“Internet is a tool which can make you and break you”
How important is your reputation in others’ eyes? Your instant answer will be, “It is as vital as oxygen for me”. Every person on this earth has a little craving of showcasing a better version of him in front of others and Internet being the vast platform in today’s world has a lot of caliber in presenting one’s image.
Thus, Online Reputation has become a rage in today’s scenario. Studies say that whenever someone wants to find information about something or someone, they shift their focus to Google, thus Internet gives them your very first and crucial impression, thus it becomes important for one to make him a good brand on the Internet platform.
In this article I am writing about Online Reputation, its effects on us and methods to shape your reputation (popularly known as Online Reputation Management).
What is Online Reputation Management?
In the simplest words possible, Online Reputation Management refers to the methods and techniques one uses to eradicate the negativity and increase the goodwill about him on the Internet.
How people perceive you or will perceive you, it all depends on how good or bad your image is on the Internet.
Why is it important for you?
Well, let me explain it to you with an example.
Suppose you are a good businessman running a business of computer Parts.
Now, you are completely a non-Tech savvy person who just uses the Internet for Email purposes.
Unexpectedly, someone writes a negative review about your firm, that review would get instantly viral as people search for gossips and in no time it would start hampering your business profile.
When people will search about you and your firm these negative stories and reviews would gain the potency to appear at first page of search results, thanks to their vitality.
Here, you would need Online Reputation Management for your rescue. It would help you with methods to engage in the Internet world and make a profile that looks good and it will search for techniques so that your good works appear first and the negative reviews get to the bottom. The goal of ORM is simple
“To show the visitor what you want to show them, just the good, better and best”.
How Online Reputation can be increased?
Well, you will need to engage yourself on the Internet.
And for that, you will need to make profiles on different social media sites and if possible you can also start a website. After that, you will have to keep a check that Constant success stories, positive blog articles, pictures, posts etc. About you or your firm should always be the talk of the Internet.
Ps – It is advised to just share relevant and work-related information and very less and minimal personal information on the Internet.
Fact checks:
1). It is always advised that before starting with the content thing you should always Google about yourself to know about all the good and bad stories about you and then make a plan after a night long analysis. This will make your perspective more clear. Also, try to Google after signing out of your account.
2). Internet is a web with million and billion and trillion people in it , thus it looks kind of impossible to search for every negative comment or review people said about you but if i say that it is possible , Would you believe ? Yes, with certain Reputation Monitoring Tools like Google Alerts which informs users about their online mention at any place in real time, you can track all the stories associated with you.
Other alternative tools you may use are Rankur and Trackur .
The math here is simple – “The more posts you share (be it on social media platforms or your own website) the more will be the chance of displacement of your negative reviews and stories”.
Why displacement and not erasing?
I used the word displacement because it is practically a little impossible to erase someone’s review or story until and unless it is not violating any terms or condition or presenting false stories to defame someone.
Thus, something written on the Internet about you becomes a part of your “Profile”, so we always try to put in stories that tend to uplift your profile and lessen the damage caused by the negative stories.
Wondering if SEO and ORM are same?
They are same on the fact that they both help you in branding and making you a known name in your respective field but SEO focuses on page rankings while ORM focuses on the showcase of relevant information.
For example – There are two guys in a company, one handles ORM other handles SEO.
Now when someone searches for this company’s information on Google, they find that the company is listed somewhere on the second page.
Now the SEO guy would make efforts to put in keywords and content that would make the company’s website appear on the first page while ORM guy would try to analyze all the negative and positive stories which are there on the internet about his company, then he would make plans to displace the negative stories by inculcating more relevant and positive stories about his company. In ORM guy is not much focused about the ranking rather he is focused on the information that is being shown.
Conclusion :
The internet has given immense power to people to share their opinions and reviews. Sometimes, these opinions blossom the other and sometimes it is utterly devastating for the other person. Thus, ORM makes you stand at a safe place where you get able to tackle such negativity.
