Best Practices for Online Corporate Reputation Management

In many ways, the digital age can make corporate reputation management trickier than ever before. A constant stream of information on social media and a 24-hour news cycle mean news about your company – both positive and negative – can reach the masses in no time. Effective corporate reputation management can ensure your company is perceived positively by your target customers and other key stakeholders.

Why You Need Corporate Reputation Management

There are several ways corporate reputation management can be beneficial to your brand. The first is to expand your brand presence online. In this case, your company might be new to the market – or you’ve recently rebranded – and you’re looking for ways to get your name out to the target market. Another option is to use corporate reputation management to control of brand’s key message. Incorrect or outdated information about your brand might be the first to show up in search results, and an effective corporate reputation management strategy can correct this. A third option – which businesses try to avoid at all costs – is tapping into corporate reputation management to counteract any negative information about your company, mostly by using positive news to outweigh any negatives.

Key Ingredients for a Corporate Reputation Management Strategy

An effective way to manage your online reputation is through content. Consider the following key ingredients in your corporate reputation management strategy.

• SEO-optimized content – As you build out your online presence, you’ll want to make sure your company name shows up in search results, along with any keywords associated with your company’s core business offering. Incorporate your company’s name into all your content and incorporate SEO keywords wherever possible – including across your website, on your blog, in press releases, and through traditional SEO pages.
• Media coverage – Media coverage can position your company as an expert in your space by helping your name appear more prominently in general search results and newsfeeds. A steady stream of positive media coverage – such as thought leadership interviews, contributed articles and significant company news – can outweigh any negative media coverage that might come about, all while helping you stand out from the competition.
• Social media – While social media takes time and expertise to manage, it’s an important part of any corporate reputation management strategy. Being active on social media accounts – especially LinkedIn, for a B2B company – can help your company rank higher in search and enables you to engage directly with users interested in your brand. In addition to your own social media activity, regularly monitor your brand’s social media mentions. This can ensure you have a pulse on your brand’s online reputation and enables you to respond to any online feedback, both positive and negative.

No matter the effectiveness of your corporate reputation management strategy, it never hurts to have a backup plan in place in the event of a crisis. Consider the different crisis scenarios you might run into – such as a product malfunction or a personal crisis with one of your executives – and prepare a crisis communications plan. And if a crisis does occur, takes steps to respond to and resolve the issue, rather than attempting to delete or cover up online mentions of the crisis.

Ready to Improve Your Corporate Reputation Management Strategy?

Corporate reputation management can be a significant undertaking for you to do on your own. At Walker Sands, we’re known as one of the nation’s fastest-growing corporate reputation management agencies. Our secret? We understand our clients’ businesses and leverage a unique integrated marketing approach to achieve measurable business outcomes.

Contact us today and let’s start a conversation about how Walker Sands can help your business leverage innovative PR and digital marketing to manage your online reputation and win more business in the next quarter.