at (844) 458-6735 for an in-depth audit and valuable insights from an expert.

1. Amazon

This famous online retail giant is well-known for selling practically anything you can think of for the lowest price possible and shipping it to your home in record time. Moreover, Amazon regularly makes changes to how the company runs, including raising the base wage, which has helped it gain employee trust.

2. The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company is one of the most famous, trusted, and well-known companies in the world. This global entertainment and media conglomerate has its headquarters in Burbank, California, and the brand has an incredible and inspiring history.

It is no surprise that Disney is one of the most trustworthy companies in the world. They regularly produce high-quality media and park experiences, appealing to every age group. Focusing on family-friendly entertainment has also helped to gain immense levels of brand trust.

3. Microsoft

Microsoft is a leading developer of digital applications, systems, software, and related technologies. Additionally, the company publishes books and multimedia titles, and it’s considered one of Apple’s top competitors.

It’s no surprise that this software giant is among the most trusted and respected companies in the world. Microsoft has had especially great success with its Surface laptop, Xbox console, and online gaming network, along with its computer software.

4. Sony

Sony is a leading provider of audio and video electronics, along with IT products, which has elevated it to be one of the most trustworthy companies on the planet. Between the company’s history of innovation and solid brand reputation, it’s been an example of maintaining trust with the public over the long term.

Moreover, Sony has become a leading player in the entertainment industry thanks to Sony Music and Sony Pictures. Having such a diverse portfolio, high-quality products, and a commitment to ethical business practices has raised brand trust in a way that other companies can only dream of.

5. Google

Google specializes in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, search engine technology, computer software, online advertising, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and quantum computing.

Considered by many to be not just one of the world’s most trustworthy companies but also the most powerful company in the world, Google has become a household name (and even a verb, in some cases).

The company’s status as a global leader comes from its dominance in the market, its technological advantages, and its leaps forward when it comes to artificial intelligence. 

Get started today with online reputation management or repair. Give us a call at (844) 458-6735 to learn more.

6. Netflix

Netflix is a production company and subscription streaming service with an enormous library of movies and TV series, including many from its own “Netflix Originals.” The brand has played an integral role in independent film distribution, and the company pioneered streaming after creating a DVD mail service.

Netflix is one of the world’s most trustworthy companies in part thanks to its user experience strategy. Offering subscribers an ad-free, convenient and flexible experience speaks to its product quality. Moreover, personalized recommendations show customers that the company is willing to dive deeper to discover what they want.

7. YouTube

YouTube is a social media and online video sharing platform that’s owned by Google. The social media platform also doubles as a powerful search engine, which helps users discover content in a way that other social platforms don’t match.

YouTube is beloved by consumers because of its high functionality, breadth of content, and ability to easily find whatever it is you’re looking for. With subscription options and interactive elements, YouTube is not just among the leading trustworthy companies, but it’s also a standout social platform unlike any other.

8. Target

Target has stores in all 50 states in the U.S. and the District of Columbia, and it’s one of the biggest merchandise retailers today. This general merchandise and food discount store has a solid code of ethics, along with a strong brand identity — the red and white bullseye logo is recognizable around the country.

Target is one of the biggest providers of affordable retail, and convenient shopping options make it even easier to buy what you need. Notably, the layout of Target stores is easy to navigate, no matter which brick-and-mortar location you enter.

9. Patagonia

Patagonia specializes in making outdoor gear, clothing, and footwear for a large number of outdoor sports, including climbing, skiing, snowboarding, hiking, trail running, yoga, surfing, and others.

Their high-quality products and excellent relationships with customers have built immense trust over time. Patagonia also makes efforts to reduce the impact that people have on our planet, including enabling people to trade used Patagonia clothes.

10. Wegmans

Wegmans is one of the most famous supermarket chains in the United States, and the company has high-quality products and reasonable prices. Along with excellent customer service and helpful in-store amenities, Wegmans has built a strong and trustworthy reputation in its niche.

Additionally, Wegmans has created an employee-first culture that prioritizes the well-being and satisfaction of its team members. Workers appreciate the company’s investment in employee development and training, as well as its inclusive and empowering company culture.

11. L.L. Bean

L.L. Bean manufactures high-quality outdoor accessories and clothing, and many of its styles have become classics. One reason why L.L. Bean is among the top trustworthy companies is that it’s always been dedicated to offering expert-level advice and problem-solving for customers. 

Another reason why customers trust L.L. Bean is due to its product quality. Many customers are able to keep and use their L.L. Bean products for several years, which is becoming more and more difficult to find with modern retail companies.

12. Samsung

Samsung is one of the largest companies in the world that specializes in the manufacturing of electronic devices and related equipment. It produces a wide range of consumer and industry electronics such as appliances, digital media devices, semiconductors, memory chips, and integrated systems.

