Web Reputation Management – It’s a Must

Today people live in two worlds, the real world and the virtual world. They can do most things online, from banking, shopping, socializing to entertainment. The following statistics show the reach of Internet users’ pathways (approximate):

• 82.9% of active Internet users watch video clips.
• Around 1.2 lakh blogs are created every day.
• 72.8% of active Internet users read blogs.
• Technorati currently tracks 111 million blogs.
• 63.2% of active Internet users visit a photo sharing site.
• 38.5% of active internet users upload a clip to a video sharing website.
• There are more than 90 million users on Facebook.

And that is why companies are now striving to create a strong internet presence for wider marketing of their products and services. However, anyone can create content on the Internet, including users of commercial products and services.

Multiple avenues for posting product reviews and sharing experiences on the web have led to the rise of user-generated content (UGC) on the web. All businesses have user-generated content online about their business products and services, and this is crucial to their reputation on the web. Users can converge at various points on the web to share information, some of which are:

• Social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook and Orkut
• Media sharing platforms such as YouTube, iShare, Vimeo, and Flickr to upload photos, audio files, and video clips.
• Knowledge sharing platforms like Yahoo, eHow and Wikipedia
• Blogging.
• Specialized online consumer forums and discussion forums.
• Product review websites like Ripoffreport and Mouthshut.

The impact of negative and unfavorable user-generated content is made exponentially greater through high levels of visibility, discovery, and networking of these online outlets. There are many cases where negative online publicity has caused great damage to companies. For example, Tata Consultancy Services has been accused of tax fraud on a blog tcstaxfraud.blogspot.com/, which appears in search engines and pollutes the name of the entire company. Similarly, the Times of India, an Indian national daily, was criticized via a blog with the slogan ‘Slimes of India’. Comments on scam reports such as “The Helen Foundation charged me 4722.00 and said my insurance would pay for it but didn’t give me the bills” also affect a company’s brand image. As user generated content is not regulated, taking legal action against it can be unproductive. Said content is of a fragmented nature, which makes it difficult to identify the author of the information.

A professional web reputation management consultant can counter negative publicity by using new approaches and strategies, such as friendly language, user-controlled messaging, SEO content creation, and dialogue. Therefore, web reputation management services have become a business necessity to survive and succeed in the world of e-commerce. Only a professional firm can handle the negative publicity your business may receive and ensure it has as little impact as possible on your brand image.