ORM 101:
Do potential customers, partners and employers type your name, brand, or product name into a search engine? What do they see? ORM can help you influence these results. Click on the arrow or scroll down for more…
Proactive strategies are fairly straightforward to implement and essentially populate all standard internet directories with standardized information so that squatters can’t intercede with their own messages. These strategies enable customers to control a good amount of internet channels and “box out” detractors. For example, without a BBB Online listing for your company, a detractor to your company could setup a rogue account and use it for malicious activity. By setting up an account ahead of time, these sorts of attacks can be minimized.
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Some smart brands have realized that most consumers search for products directly from google. They implement ORM strategies that target the same keywords that are used by consumers. By implementing this proactive strategy, they have been able to suppress listings by counterfeiters and other undesirable sites to page 2 and beyond. This significantly reduces losses to counterfeits by driving consumers to legitimate e-commerce sites, and it costs significantly less than traditional remedies.
For more serious crises there will be more work required. In these cases, ORM services can be used to complement the overall communications strategy and help influence general sentiment in a positive direction. For individuals, ORM companies can help formulate a strategy to address the issue directly with their clients. Most companies tend to have an idea of how they’d like to respond. In these cases, ORM services can be delivered as part of the overall outreach and communication efforts.
Eventually it showed. According to a January 15, 2018 article in the USA Herald (https://usaherald.com/reputation-com-going-business/) its CEO and another senior executive resigned. The USA Herald also reported employee comments on glassdoor as claiming, “The ship is about to sink”.
Thankfully, the ship didn’t sink, but it did suffer and was eventually taken over by a private equity firm called The Stagwell Group in April 2018. Typically when companies are taken over by private equity firms, investments in marketing, R&D and quality are slashed; line workers are fired, and; operations are shifted off-shore. All these cuts enable the firm’s partners to make a fortune – but at the expense of current and future trusting customers.
In addition to ReputationDefender, many ad and PR agencies offer ORM services in addition to their main line of business. In many of these cases, there are generally no ORM experts onsite and the firms will use their regular staff to do the ORM work. This lack of focus on pure ORM can lead to subpar results.
When it appeared ReputationDefender pulled back on investments and innovations, it created market opportunities for new entrants of ORM-focused service providers. These firms, like Reputation Director, focus on offering customers proactive strategies rather than backward-looking reactive defensive tactics. And, their focus is purely ORM so that customer results can benefit from this expertise.
When comparing services and prices, the devil is in the details. For example, ReputationDefender pricing lists something called “Personalized Websites” which may give one the impression of a website but it really isn’t. This type of listing is more accurately described as an internet property since it is just one page of a website. A LinkedIn listing is an example of an internet property or what ReputationDefender calls a “Personalized Website”. Sometimes consumers will need additional services due to this misunderstanding, and this usually leads to an increase in price.
At Reputation Director, we want to earn your business by doing a great job while staying within budget. As a result, our packages are sized to include all that is needed to accomplish the goals. We provide a minimum of 2x the amount of sites and credit to our customers for the same price point when compared to ReputationDefender.