Samsung is also well-known for its wide range of smartphones and TVs, as well as leading design and innovation. They’ve managed to remain among the globe’s trustworthy companies thanks to a track record of selling high-quality products.

13. Publix

Publix is one of the fastest-growing supermarket chains in the U.S. and holds an excellent reputation among its customers. They are one of the most respected companies in their industry, too, and they’re well-known for having affordable prices and high-quality products.

Publix stores are known for being well-maintained and having helpful, friendly employees. The company also gets involved in local community efforts through donations, sponsorships and volunteering.

14. The Home Depot

As one of the world’s largest home improvement retailers, The Home Depot has maintained excellent relationships with shareholders, communities, customers, and associates. In addition to in-store products, The Home Depot is also known for offering in-store classes and getting involved in community projects. 

The Home Depot’s wide product assortment has helped it build customer trust. Both DIY enthusiasts and professional contractors head to The Home Depot when they need to purchase products. The large selection offered in-store has created one-stop shops for anything you could possibly need in the home renovation space.

15. UPS

UPS is a package transportation and supply chain company, and its sister company, The UPS Store, handles shipping, printing, packing and similar in-store services. Customers consider UPS a leader in its field thanks to a broad range of flexible shipping options and a reliable tracking system. 

Deliveries are known for being timely, whether they’re being shipped domestically or internationally, and the company has also made strides to be more environmentally conscious. UPS also has a highly recognizable brand, and its customer-centric approach includes helpful online tools and convenient shipping options.

Build a Trustworthy Company of Your Own With Professional ORM Services

Are you ready to count yourself among the public and private companies in America with the most brand trust? Whether you want to showcase your ethical business practices, increase your annual revenue or influence media sentiment about your brand, it’s possible with ORM services.

At ReputationSciences.com, we work with clients who need to create, grow or fix their digital reputation. Through our parent company, NetReputation, we offer ad management, local SEO, review monitoring, content removal and more. Our strategy includes auditing, repair, monitoring and management, and our services will be customized to your needs.

Contact us at (844) 458-6735 for more information about becoming the most trusted company in your niche.

The post What’s the Most Trusted Company in the World? These Brands Compete for the Top appeared first on Reputation Sciences.

You’ve worked hard to build and grow a successful business. Don’t allow a handful of negative reviews to send all your hard work down the drain.

Instead, reclaim the narrative and put your best foot forward with business reputation repair.

At Reputation Sciences, we empower business owners to control how they are perceived online. This is done through advanced online reputation management (ORM) services, including auditing, monitoring, content creation and more.

When you partner with Reputation Sciences, we’ll do the heavy lifting so you can focus on driving growth. But first, let’s take a closer look at some of the basics of repairing your company’s online reputation.

What Can Cause a Negative Brand Image?

There are a number of ways your business can garner a negative brand image. Your online business reputation is most likely to be sullied by three key sources. Let’s get into them.

1. Negative Customer Reviews

Today, online reviews are the new word-of-mouth marketing. More than 93% of online shoppers read reviews before making an online purchase.

If your business or product collects a lot of positive reviews, you’ll improve brand recognition and increase goodwill. Reviews matter more to customers than pricing and discounts, and customers will pay more for the same item from a company with good reviews versus one with no reviews.

In contrast, negative reviews can be a glaring warning sign to potential customers. To make matters worse, there are professional reviewers who specialize in creating and spreading negative reviews.

This is a big deal — 91% of consumers say their overall perception of big brands is impacted by reviews of local branches. 

If your business has a lot of negative online reviews, especially on damaging sites like Ripoff Report, you’ll need professional online reputation services right away.

Don’t wait — get started today with online reputation management or repair for your business or personal brand. Give us a call at (844) 458-6735 to learn more.

2. Negative Media Coverage

While many media sites are legitimate, several will gladly publish any type of negative content about your business. And all it takes is one or two negative stories to damage your business reputation.

Moreover, if your brand has dealt with a reputation crisis lately, media sites and outlets are guaranteed to pick the story up and share it with their audience.

This type of coverage can create a negative brand reputation by influencing the public’s perception of your business. A negative story that gains traction and spreads across different news and social media outlets can quickly make your business seem less credible and reliable.

It doesn’t even matter if what the media stories are saying is true or accurate. Once your brand comes under scrutiny, current and potential customers will steer away from it.

3. Smear Sites

Some websites exist solely to spread gossip, negativity and other damaging types of content and feedback. There are all sorts of names for these types of sites, including:

• Clickbait sites
• Cyberbullying sites
• Gossip blogs
• Hate blogs or sites
• Smear sites
• Troll sites

These sites give disgruntled customers and former or current employees an outlet for spreading misinformation, causing controversy, and damaging your positive company reputation.

