We have always emphasized how your online reputation can create wonders for you. Online reputation management should become a part of your lifestyle if you are working as an executive or running a business.
Regardless of whether your reputation is damaged or not, you will have to be very serious about your online reputation. What you are posting online? What events you are going to attend? Everything has an impact on your professional life when you are working as an executive.
If your online reputation is damaged at any point, then you are in all sorts of trouble. If you have never paid attention to your online reputation, then a damaged reputation is going to cost you a lot. The best strategy is to be proactive. If you have been managing your online reputation, then slight damage won’t affect you much.
However, if you have never given any attention to your online reputation, then you can find yourself in big trouble. That’s where you are going to need professional help to get and generate good results.
Online reputation management agencies can fill up the gap and provide some excellent results to do damage control and improve your online reputation for the long term. However, the selection of the right online reputation management agency could become a real issue for you.
Selection of the right reputation management agency is all that matters when you are trying to improve your search results. How can you find the right professionals to do the job? Here’s what you need to do when selecting a reputation management agency that will actually help you.
What do Reputation Management Agencies do?
You must be thinking, why do I have to hire a reputation management agency? Well, if your online reputation is damaged, then you are certainly going to need a good agency to help you out. Moreover, if you have no idea how you can repair your online reputation, then a reputation management agency can make things easier for you.
Reputation management agencies use SEO to repair your damaged online reputation. It involves, suppressing the negative results by creating new online assets and optimizing them on a regular basis. As we all know that SEO is not something that shows results in a few days. It takes time and that’s what these companies are good at.
There are lots of methods that can be used for repairing online reputation. In our opinion, suppressing negatives is the only way that actually works in long term.
Reputation management agencies can help you build a Wikipedia page, professional website, social media management, review management, and much more.
Why do you need a good Reputation Management Agency?
As we have discussed earlier, you may need a professional service to help you out regarding your online reputation. If your online reputation is damaged in any way, then a good reputation management agency will be able to repair it.
You need a good reputation management agency in the following situations:
- There are allegations against you that are damaging your online reputation
- A news article that has damaged your online reputation
- Your business has bad reviews
- You need business and personal branding
- To Build long-term credibility
Online reputation management is the process of making sure that you control the search results for your name. It helps you build strong credibility. For every executive, it is important to build a strong online reputation to stand out in the competition.
What to look for in a Reputation Management Agency?
Now that you are well aware of how these reputation management agencies work and why do you need one, you will have to start your research. You must look for the basic ingredients when selecting a good reputation management agency.
For starters, you may want to look at the following characteristics in a reputation management agency that you are considering.
- Their approach should be proactive instead of being only reactive
Most reputation management agencies are still focused on being reactive. They only care about suppressing the negative results. However, that’s not how things work these days. This specific strategy has worked in the past. But, we are living in a different world.
Make sure that the agency you are about to select is also proactive in approach. They should be able to build a strong reputation. They should be able to create results that draw business.
If they have offered you a proactive and reactive reputation management strategy, then it’s the right company to work with. If they are only focused on being reactive and trying to bury the negatives, then you may need the help of a reputation management agency in the next couple of months. Check if they have a maintenance plan that helps you maintain your online reputation.
- They are focused on their customers
You don’t want to hire a company that is only focusing on your competitors and rivals who have been damaging your reputation. The world is over it now. You will have to focus on the force that keeps your business running.
If they have a good approach and they are encouraging your customers to leave positive feedback about your services and products, then it can go a long way.
Apart from it, they need to focus on you instead of fighting with your rivals. They should make you look good so you can stay well-reputed. They should be able to help you take care of your customers and respond to unfair events at the same time.
- They should have a long-term strategy
Of course, reputation management takes time. Moreover, it decays and you need to stay on top of it. Whenever you are getting in touch with a reputation management agency, you need to be sure that you are receiving a long-term action plan.
A long-term strategy involves taking care of the current search results and improving search results that help you build a strong reputation. If you are able to build strong online assets, then it will be extremely difficult to dent your reputation.
