Do you know what people are talking about you or your business online? Did you know that people will talk about the services or products your business offers without your participation? Have you ever noticed any negative feedback or discussions taking place on popular social media channels about you or your business? Did you know that your reputation can be discredited in 140 characters or less?

For many in the digital landscape, online reputation management (ORM) is playing a key role for successful business growth and building credibility online. There are many large organizations that have all the online reputation management systems and processes in place, but smaller businesses may hesitate investing in a proper ORM strategy for their online reputation. In my opinion, it is really a small investment compared to the results it can offer.

Everyone is a journalist online

What are you going to do when someone post something negative about your business online? How are you going to know if there’s a discussion taking place about your business? How are you going to respond? Everyone online has the ability to post anything for the public to see and they are now all journalists online. If you have a disgruntled ex-employee, what is stopping them from posting slander about you online? How are you going to protect yourself?

Find below a poll on if you are prepared for an online reputation crisis. The goal with this poll is to check whether you think it is important to manage an online crisis.

Poll: Is it important to manage an online crisis?

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Online reputation management is important

Online reputation management is not just important for managing your reputation online against negative feedback, but with a proper strategy and process in place, you will be able to find out how you can increase your credibility online, and at the same time, what you should do if anything negative gets posted. It can also play a big role with personal reputation management online.

Being prepared and proactive with an online reputation management strategy can help you get the exposure for your business that you deserve, and at the same time help with being prepared when an online crisis happens online.

	About: Anton Koekemoer I’m a digital marketing specialist and I’m very passionate about online marketing. My main goal with marketing on the web focuses on designing strategic plans and business solutions around digital technologies to get good results. I’m also a blogger, dad, and I like golf, photography, and music.