This is a powerful way to destroy your business’s reputation. A whopping 90% of online shoppers won’t purchase from a company with a poor reputation, and customers will pay more for the same item from a company they’re unfamiliar with versus one that’s had a recent scandal. 

Additionally, 64% of consumers stop buying from a brand after learning that the company treats employees poorly. And 86% of job candidates read company reviews before applying, which can make it difficult to recruit great talent if there’s bad word-of-mouth out there about your business.

Like it or not, these sites often achieve their goal of ruining a brand’s online reputation. Even worse is that these websites are usually highly optimized for search engines. This means they often end up on Google’s first page.

That matters — the top organic search result on Google has an average CTR of 27.6%, and it’s 10x more likely to be clicked than the No. 10 result. Plus, the top 3 Google search results get more than 54% of all clicks.

Do I Have a Damaged Reputation Online?

When dealing with negative business information online, a proactive approach is key. Regularly searching for your business name on Google, review sites, and industry publications is a good way to identify content that could cause a bad reputation.

For example, if you own a home repair business, we recommend keeping a close eye on review sites like Angi, HomeAdvisor and TrustDALE.

It’s also critical to look for mentions across social media and review sites, including:

• Amazon
• Better Business Bureau (BBB)
• Facebook
• Google Business Profile
• Tripadvisor
• Trustpilot
• Yellow Pages

Whenever possible, search your name and anyone else affiliated with your business, along with your brand name.

To make this process easier, you can set up Google Alerts. Whenever the word or term you input shows up in search results, you’ll get an alert.

What Should I Do After Finding Negative Content Online?

If you find negative reviews or bad news about your business online, it’s important to address it immediately and in a professional manner. But if you’re like most business owners, you may not have the time or resources to maintain that approach for very long.

Fortunately, business reputation repair can mitigate damage to your image and ensure your brand image stays positive.

Do you need help with your digital presence? Call us at (844) 458-6735 for an in-depth audit and valuable insights from an expert.

What Is Online Brand Management?

Online brand management is a comprehensive strategy that involves auditing, monitoring, shaping and protecting your business’s online image. There are a number of methods involved in business reputation repair to ensure a company’s success, including:

• Acquisition and management of customer reviews
• Competitor monitoring
• Content creation and management
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Social media management
• Third-party website monitoring

While you can take on each tactic individually, reputation repair is most effective when a holistic approach is taken.

Why Is Reputation Management Critical to Business Success?

Even if you run a reputable brand, your online image won’t always reflect that. All it takes is one mishap or disgruntled customer to produce a damaging review and slander your business.

Today, 36% of consumers use two review sites when researching local businesses, and 41% use at least three sites. When your audience is confronted by negative reviews or unkind comments, they may turn away from your business in droves.

In short, online image is key to business success. Here’s why you should invest in professional online reputation repair:

• Better Word-of-Mouth Advertising: By fostering a positive brand reputation online, your customers are more likely to recommend your business to friends and family. The power of word-of-mouth marketing can’t be underestimated!
• Increased Profits: The connection between a positive reputation and your bottom line is clear — the better your image, the more likely you are to attract and retain clients.
• Attract Superior Talent: No one wants to work for a company with a bad reputation. It’s important the job candidates have a positive view of your brand.

Ultimately, reputation management helps create a positive online brand that drives profits, improves word-of-mouth advertising, and provides access to top talent.

How to Find a Trustworthy Business Reputation Management Company

If you’re considering hiring a reputation management company, you’re on the right track. However, choosing the best reputation management company is easier said than done. With so many options, it’s crucial to find a firm that specializes in white-hat ORM.

White-Hat SEO Tactics: This approach works best on Google — and you always want Google on your side. White-hat strategies rely on high-quality content and transparency. They include:

• Earning backlinks from reputable sources
• Fast-loading and mobile-friendly sites
• Following Google’s guidelines
• Natural keyword placement
• Updating older content for relevancy

While companies using white-hat tactics may take a while to yield results, those results are more likely to stand the test of time.

Black-Hat SEO Tactics: This approach is more aggressive and risky, and it often includes spam-like techniques that may yield fast results but ultimately damage your credibility. They include:

• Buying backlinks
• Duplicating content
• Keyword stuffing
• Posting clickbait
• Spamming forums with links

It’s important to remember that Google and other search engines tend to penalize sites that engage in black-hat practices.

Business Reputation Repair Practices To Avoid

When it comes to creating a positive brand reputation, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. While the promise of overnight results is definitely appealing, any provider that promises this is likely engaging in black-hat practices.

Make sure to steer clear of any brand reputation management company that uses the following black-hat practices.

Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is nothing new. It’s also a well-documented black-hat practice. But that doesn’t stop some brand reputation management companies from stuffing as many keywords as possible into copy and metadata. When it comes to keyword usage, it’s best to keep it natural-sounding.

Astroturfing (Creating Fake Reviews)

We all know the importance of real reviews. But to scam the system, some companies perform what is known as astroturfing. With astroturfing, brands create fake accounts on review sites and use them to post fake positive reviews. Instead, we suggest using any number of effective ways to garner positive reviews and build a positive brand reputation.

Invisible Copy

The “invisible copy” strategy is when text in the same color as the web page’s background is stuffed with keywords. Visitors can’t see the words, but they’re still visible to search engine crawlers and can help the pages rank.

Spammy Links

Link spamming is the process of building as many links as possible to generate positive content about your business. In doing so, it increases the likelihood that positive content will be ranked highly.

Spambots, Hacking, and DOS

Another black-hat method involves making it hard to find negative content. These tactics might include denial-of-service attacks, spambots, and hacking methods that target negative content.

The way you’re perceived online matters, and a poor online reputation can damage your personal life and your professional opportunities. Find out how to create the online reputation you deserve by calling (844) 458-6735 today.

What Is the Best Way to Rebuild Your Online Reputation?

While there are several ways to rebuild your online image, we tend to utilize a strategic three-pronged approach.

1. Online Presence Audit

The first step of business reputation repair is to effectively audit the current status of your brand’s reputation. Do you have a positive online reputation, or are you dealing with a damaged reputation?

Or, maybe instead of having either a good reputation or a bad reputation, you have no reputation, and you’re starting from scratch to build one.

Our experienced professionals scour every review, article and social mention pointing toward your business. Once we carefully analyze your digital footprint, we create a robust digital strategy for owning your narrative and amplifying your reputation.

Undoubtedly, a thorough business reputation audit is key to your long-term success.

2. Business Reputation Repair

After creating a clear picture of your business reputation, our specialists work closely with you to mitigate any harmful content you might have online and repair a bad reputation.

Then, we create a narrative around your business with fresh, engaging content. We take a multi-channel approach that expands your brand reach in the right direction.

3. Online Reputation Monitoring

We strongly believe in the power of metrics and analytics. As a result, we use state-of-the-art tools to help promote and maintain a positive brand image.

We continually monitor the impact of our collective strategies to amplify your brand story and image — the right brand image.

Make the Right First Impression Every Time with Business Reputation Repair Services

To make the right impression every time, we help amplify your brand voice to new levels. Whether you’re a small mom-and-pop store or a growing business based in your parent’s garage, business reputation repair helps cast your brand as much as necessary.

But if negative reviews or disparaging information hurt your business without recourse, you’re likely to fail. Fortunately, the team at Reputation Sciences has your back.

For expert ORM and reputation repair services, call us today at (844) 458-6735 to speak with an expert.

The post Repairing My Business Reputation: What Every Business Owner Should Know appeared first on Reputation Sciences.

Go on Instagram or any social media page and read posts by high-profile celebrities, business owners and entrepreneurs, influencers, and others whose followers hang on their every word. Any content published that rubs people the wrong way will ignite a flurry of comments and negative feedback.

For example, let’s look at Kylie Jenner’s most recent social media post where she’s about to board a private jet, and ponders in writing whether she and her boyfriend should take “mine or yours” (meaning which of the two jets they should choose). The caption, whether or not she meant it as tongue and cheek, went viral and generated a slew of negative feedback, with followers calling out the makeup mogul for a number of issues.

For one, she faced backlash over the environmental harm caused by the short trips she’s been known to take on her jet. One Reddit user said:

“It’s so frustrating to see them post stuff like this while living really wasteful lives even though they have all the means to try and be as sustainable as possible.”

Another commenter said it was “annoying when celebrities implore their fans to take action that they themselves seem unwilling to follow through on.”

A Positive Social Media Reputation Takes Ongoing TLC

While most CEOs and business people are not showcasing their jets, the above example is indicative of how statements (even flippant ones) on social media pages can have negative ramifications.

Jenner, as so many others in the public and private sector, should heed the lessons learned when customer sentiment turns against you, and you find yourself scrambling to undo the many negative comments from social media followers (and in customer feedback) as a result of actions taken or not taken, or statements made.

You can choose to either ignore the negativity (which is never a good idea) when customer issues arise, or employ thoughtful and strategic online reputation management so controversies like this are averted.

What’s the First Step in Social Media Reputation Management for a Company Brand?

You must have a social media plan. First, decide which social media channels you want to participate in. Look at your target audience and determine which social media sites make sense for you to post on, share customer stories, invite online reviews, and generate quality content on an ongoing basis.

