How to Choose an Online Reputation Management Company?

Company online reputation management encompasses creating and maintaining a positive image of the company, protecting that image from damage from poor feedback or bad information, and restoring the brand's image if a PR crisis occurs. The agency will accomplish this through a variety of tools and techniques, including:

• SEO (search engine optimization). This tool helps to increase the ranking of positive, relevant content about and from your company in search results. Good information coming up on the first page of a search gives a positive first impression and pushes negative reviews down out of sight.
  
  
• Content development and management. Specialists will help you improve and create expert content that ranks well in search and interests your audience.
  
  
• Social networking. Constant interaction with your audience builds customer loyalty. It's important to read and respond to all comments in reviews, moderate your community, and work with potential brand advocates.
  
  
• Manage reviews and ratings. ORM-companies work comprehensively with reviews. They can balance negative reviews with positive ones, remove unwanted links or reviews, and respond to positive comments. Active work with your reviews helps build your brand's rating on third-party review sites.
  
  
• Monitoring brand mentions. Negative comments anywhere can damage your reputation, including popular sites, maps, blogs, forums, and personal social media pages. Therefore, it is important to monitor all brand mentions and respond quickly to each of them. Agencies usually use special services such as Brandwatch for constant monitoring and instant processing. You should also listen to what your target audience says about your product and the products of your competitors. Social listening enables you to discover consumer needs, insights, and paint points. This information can help you improve your product, services, or marketing strategy.
  

The first thing to look for in choosing a reputation management agency is a track record of successful cases. Results matter, and it's important to see their expertise in action in various areas involved with strengthening brand reputation and resolving conflicts online. Be sure to ask for results in cooperation with their customers, but be aware that some information may be withheld to maintain confidentiality.

Meet with a team of specialists, remotely or in person. It is important to get to know people and evaluate their experience and skills. This will also give you a chance to see how comfortable you feel working together.

Before signing a contract with a reputable agency, we recommend asking them to provide a work plan for your project. This will allow you to see how long the work will take and how much the team knows what to do in your situation.

The best online reputation management companies have a flawless online image. To verify this, read customer reviews, media reports, and the company's own blog or social media. Pay attention to how they interact with users on social networks and what content they publish. If the company has authority and other customers are satisfied, you can be more confident trusting them with your business.

Reputation work takes time. There's no room for unrealistic guarantees or instant results. Steer clear of "quick fixes" such as a promise that deleting negative reviews will immediately increase your ratings.

A reliable ORM-company will be honest and realistic. Work on the company's organic image takes six months or more. The work should begin with an audit of the current reputation of the company and its competitors. That audit forms the basis of the long-term strategy tailored for working with your brand's image.

Before starting the project, the agency should provide you with an audit showing the strengths and weaknesses of your current reputation. The audit should include an analysis of your competitors to give a better picture of what you're striving for and any mistakes or experience that can be borrowed from others in your industry.

Discuss a budget for the project in advance before contracting with an agency. They should be willing to answer questions about expenses, tools, the scope of work, and any other major factors impacting their fee. The agency must also provide you with weekly or monthly reports indicating what actions have been taken and what results observed.

In a word, a good agency is transparent in its actions at every stage of work.

1. The agency uses dubious methods of promotion.
For example, "satellite" sites with fake reviews, purchasing a large number of links to substandard resources, and so on.

2. The agency fails to provide regular reports.

3. The agency doesn't stay up to date with changes in search engine algorithms and doesn't adjust their strategy accordingly.

4. The company does not have a personal manager who is accessible to you to monitor the process and discuss the results.

5. The agency only offers fake reviews.
Feedback from specially created accounts can positively affect your rating, but there are risks. Fake reviews can cause suspicious account activity, causing site administrators to ban your profile. They are also less effective than reviews from real customers. We have an article detailing how to get reviews from your customers here.

6. You don't know what tools and programs the agency uses.
If an agency is only using free services and manual monitoring, they're unlikely to provide the results you need. Professional agencies use special premium monitoring services. They should have certificates to confirm their memberships and subscriptions.

For example, we — Topface Media — are a certified partner of the YouScan social media monitoring and analytics system.

The following list of questions can guide you through business conversations with ORM companies while you consider whether their services are right for your brand.

An online reputation management company can become much more valuable than a simple cleanup crew for occasional reputation tasks. A great relationship with a quality company can provide you with a long-term partner in all areas of your brand's image. Look for experience, availability, successful cases, and the agency's own reputation. Avoid those professionals who promise quick results and use dubious or low-effort methods in their work.