Reputation management is the term that describes the ability to control a certain reputation in society. As the technology for publishing information became easy in the late 1970s, reputation management companies began to grow in the 1980s and 1990s. Today every major search engine requires a reputation management company to manage it. However, there are some ethical gray areas when it comes to ORM that has grown since the 1990s. One example is the practice of using certain SEO tactics as a reputation management strategy. In addition, there are some shady companies that charge thousands of dollars to remove negative items from their websites.
Online reputation management is a way of looking for bad things that people are saying about your company online and then finding out about it—and neutralizing it. It’s very similar to protecting a plant from pests. It’s not just something that you do to manage your company, it’s actually more like a natural disease.
Offline reputation management is a service that shapes public perception of a service provider outside of the digital sphere.
Within the last decade(when?), social media has become an integral part of marketing. Within the last decade, companies have come to understand how they are being perceived by their audiences both inside and outside of their target market. Unfortunately, sometimes, a company makes claims about its products and services that aren’t true.
Marketing is typically used to recover a tarnished reputation or establish a new, or even more successful reputation.
Reputation Management Campaigns In Popular Media
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In 2011, the controversy over the Taco Bell restaurant chain broke when it was publicized that their “seasoned beef” product only consists of 35% real beef. A class-action lawsuit was filed by lawyers Beasley Allen against Taco Bell. They claimed that the company should have been more transparent about its product. Taco Bell responded, “If we made a mistake, we would be happy to make changes. However, the attorneys representing the class-action suit do not think we did anything wrong but just needed something to change in our business practices. They have since dropped the case. The lawyers who filed the suit no longer work for the companies involved but are paid by an anti-Taco Bell group.” Taco Bell’s advertising campaign, which ran an online “Would it
Reputation management firms regularly search the web to find any information they can find about their clients and then use that information to make the client’s reputation appear good or bad. They sometimes hire other companies to do this, and sometimes even hire journalists through news organizations like The Wall
There are different ways to deal with problems in information technology: improve search engine results or remove problems that exist. If the content were good, people would not be upset if their search results were better. So, some companies offer to pay money to search engines in exchange for a spot number one for them. Some even pay others for the chance to buy such positions. In other words, the search engine company is changing its search algorithm to benefit certain businesses. Such businesses, to remain visible, may be given priority over other businesses, in order to get more attention from users. This is a dangerous way to solve the problem of information because those businesses could be violating users’ right to know. Also, businesses can hide negative information on the web. In some cases, that information is damaging to people’s reputations and may even give them a bad reputation. These negative consequences for information are only harmful in the long run. If they are removed, the websites will be better and will be less crowded with information
Ethics
Reputation management is a legitimate concern for organizations. Some have hired consultants to try to influence others to post on their behalf (sometimes without disclosing that they were paid). Others seek to keep online critics from posting negative feedback about them (sometimes without disclosing that they hired their services). This exposes firms to risks if the consultants are unscrupulous, and can jeopardize a firm’s good image if the consultants are reputable. Thus far, most organizations have had to be cautious about reputation management. It
Google has started developing programs to make it possible for users to manipulate their own Internet identity. It has introduced ways to change Internet search ranks to make “bad” information appear lower in search results than “good” information. Firms in the Internet sector prefer not to work with individuals who have committed serious crimes.
In 2015, the online retailer Amazon.com sued 1,114 people who were paid to publish fake five-star reviews for Amazon products. These reviews were created using a website called Macrotasking, and Fiverr.com. Other companies advertise fake ‘five-star’ reviews on other sites like Yelp and Facebook.
Alex Adekola is a proven thought leader in the reputation management industry who has targeted mugshot publishers since 2012. He is the longest-serving reputation and crisis management strategist and has written extensively on crisis management. He is the creator and director of strategy at Incept Technologies.