If your target audience skews on the younger side, Instagram and TikTok may be your social media platforms of choice. If your customers are older, Facebook and Instagram may be two of the social media accounts where you want a presence and you want the customer experience to be featured on.

Think of social media as a form of business discovery apps. These platforms can help you connect with new audiences, expand your digital footprint, and build engagement with followers.

Once you know which social media channels you want to utilize to build and maintain a positive online reputation, decide who in your company (or firm, if you are using a third party) is responsible for posting and commenting along with which topics will be on point for your company brand reputation.

While you want to be current and spontaneous, perhaps there are certain topics you want to avoid to mitigate any potential pitfalls. These topics may be politics or social issues, for example.

Encourage Reviews and User Generated Content for a Positive Brand Image

In addition to your own content, again, invite your customers to share positive reviews about their experiences with your products and services. User-generated content is a great way to showcase your brand and customer experience on social media. Plus, search engines love fresh content, which helps with search engine optimization (SEO) and page ranking. When individuals do a Google search, for example, your social media content will also appear.

In addition, social media reviews are seen by a broad audience and will go further in getting you new customers than simply relying on word of mouth. Consumers trust online reviews as long as they are authentic.

Employ Social Listening Tools Across Your Social Media Networks

It’s important to interact with your customers and potential customers. So you need to know what they are saying about your business. Be sure you have a strategy in place to listen to what they have to say.

Many businesses, unfortunately, don’t check their reviews, missing a real opportunity to further your company’s good reputation. Remember, purchasing decisions are often made based on what other customers are saying about your products and their quality.

There are myriad tools available to monitor your social media feeds. One of the most popular is Sprout Social, which offers an “all-in-one” solution. You may also consider using the services of a social media reputation management team.

So you need to check reviews and customer feedback and respond to both positive and negative reviews and comments.

Deal with Negative Reviews, Respond Professionally

You need to deal with a negative review head-on once it’s online. This is critical to managing your online reputation. If negative reviews or controversial or disparaging social media comments go unchecked, they have a way of taking over and damaging your brand image and online reputation.

As part of your company’s reputation management, deal with a customer complaint or bad customer experiences by trying to turn things around. Find out what the issues are and work to rectify them. Your existing customers will appreciate this and you will get new customers along the way if they believe in your authenticity and transparency.

Remember, you won’t always get positive reviews or comments related to your social media posts and stories. Dissatisfied customers will exist. Highlight and promote comments and glowing reviews by satisfied customers and deal with the negative reviews and feedback as part of your social media management strategy.

Monitor Online Review Websites

Your customers are not only commenting on social media platforms. They are also providing feedback on online review websites. Critical to your social media reputation management is monitoring these sites, including Angi and others, depending on the type of business you have.

Go Beyond Social Media for a Positive Online Reputation

In addition to leveraging social media to enhance your brand’s reputation and image, you can employ other strategies as well to gain new business and increase sales and your customer base.

For example, look at what digital marketing strategies you can employ, such as email marketing that enables you to target specific audiences and drive them to your website and social media platforms. You’ll be engaging with existing customers and, at the same time targeting new customers.

Establish Your Company Name As a Thought Leader

Beef up your company blog by becoming an industry authority in your niche market. You can then post on your social media channels to showcase your expertise and drive more traffic to your website. This will help boost your digital reputation.

Keep It Fresh: Generate Content Often

Publish content regularly to help retain customers and generate new business. This isn’t a one and one tactic. It’s a long-term strategy that will help with building your business and your online reputation with positive search results.

Ensure that when employees post information — whether on social media sites, your website, or on any other digital platform — that they don’t include or reveal sensitive data about customers.

Utilizing an ORM Social Media Reputation Management Firm

You may find you don’t have the resources to keep up with your social media reputation, including monitoring what is being said about your company and brand. An Online Reputation Management (ORM) company provides services that will help manage your company’s reputation on a social media platform, your website, review sites, blogs, etc.

An ORM can audit your social media content to ensure your brand is presented in the best light — that positive content is what comes up in search results.

An ORM can also help you with the impact from the fallout of a negative incident that’s damaging to your business.

Contact ReputationSciences Today

Whether you are a business owner or an individual, you know that building and maintaining a good social media reputation is a complex and challenging process. That process has to be comprehensive. With social media reputation management across platforms, you gain a visible digital footprint that can help you stand out from the competition.

A reliable partner is just what you need to get started. Contact us or call ReputationSciences at (844) 458-6735 to learn about managing your business reputation with a free consultation.

The post How Can You Improve Social Media Reputation Management? appeared first on Reputation Sciences.

Today, an individual’s and business’s online reputation is integral to personal and brand success. It takes years to build trust and credibility and to establish yourself as a thought leader, innovator, pioneer, and visionary and your company brand as providing quality products and services and a firm on which people can rely. It also requires ongoing online reputation management, which only an experienced firm can provide.

