A good reputation is one of those things that money just can’t buy. It takes years to build up a good business reputation and brand image and it’s heart breaking when your business comes under attack from malicious individuals and organisations. Such campaigns often begin with remarks that are designed to provoke negative responses. It’s also known as ‘trolling’ and you’ll know it when you see it!
Sometimes, your competitors could even be to blame. There are plenty of unscrupulous companies who are ready to pay good money to members of the public in return for posting negative remarks and reviews on platforms you have no control over. If it’s your website, you can simply delete malicious content, but the internet is much larger than just your website and a concerted smear campaign can damage your business reputation badly.
The temptation to fight fire with fire is great. Give them a piece of your mind! But sadly, it’s only going to make your business look worse than ever. Responding to trolls in kind is meat and drink to them. They attack in order to get a response and like playground bullies, they won’t stop once they get one – they’ll only intensify the attack.
Staying ahead of the game
Most of us don’t have the time and the internet savvy to counter attacks on our reputation – especially when they’re orchestrated by someone with a grudge. It gets even more difficult when we’re faced with orchestrated attacks by people who know exactly what they’re doing and are going all-out to ruin your hard-won reputation.
The most effective way of staying ahead of the game is to outsource. Focus on what you’re good at (your business) and get the services of a professional online reputation management company such as Canada-based advertorialagency.com. As professionals in the marketing industry, they’ve seen it all: trolling, flaming, nasty little blog posts and reviews that target unsuspecting businesses. They know just how to combat such attacks.
Negative publicity must be countered with positive publicity and their experience in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) allows them to ensure that your positive publicity outweighs the work of the malicious and downright unscrupulous.
They’ll track down the satisfied clients who never gave you a review and ask them to share their positive experiences. They’ll create and disseminate advertorials that tell people the real truth about your business. They’ll even help you with your own business’ blog, ensuring that there’s plenty of search engine friendly content to attract high rankings in organic searches.
There’s no need to allow anonymous bullies to detract from the business reputation that took you so long to build up. The solution to the problem of internet trolls and other online attackers lies in professional reputation management services that protect you from attacks and counter them quickly when they happen. Doing business on the internet is here to stay, don’t allow online vulnerability to attack to spoil all your hard work. Instead, use smart services such as those provided by advertorialagency.com to maintain and build your online reputation.
