Don’t Make These Online Reputation Mistakes

Negative Techniques to Avoid

When you’re trying to get a handle on your online reputation – either just starting out or patching up a negative one – there are a few key things to keep in mind. The first is that you need to avoid negative approaches that either aren’t honest, or aren’t above board.

Watch out for these dishonest tactics and make sure your reputation management is based on real, reputable information.

Here I’ll list most of the common “black hat” techniques you’ll encounter. These are techniques that try to artificially boost your reputation without actually doing anything good for you. They involve spam or lying, or both, and they’re generally valueless for your business.

False Positives.

This is when you or your reputation management company creates fake profiles on review sites, anything from Yelp and Google+ to niche review sites. With these fake profiles, you go and leave yourself positive reviews. The primary problem with this is that you’re lying to get those reviews, and they tend to be easy to spot. They use corporate language or sound a lot like a fake review rather than a real review. Sometimes, I’ll even see fake reviews left by someone with the same name as a prominent employee in the company. This is a technique used mostly by idiots, and they make idiot mistakes. Don’t be an idiot.

Fake Content.

This is one step higher than the previous fake technique, and involves creating the review sites yourself. Create a review site and review industry services, and always place your brand on top, regardless of any factual support for the ranking. This is a little harder to find out, but often things like the WHOIS domain registration of the review site gives it away. That, and these sites tend to go against the prevailing reviews, and are often discounted as obviously promotional. Don’t do it; it’s not worth the time, money or effort involved.

Keyword Stuffing, Link Spamming, and Invisible Text.

These three are the “unholy trinity” of black had bad SEO techniques. They’re all designed to try to get your website ranked higher in search, so it looks like Google values your site above your competition when users are looking for your service. They all worked, back in the late 90s, but they haven’t worked since. Google is far too sophisticated, and can easily detect these techniques in action. All you’ll do is tank your search ranking until you fix the problem.

Spam Bots.

There are a few ways that spam bots and, to a lesser extent, denial of service attacks are used in reputation management. Spam bots will often spin positive review content into “unique” reviews that all end up looking and sounding like spam. The idea is to drown negative reviews in the press of positive, but it just makes positive reviews look negative. Some particularly unscrupulous reputation management companies will also use DDoS attacks on sites that are prominent negative reviews, to try to keep users from seeing those reviews. It’s malicious, illegal, and largely ineffective.
– via SEOBlog.com

Warning: Don’t Get Defensive

This one is important – your business matters to you, you’re emotionally tied to it, but you have to avoid the instinct to get defensive when you see negative things said online. Keeping your cool and maintaining a professional demeanor will go a long way toward righting or building your positive online reputation.

It’s normal to feel hurt or angry when a customer shares negative feedback about your business, but it’s important to keep cool. “I think a mistake a lot of businesses make when it comes to reputation management is getting too defensive or pointing fingers when dealing with negative feedback,” says eZanga.com digital content supervisor Brittany Berger. “It’s understandable, especially when dealing with a public forum such as one on the internet, to want to get the record straight and clear your name. But if you do this forcefully, you come off too strong and it can appear as though you’re attacking the original provider of feedback or questioning their feedback, or even their intellect.”

What can you do instead? “Side with the person giving negative feedback,” says Berger. “But frame the conversation differently. Never single them out or insinuate that they are at fault, and never try to displace the blame by bringing other businesses or individuals into the conversation, even if you don’t mention them by name. This just makes it look like you’re trying to deflect the problem.”

It’s also important to avoid making hasty decisions or responding before you’ve had a chance to calm down and assess the situation. “One of the biggest reputation management mistakes is rushing into responding to negative press,” digital marketing strategist Bradford Hines explains. “Sometimes people take what is a crisis, and instead of turning it into an opportunity, they make it worse by responding back with snark, or criticism of the party back. The best approach to answer in weighed and measured fashion, and consider that your response will be there nearly indefinitely, and will surely be seen by those interested in reading reviews of your business.”

Angie’s List director of communications Cheryl Reed relates, “No one likes criticism. It’s hard to hear. But if the truth is a harsh mistress, it’s also a great mirror.” She reminds businesses to avoid taking a defensive stance, and take a moment to let emotions clear before creating a response. “Never respond to a negative review in anger,” she says. “Take a walk. Have some coffee. Settle down. Then find out what really happened and make it right if that’s the right thing to do. Once you know all the facts, work on your response. You’d be amazed how many people will think more favorably about you if you can make it right.”

Reed encourages businesses to take a calm, careful approach to negative feedback. “A negative review is no cause to panic,” she says. “Take a thoughtful look at it before you do anything. If you’re in the wrong, offer an apology and an explanation. Say you want to make it right. If the customers won’t accept your efforts, say that. But don’t let the negative linger in the air without a response. Also, a simple thank you to a positive review is a great way to re-emphasize that you’re paying attention and that you care about your customers.”
– via Online Reputation Management

Are you being careful to avoid negative tactics for your online reputation management?