Online reputation management (ORM) intimately understands how search engines work, how information is compiled and ranked in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, the utmost importance of creating and posting positive content, the impact of negative reviews on review sites and social media platforms have on an individual’s and company’s online reputation; and, most importantly, how to leverage your online presence for optimum reputational results.

ORM Strategies: An Online Reputation Management (ORM) Begins with an Online Reputation Audit

The first step in business is to determine your online reputation. Do you have an online presence — if you don’t have ongoing content about your business online, others will.

What comes up when someone searches your name or your company’s name? Are there positive reviews? Is your business online portrayed the way you want it to be?

Is there negative feedback on Google, Angi, and other review sites? Are you seeing negative customer reviews?

What types of comments are on your social media channels? And, if there are negative comments, are you or your staff providing timely reactions to turn negativity into a positive review? Or are any negative comments going unaddressed, allowing customers and prospects to form opinions?

Have any events, incidents, or unexpected crises that could turn public opinion against you or the company if articles come up about the event/crisis in the search engines? It just takes one miscalculation or misstep to damage a company’s reputation.

Once your company’s online reputation is revealed via an audit, strategies, and techniques will be developed and created to either boost and enhance your reputation or change it for the better if there are any issues.

What’s Next? Start creating positive online content.

Create Content for Your Brand Online on Website, Social Media

You and your business do many great things, so sharing what you do online is important. This means developing and implementing an online reputation management strategy to create and post positive content.

How does an online reputation management company do this?

Start with your website: Tell your brand story.

Does your site’s home page tell your story? How well is your About Us page written? Does it reflect your core business, values, brand credibility, and brand image? If not, it’s time to work on this and beef up the content.

Does your website contain online reviews that reflect customer satisfaction? Customer testimonials are great as long as they are authentic. They help bring your products and services to life. People want to do business with a company that others laud, and it’s a great way to attract new potential customers.

Does your site appear on page one for branded terms—which is where you want to be? This requires keyword research, which can be accomplished with on-page optimization and blog content.

Speaking of blogs, what’s happening with the blog section of your website? Search engines love content, which again helps you rank on page one. The blog has to include relevant content. Plus, it’s important not to have any duplicate content.

Blogs are a great way to enhance your brand’s reputation. An online reputation management firm can help you create blog topics, interview staff to gain insight, and ghost-write articles that elevate the company brand reputation — as well as your own.

A deep dive into your social media accounts

You have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram accounts. They need to be monitored and maintained with posts and shares to help with search engine optimization (SEO) and organic growth.

You want to encourage your customers to go on your social media channels and share their experiences. For example, if you have a restaurant, you want people to post photos and positive online reviews and tag your establishment. If you own a clothing store, you want customers to wear your clothes, post pictures, and tag your retail shop. If you’re a physician, perhaps a dermatologist, what better way to say a good word about your services than on social media!!

However, social media accounts need to be managed so that negative reviews can be addressed immediately. An ORM strategy will include social media management and monitoring and help with customer engagement.

An ORM Agency Gets Positive Content Published

An online reputation management firm will also employ a strategy to garner free publicity. As mentioned, search engines love content. One way to get content online is to write and submit articles to publications on topics of interest to their readership and in your wheelhouse. An online reputation management firm will determine which topics fit your expertise and will help boost your brand reputation.

From there, the online reputation management firm will create a schedule of articles based on the topics they’ve researched. There are guidelines for each publication with which an ORM is familiar. Articles ranging from 600 to 1,000 words, depending on the publication requirements, will be written and reviewed by you. These are not self-promoting articles but convey your expertise in a particular area.

As the online reputation management firm builds up your library of articles published regularly, your brand online will gain traction. When someone types in your name or a specific topic, like “how to build a great team,” your article in CEO World or Entrepreneur magazine, for example, will appear in searches.

This is a great way to build credibility.

More ORM Strategies: Write and Send Out Press Releases

When you have a new product, send a press release to the publications in your industry, whether B2B or B2C. If you hired new talent, write and distribute press releases. This valuable content helps with your online reputation management and Google search engine results and rankings. The more you publish positive content, the more successful your brand’s online reputation will be.

An ORM will write and distribute the press releases.

Encourage Customers to Post Reviews

Get more reviews on your website and your Google Local Business Profile and Angi (if applicable). The more reviews you get, the better for your search engine strategies and, ultimately, your company’s reputation. Personal recommendations go a very long way in getting new customers.

Turn Those Negative Reviews Around

Unfortunately, not all customers provide positive feedback. Online reputation management services also include assisting companies with negative reviews.

