Reputational harm to a business or individual can manifest in numerous waves, and it’s difficult for even seasoned experts to predict the extent of the impact wave. For companies with staying power, the discourse about the business and the brand can be tarnished for months or even years afterward. For companies that were already on the edge of the market, they can see a domino effect that can take disastrous turns. We’ll look at how to navigate the consequences of reputational harm, and why it’s so important to get involved with the narrative.
Respond Directly
The first step of navigating the consequences is to accurately assess the fallout of your reputational harm. You don’t necessarily want to call widespread attention to an event that is largely felt in small circles. From there, you can start to understand what’s being said about the company and whether it accurately reflects the organization.
Once you’ve evaluated the arguments, including any responses that stand up for the company, you can start to respond directly to the commentary. This may mean writing press releases, updating your company’s home page, or changing your search engine optimization strategy.
How To Balance Your Negative Content
If your company name is associated with negative search results, whether it’s documents from a public lawsuit or an article in a national newspaper, you should know that it can be difficult (if not impossible) to have that information taken down.
Status Labs, a leader in reputational management, encourages company owners to understand how search algorithms rank content so they have a better chance at navigating reputational harm. If the negative content comes up as the first search result, it’s going to take more effort to push the content to the second page of search results. The good news is that it is possible to do, even if it takes serious commitment.
The goal of navigating the consequences isn’t to necessarily eliminate all bad publicity, but to manage it in a way that shows customers that you’re paying attention to actual or perceived problems. You have the opportunity to set the record straight by clarifying misunderstandings or providing concrete steps on what you’re doing to fix the problem. Once the worst of the attention has passed, you can turn toward making the future the focal point rather than the past.
Maintain, Maintain, Maintain
Status Labs advises its clients to take a long-term approach to their online reputation management, no matter what the current public perception is. Social media, review sites, web pages, local press, national press, blogs: Whatever is out there about you and your company or cause, you need to be aware of what’s being said and how it’s being said. If you can stay consistent with your brand values across all channels, you have a better chance at controlling the impact wave. You also have a better chance of changing how people construct the story of your organization in their minds.
Navigating the consequences of reputational harm doesn’t necessarily have to be difficult. However, if it’s going to be done properly, there need to be mapped-out phases based on the severity of the backlash. Many companies find they have to outsource the services to experts who can take the reins of online reputation management and improve the odds of a company’s or individual’s success.
