Thursday, September 27, 2007

Travel operators and online reputation management

Major airline companies as well as travel companies are gearing up to better their efforts at online reputation management. Online travel sites are frequented and subscribed to by a lot of users because of the convenience factors. You can book tickets at subsidized rates and you also enjoy the convenience of booking your tickets from the comfort of your own home. However, though it is a hot online industry, it invites a lot of wrath and bad publicity if things go wrong. There are issues when the credit card charge is declined, tickets are not delivered at the right time, the seat numbers go awry or if there is a fraudulent charge on the account. At all of these times and more, the consumer has to take the flak.


Consumers make sure that they vent their dissatisfaction in blogs and forum sites. If you take the example of a website like makemytrip.com, in mouthshut.com, you will see giving reviews about how the service sucked or how they were charged in fraudulently. The allegations may be true or in some cases, even the company can be right. How does the online travel company give it clarification or provide a suitable response. It does through a corporate blog, a platform that companies like makemytrip.com have done proactively on the mouthshut.com site, in reply to consumer comments and whiplash. It is a positive step that such companies have taken to make sure that they retain their business, show their side of the picture to its customers. Above all, it improves the communication level between the customers and the company.


By virtue of the corporate blog, a lot of queries have been resolved and a lot of doubts, issues and speculations have been put to rest. Progressive companies like makemytrip.com have gone ahead and scouted through various blogs and forum sites to find out what exactly is being written about their service. This helps to take care of the loopholes and set the wrongs right. Some times companies even do not mind by passing certain charges or eliminating certain costs which consumers have to give for the sake of goodwill. A little sacrifice certainly pays and a steady monitoring helps to a vast extent. Is your firm practicing online reputation management?


Monday, September 24, 2007

Using online reputation management to the optimum

Your company may be enjoying an impressive customer patronage and may be a name in the market to reckon with. However there is always a risk of a blog post reaching the first page of the search engine listing and causing damage to the goodwill that you’ve built steadily since a long time. A negative comment spreads like wild fire in the Internet and there are many who jump in the bandwagon, some doing it seriously while some adding a negative comment just for the kicks. Either way, your sales figure can pirouette and dip if you do not take concrete steps to resolve the matter. The answer is online reputation management.

Here are some ways to use online reputation management:

  1. You can respond to the negative blog with a clarifying post. You can write them as comments in the blogs and message boards that have written ill about you .If you have proofs to back your stand, it is even better. You may even add a link that takes you to your corporate blog. While countering negative post, you must make sure that you do not use harsh language or any amount of exaggeration that makes readers even more suspicious.
  2. You can host a corporate blog in conjuction to the complaints forum site. Readers will definitely benefit from this because they will be able to see both sides of the picture. A corporate blog can even be hosted as a part of your main website. Make sure the language in your corporate blog is polite but assertive. Using keyword rich content in your blog works for optimizing your web-page too.
  3. Taking a leaf from the second point, make sure that whatever content you are adding either to your corporate blog, message boards or even on your main site, should be keyword rich. If you optimize your web-page well, there is a fair chance that your brand comes on the first page of the search engine.
  4. Make sure you add the latest stories, achievements, success stories, customer testimonials, press releases etc on various article directories apart from your main websites.
  5. Get access to trade magazines which reports on your business. Find out the latest buzz and if your company is going to be a part of a trend, make sure you let the readers know about it. Market your product or even soft-sell it in social networking websites. Participate in online business communities to get the pulse of the market and find out how you can use the news and data to formulate a strategy to give more exposure to your brand.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Online reputation management-Look who is talking now

Online reputation management and the power of social media are quite important for fortifying your company’s presence, and directing traffic to your website. What exactly is social media? Well it is the platform that allows each one of us the freedom to say what you want through blogs, message boards. You are able to share your views and opinions with a lot of people who agree, disagree or endorse your statements. Public relations are no more a domain frequented by professionals and journalists. Spreading the word is an attitude of the people, for the people and by the people. As close to democracy, isn’t it?


