Questions to Ask a Reputation Management Agency While Hiring One
It can take years to build credibility and reputation and just a couple of seconds to destroy. Especially in the age of internet, where word travels faster than light, it has become all the more crucial to safeguard your reputation and stay posted about what people are saying about your brand online.
Untrue or damaging news online or even a bad review on the internet is enough to cancel out all the good word-of-mouth publicity. This is why companies like to hire reputation management agencies. But, how to go about hiring the right one?
Well, make sure to ask the agency these questions to gauge into its expertise–
- What all services do you include in the ORM campaign
Online reputation management is not an exact science. There is so much you can do. A good company will have thorough knowledge of what practices this field encompass and how to create a balanced, effective, and thought-out strategy by taking into account all the factors. You can ask stuff like how the agency would suppress negative listings, how they plan on monitoring online branding, and legal representation along with its knowledge on content creation to suppress negative reviews, defamation, and positive PR etc.
- How to go about handing an issue when faced with one?
Like discussed earlier, ORM encompasses so much. The underlying activities can range from something as simple as monitoring online reputation to something as thorough as complete brand restoration and management. A good reputation management agency should be thorough in answering the course of action it’s supposed to take in case of an emergency.
- Do you have expertise in removing harmful content from Google’s search results
There are two ways to combat negative content published online about a business entity or a person. Either you can write fresh content to push-down those negative or you can submit a request with Google requesting them to remove a particular bad page from the internet.
The two practices are quite different and can make all the difference in the cost of doing online reputation management. Make sure to ask how permanent the results will be, because they can be quite damaging if those negative results creep-up all over again. So, tread carefully!
- Ask about how long will it take to do the damage control to the existing problem?
No one approaches a reputation management agency unless there is a problem. So, the fact that you are asking for help from one means that there’s some underlying issue which needs solving.
Depending on your particular case, the resolution time will vary hugely. It could take months to suppress negative search engine listings. On the other hand, removing bad online reviews can be done within a matter of few days. Since you’re always going to be billed for one service or the other, it’s important to be honest and realistic about your particular situation and the time it will take to fix it along with the cost factor.
Did you ever work with a reputation management agency in the past? If yes, how did you go about hiring one? Do share your thoughts/suggestions!
