3 Approaches to Reputation Management: Which One Do You Need?

Already a while ago I acknowledged that reputation management is part of SEO 2.0. I never mentioned it again though since then. Reputation management is a relatively new term in SEO and it is hot. Really hot. Some social media and SEO specialists really focus on it lately or even start to sell reputation management services as their main offer. I already noticed a stratification of the reputation management definitions or rather the approaches to it though.

Thus I identified and categorized the 3 approaches to online reputation management I perceive:

1. SEO approach
In one sentence: "We have to rule the top 20 of Google for our name".

2. Social media approach
In one sentence: "We have to monitor all instances where our company is mentioned and react to them"

3. SEO 2.0 approach
In one sentence: "We will proactively build a reputation for ourselves by engaging in online communications"

I use all three to some extent for myself and most renown SEO experts do too it seems to me. It's a different thing for clients and companies though. I often witness reputation management gone wrong. Some of the worst practices are:

Spamming social sites and blogs
Setting up of fake blogs
Orwell like monitoring of the Net
Pr people denying any wrong doing by companies with unsubstantiated claims
Lawyers fiercely intimidating bloggers

None of these really work, in contrast, they aggravate the reputation problem in most cases.

There are good examples though.

Contacting bloggers and/or commenting on their blogs in a responsive manner
Setting up of own communities
Fixing problems and being outspoken about it

While these examples work and are appreciated by the public in he SEO 2.0 they are still not enough.

It's not enough to manage an existing reputation that is in a way independently being forged by others.

In SEO 2.0 we concentrate on long term reputation building.

We engage in online practices that shed a positive light on us. These can be

Socializing with experts in an industry
Altruistic participation in online communities
Non profit projects that are not directly tied to overt advertising

This is only a very short introduction but I think it enough to get started with reputation management online or better reputation building.

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February 20, 2008 · Definitions, Reputation, SEO, SEO 2.0, Social Media

10 Responses

SEO Pune February 20, 2008 at 12:30 ·

Very interesting .I believe reputation building is very important too.
Bolkie February 20, 2008 at 13:02 ·

Lawyers fiercely intimidating bloggers ?!?! Why would some lawyer ever intimidate a blogger? Copyright issues? Sounds cary really.
SilentJay74 February 20, 2008 at 22:42 ·

Hey Tad,
I think this is an extremely well thought out and written article. The faster people can be educated about the correct way to apply these techniques the better. I am not into SEO and yes it does get a bad wrap on Social Media sites at times. I firmly believe that if more people read articles like this then they will get a better understanding. Good job man. (Yeah, yeah, I know it seems like Hell has frozen over getting this type of comment from me.)
onreact February 21, 2008 at 12:53 ·

SEO Pune: So just try it, you’re very SEO 1.0 it seems to me.

Bolkie: In fact a common practice in Germany. I know black hat SEO companies who sent the lawyer the instant something is published about them.

Thanks Jay: Appreciate the positive feedback as for me it’s often twice as hard to get accepted anywhere on the web due to my job. I’m used to it though as a Pole living in Germany (Germans do not like Poles, remember WWII) so I have to fight prejudice all the time.
Jeff Quipp February 21, 2008 at 13:10 ·

Amen Tad. Really good piece. Funny … I see so many parallels between this and the Authority concept I’ve been talking about lately. And to some extent … its about building a certain level of notoriety or dare I say fame.
Glen Allsopp February 21, 2008 at 15:49 ·

You make some great points. Sometimes it is very difficult to really engage in communities and build up a profile for example if you are working with a Fortune 500 company who are very strict on what you can do.
TheMobiBlog February 21, 2008 at 17:35 ·

Perhaps A.D.D. is setting in..

I just don’t get it.. I think it would be difficult to reputation manage a cat in 1 sentence..

I do think its worthy subject matter… That could be expanded on a bit..

Its all a bit Under-Credentialized.. My New Word! AND always triggers lower user or reader response rates..
Glen Allsopp February 21, 2008 at 21:20 ·

Didn’t notice a link directly to me just now, thanks.

I started to focus on Reputation management more for a few reasons (do you think it would be good to do a more detailed post on this?)

1. Taking on personal clients for consulting is clashing with my current full-time job that I’m using as a big learning experience into the corporate world with large clients. That is with social media work.

2. I find reputation management to be more rewarding and something I have a little more control over i.e. tracking what is being said rather than having to get people talking

3. It combines all the things I love, SEO, reporting and social media into one service, plus I think there is big opportunities in this field.

Cheers, and great post that I’ve bookmarked in delicious for future reference
david deangelo February 25, 2008 at 12:04 ·

In SEO, the name is the brand and hence reputation for the name should be as important as for a brand.
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