Quite evidently, people will trust the junta(the common people) or high-brow PR experts or journalists. The empathy factor is quite high as people write in a comment or two endorsing the complaint written by a person in her blog. People are talking and how! Not just with written matter but also in an audio-visual format. Which means, that people are now uploading pictures, videos of any scenario of bad customer experience so that others can see the naked truth in full color. Blog posting or pod-casting can be summed up as once bitten, twice sly. No one can take the good ol’ consumer for a ride.


No company can satisfy all of its customers all the time. There are bound to be some criticisms for a discrepancy which can happen either voluntarily or involuntarily. Companies therefore have to monitor each and every piece of content with reference to their brand that is dished online. Monitoring and tracking the blogs and message boards thus becomes a crucial part of online reputation management. Companies have to do their duty diligently and smartly. One of the best methods to sustain their brand image and increase their customer base is through online reputation management. By virtue of this strategy, you will be able to give more exposure to your brand and make sure that your brand rules on the first page of every search engine.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Online reputation management-The language of corporate blogging

Most companies have quite rightly hosted corporate blogs both in complaint boards like mouthshut.com and also as a part of their website. In this age of consumer generated media, corporate blogs are just what the doctor ordered. It immunizes your business against negativity, acts like a tonic to consumers who feel that their pain and anguish are being addressed, and makes your business grow in a healthy manner.


While writing corporate blogs and seeing the absurdity and exaggeration of some of the posts, you may feel like flying off the handle and giving a fitting reply. Well, you may but in the end, you may be losing out on business purely due to the ‘tone’ of your content. You may be right and the consumer may have got it wrong this time but understands the universal paradigm-the consumer is always right. You have to explain your point politely, carefully and in a loving manner.


For every complaint, generally follow a three step plan:, ACKNOWLEDGE, APOLOGIZE AND ASSURE. At times, you may not need to apologize, but then again, make sure you make the consumer feel that his complaint or grievance is being addressed forthrightly. A reputation manager does not take things lightly; he has to keep a track of every blog post. Here’s how he maintains a track of all possible blogs that refer to his products/ service and formulates a plan to successful online reputation management. Bear in mind, that online reputation management is about smart PR skills combined with intelligent search engine optimization.


While writing a corporate blog, be honest and to the point about what you want to say. Do not keep your customers guessing. Even if your mistake is embarrassingly unpardonable, you should acknowledge it. There will be some way to convince the customer and provide him with incentives to keep him happy rather than take the risk of being involved in a law-suit, or face the risk of losing a lot of potential customers, thanks to a grating blogpost or infamous word of mouth publicity. The online reputation management should work in coordination with product support, tech support, and the marketing department to get a full picture.


Here is an example of a corporate blog post

Dear Keith,


Thank you for your time in replying to the message on X2B and providing the required details. We have taken cognizance of your comments and the manner in which you have shared your feedback. It is regrettable to note that your recent interaction with us has not been satisfactory to you.


We are issuing you a cheque for the differential amount, which will reach you within the next 48 hours. We sincerely appreciate your co-operation and are looking forward to give us the opportunity to service you better.

Friday, September 7, 2007

Online reputation management and Corporate blogging

Corporate blogging is a responsible move by organization that has to manage their reputation on the web. Most major players in the field are recognizing the power of blogs to empower people with the force to write about a particular brand. A single negative post that comes up on the front page of a search engine can cause immense damage to the brand and subsequently to the profit-earning capacity of the company. How does corporate blogging actually take place? What do these companies do, how do they keep track of everything negative that comes their way? Read on to know more..

Here are some steps at managing online reputation for a company which wants to steer ahead of competition and manage its impeccable reputation:

  1. Setting up alerts: By setting an alert, you can keep a track of every negative post that comes in the coming weeks. You can even set specification as to how you want the alerts to appear-they can come once a day, once a week or as it happens. While setting up alerts, you should mention the search terms which are nothing but the keywords or key-phrases that relate to your product or search.

  1. You can also conduct a blog search for finding blog posts that pertain to your product or service. You can do this by going to Google, clicking on the ‘more’ button and choosing ‘Blog search.’ You can preferably choose ‘advanced blog search’ and mention the keywords or key-phrases. You can choose the amount of results you want. You can also sort the results in terms of relevance or date.