First, when writing great content, the negative comments will disappear from page one of the search engines. At the same time, it’s essential to address the negative reviews and comments to resolve customer issues. An ORM strategy can help you turn negative feedback from someone into a person who becomes an advocate for your company.

Your company’s reputation is based not only on everything great about it, your staff, and your products and services but also on how you deal with a potentially delicate or bad situation.

Online reviews are essential. Before making a purchase, most people will read online reviews about a brand to help them decide.

How you deal with bad reviews speaks to your credibility and transparency. An online reputation management strategy that helps you manage negative comments, press, reviews, etc., is critical to your brand’s reputation.

Recap: Online Reputation Management ORM Strategies

Your online reputation is critical to your company’s success. You want to ensure a positive public perception and create brand credibility. This takes reputation management. Here’s a recap of the strategies an online reputation management firm can provide you with for improved search results and an enhanced and positive reputation.

• An online reputation audit that includes analyzing brand mentions and developing key strategies.
• A review of your website and blog content to enhance your brand story and optimize existing content for search results, and to post fresh content on the Internet regularly (remember, search engine optimization is vital in getting your company ranked at the top of search engines)
• Social media management and monitoring for negative mentions
• Creation of articles on relevant topics to be published in industry and business magazines
• Press release (PR) development and distribution to assist with the success of your online business, promote new products and services, new staff, community service, etc.
• Managing and dealing with a negative customer review or harmful content, an ORM helps neutralize negative content by developing positive content that appears in search results.

The ORM process begins with a free consultation to determine a company’s online reputation needs and how to proceed best. Brand perception is critical for all companies and must be managed regularly to ensure continued success in the market.

Contact ReputationSciences Today

Building and maintaining a good reputation is complex and challenging, whether for a business or an individual. The process has to be comprehensive, including not just your website but a variety of outlets (such as review sites) that tend to rank highly across industry searches. But that doesn’t make it impossible.

A reliable partner is just what you need to get started. Contact us or call ReputationSciences at (844) 458-6735 to learn about managing your business reputation with a free consultation.

The post ORM Strategies to Help with Reputation Management appeared first on Reputation Sciences.

If you own a restaurant or your own business that provides goods and/or services to the general public, you naturally attempt to do your best to offer the finest experiences and receive top reviews. You might even have set up a Google Business Profile where Google reviews can be added or contact Google Local Services about purchasing ads to bolster business.

Good reviews are the keystone to running a successful business, but, as the saying goes, “you can’t please all the people all the time.” Negative or false content online can significantly impact the reputation of both businesses and individuals and people depend on local legal regulations to ensure that a business owner’s reputation is not falsely denigrated.

As a business owner, you rely on positive feedback, and just as a positive review can improve your business, a bad Google review could have an adverse effect. Each Google review should stand on its own merit, and questionable or fake reviews on Google and other sites, such as Amazon, should not remain online if their sole purpose is to discredit your business in an unfair way. You should monitor your business account and learn the steps required to delete a Google review that has only been written to cause undo harm and defame your operation.

Reasons Why People Write Bad Reviews

People write bad reviews because of bad experiences for the most part. With this in mind, you must be prepared for someone unsatisfied with some element of your business to voice their dissatisfaction by writing an online review about their negative experience on Google.

You also have to be prepared to respond. By not responding, you not only give life to these bad reviews, but you also might be missing out on an opportunity to have the person retract their negative comments simply because you took the time to address the issue.

This is perhaps your best opportunity to have your customer service team, if you have one, manage customer reviews, which could even lead to more positive reviews. Remember you’re dependent upon your brand’s online reputation, and negative reviews on Google or any number of websites, including social media sites, can greatly impact how your business is perceived, based on customer experience, good or bad, and can dramatically impact revenue and sales.

Examine Each Negative Review Carefully

Read any review at least twice. Does the Google review seem legitimate, meaning that the person actually had a meal at your restaurant or used your company’s services and have a legitimate beef? Does their review contain off-topic rants and have nothing to do with any specific service you provide? Does the review contain profanity?

Most websites frown upon inappropriate reviews, including posting multiple times, reviews containing any restricted content, as well as off-topic posts that don’t concern themselves with anything pertinent about their so-called “bad experience.”

There are plenty of online trolls, as well as competitors, or even a current or former employee, who will go on personal rants, post fake content about you to manipulate ratings, or post negative reviews having nothing to do with any actual customer’s experience.

People will even stoop to using different accounts on Google. This includes posting Google reviews, even fake reviews that are highly unfavorable or even posting a number of times in order to discredit you. It may even be someone who knows nothing about your business, but they did a Google search of your business listing and wrote a bad review. This is all done in an attempt to destroy your brand’s online reputation and perhaps boost competitors’ ratings. If you can prove this to be the case, then you can take steps to try to remove reviews that are untrue, or fake and solely posted to cause harm and possibly affect future purchases.

