Can Companies Use Reputation Management Firms?

The short answer? Yes.

Any company can use a reputation management firm to better their public image and improve their online brand. In fact, a number of companies are turning to reputation management firms to handle the increasingly complex world of online brand management – especially when it comes to negative reviews or lies being spread online. However, the bigger question is: should you consider using a reputation management firm as part of your brand management strategy?

The Difference between Public Relations and Reputation Management
While it's true that public relations and reputation management share a set of common practices, the two are actually very different from each other.

Whereas public relations often focus on strategic, transparent communication between a company's brand and the general public, reputation management increasingly involves the use of discrete, proactive counter-measures to reduce the impact negative information possesses in harming your company.

Both are important to any company brand, however, the means by which they serve your company are very different. Public relations promote your brand; reputation management protects it.

Why Reputation Management is Important
No matter how well-intentioned or thought-out your public relations strategy is, once negative information about your company reaches the internet for public for consumption, it's going to hang out there for a very long time. As such, it's imperative to take a proactive approach.

Reputation management enhances your company's ability to address these concerns by leveraging your company's SEO, content management, social media accounts, and legal tactics against negative information.

I asked some thought leaders what the purpose of reputation management really is. Here's what Abdullahi Muhammed, a branding expert and the CEO of Oxygenmat, a firm which helps brands manage their online reputation had to say:

So how about an example? Marketing influencer, Jayson DeMers, has an apt one for you:

That's why reputation management is important. It keeps the information you want in front of your customers and avoids the need to build reactive PR crisis management campaigns.

Hiring Professional Help
As the digital world becomes increasingly complex, developing and maintaining a reputation management strategy can be an increasingly time consuming project. If you lack the resources to do it on your own, you should consider outsourcing this task to trained professionals.

Reputation management firms take all the guess work out of managing negative information regarding your company brand. They can help you enhance your company's public relations by providing you with a comprehensive risk analysis of your PR campaigns, develop websites and other online properties that act as positive reputation hubs.

They can even submit take down requests, and take appropriate legal action on your behalf should you find any clear cut cases of illegal information online.

One beneficial aspect of using a reputation management firm is their specialization in high-volume content deployment. As mentioned, these firms can use a variety of online properties to aggressively help boost positive content about your company, and they do so by constantly churning out new, highly creative, and relevant content marketing materials.

This effectively pushes positive listings about your company to the top of search engine rankings, and has the benefit of increasing the presence of your virtual footprint – a tactic absolutely critical in safeguarding your company's reputation.

Making Reputation Management a Priority
In today's market, your business depends on your online reputation. The biggest mistake you can make is ignoring it. That's why you need to consider it a priority, regardless of whether or not you choose to use a reputation management firm.

Thanks to the internet, negative information about your company will always find its way into the public market place, and it doesn't matter if that information is true or not. With the anonymity the web provides, it's easy for disgruntled customers, ex-employees, and unethical competitors to damage your reputation one post at a time, so you should never ignore it.

The longer you wait to do anything, the more damage such information can do and the harder it will be to repair the damage done.

Should You Use a Reputation Management Firm?
Yes. Reputation management is a key aspect of your company's brand management efforts. If you don't have the proper resources to mitigate the impacts negative information can create, hiring a good firm can make a world of difference in your company's image.