Online Brand Reputation Management

When people search for your brand, can you control what they find?

Who Am I?

• Got on the Internet in 1986• Working online with search since 1996• Paid & Natural Search – all aspects• Ecommerce, Publishing & High Tech• Worked with Orange, Sony, COI• Blogging, Online PR

Topics Covered

• Why Monitor• What To Monitor• How To Monitor• Press Releases & PR• Corporate Blogging• Leveraging Facebook

What is reputation management?

The active monitoring, engagement and manipulation of information publically accessible in order to present a company or person in the most positive possible light

Why Monitor?

• On a brand search, you may find negative sites come up for your company name

• Consumers increasingly turning online for 3rd party reviews – distrusting company PR

• Angry & happy consumers increasingly blogging, commenting, engaging

• Competitors can undermine your image• Discover problem or issue previously unaware of• Track customer service issues• Discover news mentions for PR use

You, Your Brand & What It Means

• You are a brand• Unique, valuable, identifiable

Why Monitor Yourself?

• Employers performing searches before hiring on Google, Facebook and Twitter

• Your image is dictated by what is found there• Companies on CV being checked• Need to be aware of possible questions• On a search, you may find negative sites come up for

your name or your company name• Being aware of brand you will impress employers• Discover news mentions for personal PR use• Manage your reputation

Some of these were

not me!

MUCH BETTER!

What to Monitor

• Everything related to your company including variations of your names, key employees name mentions, all product or service names

• Don’t forget the competition• Industry news• Track forums, lists, user groups, boards, etc• Technorati, Digg, Reddit, etc• Watch out for RipOffReport, ComplaintsBoard,

PissedConsumer and the like – ‘reviews’ may be false

Digg, Technorati & Reddit

How to Monitor

• Simple Google/Yahoo search for your target terms• Create and use RSS feeds to monitor keywords -

Bloglines• Google alerts & Yahoo alerts• Create shortcuts to quickly monitor (vertical search, tag

search, etc)• Hire a professional firm

Subscribe to Search Results

Subscribe to Search Results

Example Feed

Yahoo alerts

Google Alerts

Analytics

• Know your goal: reach, engagement, traffic, etc• Set a benchmark of your goal• Understand Twitter – no one reads all followers tweets

above a certain volume• Have appropriate tools in place• Love your analytics at least an hour a week

Twitter Analytics

• Potential reach is direct account followers plus followers of those followers

• Message must be shorter than 140 for ease of RT• Around 20% of followers on some accounts will be

spambots• Not everyone will retweet (RT)• May be picked up for blog or news – use unique URL with

bit.ly

Analytics

Press Releases & PR

• Use press releases for news-worthy items including hiring new department heads, new ad campaigns, and new product launches

• Don’t undervalue your company’s achievements – shout about them

• Utilise one PR distribution channel – you will not impress a journalist by spamming them

• Link press releases with website pages dedicated to the news but use different copy

Corporate Blogging

• Authentic voice – PR company cannot write CEO’s blog• Talk beyond PRs and news items – consumers will

engage more when less formal, more “personal” information is shared

• Engage – respond to comments (don’t flame or respond to trolls)

• If valid negative feedback appears, consider it, respond and follow up

• Promote employees’ blogs even when not official corporate blog – ie. IBM, Microsoft

The CEO Blogs…

Where time is at a premium, the CEO could blog as part of a larger project. Note the personal, genuine voice here with the CEO of McAfee– it is essential

IBM Features All Bloggers

Leveraging Facebook

• Constant engagement required – cannot just set it up & leave it

• Observe how competition has done it & do it better• Feed corporate blog through to page• Create buzz through specials for Facebook fans• Advertise Facebook presence through emails and

normal communications• Applications and widgets can do well but focus on

engagement through fan pages first

Questions?