In its simplest explanation online reputation management or search engine reputation management (SERM) is knowing and managing what is being said about you or your business online. Many people think that keeping track of this is unimportant, but if you have ever seen an online video go viral then you will know how quickly news can spread.

When somebody publicly praises you, you more than likely want the world to know about it.

With the recent advances in real time search brands now need to monitor their online reputation more closely than ever before. Coming from a past where the corporate website was the sole online showcase for a brand, 2009 showed us that the search engines have a definite interest in MyFaceFlicSpinTwit, with public views now appearing in the index in real time. This presents a dramatically altered landscape for brand managers and PR agencies in the way that they manage their online presence.

2009 saw a mad dash for the social media real estate and even then uptake was tentative and haphazard, with many companies taking a stand just for the sake of it, simply because of all the buzz around social media, but without actually knowing why they needed it or what the return on the time invested was going to be.

Do you know that someone tweeted about your company’s latest product and said that it was “a piece of junk that didn’t even work properly” or did you know that there has recently been a Facebook group solely dedicated to the “bad service” of your brand? I didn’t think so. As we know, there can sometimes be individuals who have one bad experience with a product or a service and feel that the only way that they will be heard is by relating their bad experience on a social networking site. And before you know it, that person’s tweet has been retweeted again and again or that Facebook discussion board has 150 posts all agreeing with the claim. Whether your company did indeed provide a less than perfect service or sell a product that did not meet the brands standards or if this particular grumpy customer is your ex girlfriend out to liquidate your company, it does not matter. Online reputation management or ORM is needed for every company that cares about the perception and social appearance of their brand. 2010 is an important year for reputation management and as the number of disgruntled customers rise, so should your ability to control what could potentially be a business disaster.

The online landscape has changed so much this year, social media is the new buzz word, and the search market is not just about links, content or even paid search. The recession has also brought about renewed focus on conversions; it’s not just about traffic and rankings as it was a few years ago for many marketers. Social media has led companies to pay more attention to their brand presence / reputation online as they’ve seen how social media networks and the power of twitter can damage a brand and effect sales from a business perspective right down to personal brand. Are you really monitoring your brands / identity online effectively? Or are you still just listening or lurking?

Proactive VS Reactive

Monitoring your brand online and responding when there are potential problems is a fairly reactive approach, however, it can also be proactive if actions are taken to ensure you are not just listening but engaging your target audience.

In this time of financial instability, is there hope for the future of online marketing? Some say that many SEM companies will fall off the curb over the next few months, but not everyone will suffer. If you play your cards right, SEM will prove to be an indispensible marketing tool to the (sensible) clients who stick with it. Global search trends are already changing towards budgeting and money saving, for example, searches have increased significantly for ‘cheap DVD’ rather than ‘DVDs for sale’, according to the Google Trends results displayed for the last 30 days.

David Naylor discusses some of the advantages to online marketing that traditional marketing doesn’t necessarily offer. These factors reinforce the importance of using the available budget a company may have to constructively ‘invest’ it in SEM, which offers measurable results, unbeatable ROI, and leaves a long term impression in the eyes of its market.

This is a topic very close to my heart, as I believe that SMO, ORM and SEO are all interlinked and need to be used together to benefit the client. As an account manager, I always try to ensure that my clients are fully aware of what each of the services entail, how they complement each other and how the combination of these can rocket your marketing efforts sky high.

When a client comes to you to help them shape their online presence, they need a partner; someone who is going to work with them to achieve their goals. It`s not just about rankings, it`s about conversions, ROI and brand awareness. Online reputation is just as important as advertising your brand and increasing your sales, and working together with your client to explore every possible angle is not only great, it`s essential.

Creating a thriving presence online among an array of social media sites can be taxing on your time and resources. There are so many choices out there that it can become confusing when deciding on which platform/s you want to create your profile, and with which communities you want to get involved. It`s best to keep your number of profiles down to two or three. This is because you want to be able to dedicate your focus, valuable resources and opinions to only a few areas, as opposed to spreading yourself across as many sites as possible.

If you answered yes to the question, then this is a necessary read that contains some helpful resources for healing the damaging effects of bad press. I came across an article by Jeff Quipp on the Search Engine People Blog, which discussed burying negative posts that may have surfaced online about you or your company. It lists an extensive array of sites that can be used to your advantage when building up profiles on various online platforms in order to detract attention from the actual negative article that is being circulated, and to push it off the first results page. Removing negative press from the first page of the SERPs can be an exhausting process, but it`s worth it in the end as it could well save your reputation.