  1. You gather the relevant negative, positive and neutral posts about the product and collate it in a data base. Bear in mind that posts should be relevant to the product/service.

  1. Go through all the negative posts and try to find out the reason behind the grievances put forth by the readers. Build a corporate blog.

  1. Advertise about your corporate blog. Write keyword rich content that can easily get traffic to your blog. In your corporate blog, make sure that you do not leave any stone unturned to handle every negative blog post as possible.

  1. If you write positive posts about your product or service with content that is keyword rich, your content can easily push the negative posts out of the top 2 pages of search engines. When this is achieved, only the positive things about your product or service appear on the top two pages of a search engine. However at the same time, do not, I repeat, do not just write keyword rich content just to impress search engines. Make sure you are really committed about giving superior and exceptional customer service. This is the hallmark of search engine reputation.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Online reputation management makes headline news

Midday, the famous eveninger on 31st August, 2007 carried a front page story on how blogging can be a resourceful tool to every consumer who wants justice done. It told about how a person who uploaded the half-hearted job done by her interior decorator and uploaded it on You Tube. She shot a small video of the haphazard repair work done on the wall of her house and uploaded it on the video broadcasting site. The interior decorating company had no option but to complete the work free of charge, because it had its reputation at stake.


We have been hearing time and again that consumer is king, consumer is everything..blah, blah …till the dogs come home, but in the end, the consumer had to pay the price. Until, the consumer decided to do something about it, through the power of blogging. Now there is no stopping her as she lays bare discrepancies, discoloration and discrimination which are rampant in reputed companies known to offer quality products and services. It is high time; companies realize that they cannot take the consumer for granted. They have to take concrete steps to make sure everything is working fine for the consumer. No one wants bad publicity, decreasing market share, litigations etc.


How does the company show that it is clean and committed to serving their consumers to the hilt? Well, for one it should make sure that it closely tracks all the feedback it receives, so that there are no slip-ups. Most companies rightly host corporate blogs in conjunction to their website so that people post their problems at one place. Corporate blogs can be a hot place of action where companies can talk about their corrective measures, future plans and value added features they’d be adding to their products or services. Make the best of the blog power to get justice the way you want, quickly and justly.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Online reputation management-Reviews

One of the potent weapons that can change or sustain public opinion are review sites. Whenever there is a new movie or new product coming up, people turn to review sites. There are so many movies which have taken a beating at the box-office and there are so many products which have not even been tried, purely thanks to damaging reviews. Nothing can be done much about reviews; you can’t stop them from happening, neither can you stop people from reading them and passing judgments.


They say if you can’t beat them, join them. This is exactly how review sites can work for online reputation management. Find out people who have genuinely liked your product or service. In this generation of web 2.0, you do not have the need to spend money on market research to scout for your fans. You can find people who patronize your product quite easily in the comments/testimonial section of your website, the social networking website, blogs and message boards.


At any given day, there will be more negative posts than positive posts even though your product may be the best in the world. This is bound to be because people generally talk (or write) about things which go bad or sour rather than things which work well. You have to find out people genuinely like your product/service and do not mind penning down their views on features they liked or the ways in which your product/service added value to their life. This is one of the best moves in online reputation management.


Contact people who are appreciative about your product to spare some good words or write a short review about how the product made a difference in their lives. This method of online reputation management costs your hardly anything but can help you a lot in terms of business and client acquisition. You can also indulge in viral marketing whereby you can give a freebie or some discounts on the purchase, so that customer satisfaction on your brand is restored.