With a strong long-term reputation management strategy, you can avoid potential damages, or at least it is going to help you manage crises fairly easily.
- Beware of red flags
There are always red flags in any service that you are about to choose. Unfortunately, reputation management has a lot of them. There are agencies that use blackhat SEO techniques and they can cause more damage than help you.
If they are using wrong SEO techniques including keyword stuffing, link spamming, spambots, then you are going to face some serious consequences. It may work for a few days but, Google has a whole new level of punishment for using these techniques.
Make sure to watch out for these agencies because, you will not only lose money, you will lose a chance to fix your reputation.
- There should be no unrealistic guarantees
If an agency is offering some unrealistic guarantees, then you should stay away from them. There is no room for unrealistic guarantees when it comes to online reputation management. It is a long process and it takes time.
If someone is promising you to clear your search results and get rid of the negatives, then it is a huge bluff. Make sure not to fall for such a bluff. They simply can’t do quick fixes and they absolutely can’t delete any links overnight.
If ORM agency is offering you that your business reviews are going to increase overnight, then it is not possible. It’s another red flag that you should watch out for.
What are the right criteria to select a Reputation Management Agency?
If you have understood the basics and know what to look for in a reputation management agency, you are almost ready to select the right agency. However, there are still a few things that you need to take care of.
Make sure to set criteria whenever you are hiring a professional service. As for hiring an online reputation management agency, you need to check out the following criteria before making a final decision.
- Find a company with a good reputation
Isn’t it obvious? If you are trying to find a company that is going to help you with your reputation, they should have a good online reputation. If you can’t find good reviews of the company, then you should probably consider searching for another company.
It is important for you to check the reputation of the company that you are about to select. It will give you an idea of how good they are. If they can’t improve their reputation, then how can they make you look good online.
- Ask for a detailed action plan
You need to understand the work process. Make sure that you are ready to work with the reputation management agency. The best way to move forward is by asking them for a detailed action plan.
Ask them what they are going to do that will make the difference. They should have a complete action plan for your campaign and you must have that plan in the proposal. It will give you a clear idea of whether you should consider their services or not.
With a complete action plan that focuses on long-term results, you will be able to make the right decision when selecting a reputation management agency.
- Clarify any legal requirements
Make sure that they are contacting you over the phone or meeting you in person. It is important for you to talk to the reputation management consultant before doing anything. You need to clarify any legal requirements before signing up.
They are going to share their legal requirements and above all, you will have to ask whatever comes to your mind before signing up with their services. Clarification of legal requirements is extremely important and you should not forget about it.
- Successful Cases
You may want to check the ratio of successful cases. Good online reputation management agencies share the case studies with their potential customers to build trust. Check out if they have shared a few case studies that help you understand the process.
If you can relate to one of their case studies, then it will become a lot easier for you to judge the quality of their work. It will also help you build confidence in the team.
Make sure to check and ask for successful cases and case studies so you can easily make the right decision. After carefully studying the cases, you will be able to build confidence to choose the right reputation management agency.
- Above all, Transparency
One of the most important things that you can’t ignore is transparency. Make sure that you are looking for transparency. Transparency means they should be very realistic with you.
Make sure that you are getting a complete audit report from them that includes the current position of the keywords that you have provided them. This way, you will also be able to know a complete situation of where you are standing at the moment of signing up.
After that, you can work on the proposal given by the agency and you can discuss the terms and conditions and it will be much easier to land on an agreement after knowing what should be done to improve online reputation.
Wrapping Up
If you have gone through all the details that we have provided and you have taken care of everything at your end, then it will become extremely easy for you to pick the right agency. You must beware of the red flags because any agency will be better than the spamming one.
CrunchPress can certainly help you with your reputation. If you are an executive, an individual seeking online reputation repair, then this agency should be your first choice. We have been helping individuals and companies who have gone through extreme troubles. We can certainly create proactive and reactive online reputation management campaigns that will help you stay on top.
If at any point, you need to talk to a reputation management expert, then feel free to contact us and discuss your case with our reputation management consultant.
