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Control Your Reputation

In some cases the bad guys merely try to take your reputation. This has
gotten easier with the development of Google, Twitter and a variety of other
forms of online communication. Considering that most open-forum sites don't
check the facts before posting, it isn't challenging for someone to seed the
Internet with fake unhappy customers complaining about your company on
RipOffReport.com or a comparable outlet. I once had a client asking for help
because someone with a chip on their shoulder literally took the time to
make complaint videos and put them on YouTube.

The trouble here is that, in an effort to get as much truthful, social info
about stuff online in people's hands, most search engines give a nice high
rank to anything that sounds like an evaluation, comparison, or personal
experience about a product or business. That means that a couple unhappy
clients or dishonest competitors can clutter up Google's page 1 about your
business and be hard to delete.

What does one do? Take control to the degree you can.

First discover what is being said about you by monitoring your online
reputation.

Put as much positive press and info about your company out there as possible
in the form of press releases, awards, articles, testimonials and case
studies. False allegations on the web work best in a vacuum. If you fill the
internet with great, honest and fresh subject matter about your business and
do it constantly, it becomes much more difficult for the other guy to make
inroads. This is SEO chapter 1.

Approach the issue head on. Contact the writer and, if it really is an
unsatisfied client, see if you can resolve the situation and get a solution.
Even if that is impossible, most of these forums provide a possibility to at
least counter the criticism. If the bad press is from a competitor trying to
ruin your rep, he'll typically run like a cockroach when you turn the lights
on when he understands you're onto him.

Employ a company to do # 1 and # 2 for you if you don't have the time and
tools to do it yourself. Smart Company Growth does this as an unadvertised
service. There are other services out there as well you can find by
Googling.

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