If you don’t have the time or the right people to write reviews for your product or service, you can ask proffesional bloggers to write for your product. You can get them from specialized websites like Reviewme or Pay per post. But the best bet for writing reviews for your product (as they call from the horse’s mouth) are your satisfied customers. Provide them with a link that leads to a web-based platform, where they can write and upload their views. You can also screen the reviews and include the best ones by highlighting the catchy phrases or words that can strike a chord with your readers. If need be, you can also substitute certain words with keywords or keyphrases that can bring the name of your business or brand on the first two pages of the search results page.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Online Reputation Management and social networking

It’s raining orkut, myspace, facebook, hi5,bigadda and countless amount of social networking websites-all meaning business and justifying the clichĂ©, ‘be in touch.’ Social networking sites are the hot places where people chat, refer, tease, congratulate and play the blame game. It is also the best place to recommend something that is pleasant or to warn someone against something that is unpleasant.


There are occasions when a guy asks his online friend for a date and she agrees with a coffee joint that is known for its cool ambience and wonderful coffee. If that café happens to be yours, a positive remark like this can be quite encouraging. Being a member of a social networking site, I scraped my friend about meeting at an inn some miles away from my house. My friend replied enthusiastically that the inn has some fond memories because it was the place where he had taken his wife for their very first date.


Small things like these can not only nurture relationship but also act as a deserving pat on the back of establishments, businesses and corporations which started these endeavors. In fact some enthusiasts and fans who patronize certain hotels, movies, corporate houses even initiate online communities within these social networking sites. Like minded people become a part of these communities and add their views and opinions. For a company who wants to manage, improve or even enhance their online reputation, social networking sites are a good place to get scraping (not to be confused with scrappingJ).


You should visit these social networking websites; leave a link to your blog or website. It can work wonders for the online reputation management of your brand or product. You can scout some of the profiles that are relevant and find out how people talk about your business. If the response is not so flattering, you should start undoing things which are going wrong. You can start communities that talk good about your company. You can reply to some of the harsh comments or scrap your point of view and leave some proof that backs your statement. This can be in the form of a link that leads to your corporate blog or website or testimonies of people who have liked your product or service. Never be judgmental or defensive in your scraps or responses. Be honest and forthright. Apologize when wrong but highlight things which can be interesting and value-enhancing to the people concerned.


For people who like your brand or product, you can use their views as testimonials for your corporate blog to endorse your product after taking their permission. For people who like your product or service, thank them politely and let them know that you’d be keeping them updated for anything new that would be interesting for them.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

The importance of Alerts in Online Reputation Management


If you are under the impression that you are too involved in your business to care about the Internet, you are mistaken. Your online reputation can be at stake. With a lot of people turning to electronic media for news and gossip, you cannot undermine the power of online reputation management.


There is a principle called karma in the Hindu culture, which says that every deed has its repercussions. If you do good, you are rewarded. If you do bad, you are punished. The consequence may take its own time but soon you do get your just deserts. There is a scientific rationale behind it too; as Newton said: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. As you sow, so shall you reap is another saying that typifies the relationship between cause and effect.


Taking what I said in the above paragraph to the next level, I would say that this karma spreads across the world through Internet. If you do good things, you are talked about. If you do wrong, you are sniggered at. Type the name of your company or even your name(if you are influential) and you will see a lot of things that people are talking about. Most of the talking (or rather information written) in the search-engines may not be the way you want it to be. There may be some which are disturbing and portray a negative image about you or the project you are heading. How about using online reputation management and investing in time, effort and money to make sure that information is spread in the right away about your brand? Your efforts to market yourself positively and to add posts in the first couple of pages of a search engine will certainly win you a lot of goodwill and respect.


To make sure that you get a buzz about what is happening about your brand, company, products, industry or your field of interest; you should set up an ‘alert.’ There are Google Alerts and Yahoo Alerts which help you automate the entire system of monitoring for the relevant keywords or key-phrases that you require. When you set up alerts, you are ‘alerted’ automatically about anything new happening on your field of interest. You can set up these ‘alerts’ through a section in either Google News or Yahoo News. In the ‘alerts’ section of Google, you are asked about what kind of alert you want-whether in relation to blogs, web, groups or comprehensive. It is a good move to choose ‘comprehensive’ if you want to have alerts from all possible avenues. You are also allowed to time the frequency of alerts. When you set alerts, you get information about any updates right there in your inbox. This is quite instrumental in devising a plan of action for online reputation management.