Google will take these intentionally malicious reviews into account and will rectify the situation, if requested, as long as your request falls within their terms and conditions regarding harmful and defamatory reviews.

On the flip side, if it is indeed a legitimate negative review, then you can take steps to ensure that this isn’t repeated by addressing the issue yourself and in turn, hopefully turning a dissatisfied customer into a happy one.

Steps Taken to Delete Google Reviews

It’s important that you do everything you can to get a bad or negative Google review about your establishment taken down. Each website or search engine has its own protocols for dealing with complaints or requests to remove negative reviews.

In Google’s case, a number of steps need to be taken to remove Google reviews, especially fake Google reviews. If you want to have a review removed, start by opening google maps and signing into your Google account:

1. Open Google Maps.
2. Search for your business.
3. Choose to view your business reviews on Google.
4. Select All Reviews.
5. When you see the review (or reviews) you want to remove from Google, click the three dots in the top right corner.
6. Select “Flag as inappropriate.”

Google should review your request, and if they side with you, for example, in the case of such restricted content in use, they should delete Google reviews flagged by you.

Ultimately, it’s actually good to have a mix of both good and bad reviews on Google and other sites that offer users the opportunity to leave reviews. In fact, having a negative review or two, if the majority of reviews are mostly positive ones, is a good thing. This illustrates the fact that you are a real business and not that your reviews were written by your friends or employees in order to say nice and positive things about your business. A couple of negative reviews show authenticity.

Even top-rated businesses in your area will have a small percentage of negative reviews appearing on Google, simply because it comes with the territory. It shows as a business owner that not everything is always perfect and that some things are just out of your control.

Removing Unfair Amazon Reviews

Keep in mind that not all negative feedback can be removed, so it may be wise to choose reviews that potentially could cause the most damage to your business and take the effort to have those removed.

For example, Amazon will review and remove feedback where the reviewer has used obscene language or included personally identifiable information pertaining to you, as both are a violation of their rules and standards for all reviews.

Transaction feedback that contains an Amazon product review can also be removed rather easily from your feedback profile because, according to Amazon guidelines, such reviews should be added to the product review section. If this is the case, simply visit Seller Central and open a new support case in support of your argument.

To request removal of a biased, fake, or unfair bad review, perform the following steps:

• Select Account Settings > Orders > Customer feedback problems
• Comment on why you believe the feedback should be removed, giving some details but keeping it concise — then send the message

No one likes to receive negative feedback, either in life or when on their ecommerce site. Getting negative feedback on your Amazon seller account can seriously impact your sales, profits, and Buy Box percentage, so you should act quickly to keep your high rating intact.

Social Media Can Have a Huge Impact on Businesses

Social media accounts are buzzing with millions of users and their comments can affect the reputations of individuals and businesses alike. Facebook is perhaps the most popular platform for businesses to show their brand’s worth, as well as attract new customers. So having negative content removed can be tantamount to your business’ good rating.

So, you might ask yourself, how can I delete a review on Facebook? There is no short answer and it’s not always an easy process; plus, you might have to wait in order to get the desired results.

1. Go to the click menu and click reviews, and comment on the offensive review. On Facebook, page owners cannot simply remove individual reviews themselves, it requires intervention by the Facebook Team.
2. Flag the review. To flag a review, navigate to the top-right of the post and select the arrow pointing downward.
3. Wait for Facebook’s team to review the request, and if accepted, they will remove the review.

Seek the Help of a Professional Online Reputation Management Company

There may be plenty of reviews and comments online that you would like to remove, especially any inappropriate or bad reviews, but understand that the process can be rather tiring and time-consuming. You may, through a series of search results, find that the time you might have to spend in order to delete many Google reviews would be better spent on improving your business model or issues that have cropped up.

That’s why it’s recommended that you seek out an online reputation management (ORM) firm to help you remove inappropriate Google reviews or delete bad reviews. An ORM is experienced in dealing with negative Google reviews, as well as other sites, to help to delete reviews that are false or unflattering.

After all, you don’t want to have false or negative information that may seriously impact your ability to get potential customers on board, as well as the real possibility that you could even lose existing clients. They will make the extra effort to remove bad reviews so that any top reviews will stand out even more.

Contact ReputationSciences Today

Whether you are a business owner or an individual, you know that maintaining a great online reputation is a complex and challenging process. That process has to be comprehensive. It has to include not just your website, but a variety of outlets (such as review sites) that tend to rank highly across industry searches. But that doesn’t make it impossible.

A reliable partner, in fact, may be just what you need to get started. Contact us to learn about and begin to implement the nuances of review management for protecting your business reputation.

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