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Online Brand Reputation Management or ORM as it is known is the practice of highlighting a brand’s success in search results and essentially burying any negative news in the latter pages (Page 2 and beyond). The growth in the market of online reputation management companies is testament to the fact that more and more companies are looking to ORM to managing an online reputation.

Before we get to some tips you can look to manage online reputation, let’s take look at some percentages that will underscore the need for you to pay attention to this area.

Over 90% of users around the world utilize the results that search engines present to them to make decisions on purchasing, where to send their kids to school, best doctors, lawyers, basically anything and everything. These percentages will highlight the need for ORM:

• Over 70% of users who conduct searches rarely make it past the first page.
• 85% of Internet traffic is driven via search engines.
• Just a bit more than 55% of users use the web daily for search, with over half of them searching for products.

Let’s take a look at the bullets below which will highlight 7 ways you can effectively implement a sound ORM strategy and conduct reputation management online:

Cover your Assets

Knowledge is golden. You should have a comprehensive list of your brand’s online presence. This hopefully is more than you company website. Online Reputation Management calls for more than this. A blog, a LinkedIn page, a Twitter account, a Facebook and/or Pinterest page are highly recommended. Utilize your social channels as facilitators for engaging the public and inspire positive discussion about your company.

Learn from Mistakes

This is key to developing and managing your online reputation. Don’t be afraid to try new things. There are no mistakes, but you should set guidelines of things you do or don’t. Make a list of responses to utilize when someone posts negative feedback on your facebook page for example. The key is to present positivity and concern in response to feedback that might sound angry, disappointed and even complimentary. Learn from your mistakes. Just don’t make them twice.

Make Your Domain Name Your Own

Buying your own domain name is not expensive and runs just over 10.00 a year to do on sites like GoDaddy. While some experts out there suggest buying up a lot of variations of your domain name, this could be excessive. Better to stick with one and building that into something with solid SEO and content.

Keep All Your Content Centralized

Highly optimized content sites such as WordPress and Tumblr are great for this. By applying your own domain name to sites such as these, anyone that will go to your corporate website will be referred to your pages on these sites. It makes it more manageable and these types of sites allow you to create nice pages with free templates.

Go Social

You may not have the time to be fully active on sites such as Pinterest, Google +, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, but it is important as these sites are highly ranked, especially Google Plus which most experts see growing in relevance as it is a Google product. Be sure to fill out profiles. Don’t forget these profiles are your brand’s public internet faces. Add content, comments a few times a month. Respond as timely as possible to comments from other users.

Guidelines for Engagement

You must be prepared for issues that may arise concerning your brand. This is why it is important to facilitate and inspire engagement with your users. Your influencers are the best remedy to stand behind your product and combat any negative criticism with positivity.

Dedicate a staff to ORM

Sure, you can dedicate a staff to using all the disconnected tools out there. It isn’t easy to find experienced people in this area. It could also cost a lot of money. Online reputation management companies are bursting on the scene every day. It is important to do your research. See where they are successful and where they are not. See what areas they specialize in before you go with a particular one.

Whatever you decide, know that implementing ORM  or a SERM strategy is just a key to your success. Time to take the key and open the door to a shining reputation. More information about online reputation protection for business owners can be found here.