Reputation Management Definition
Who Can Use Reputation Management? What is the definition of Reputation Management?
Before answering the question of what reputation management is, perhaps another question should be answered first. Who can even use it? Is this something only shady people use? Is there a legitimate use for it? Well, the answer is yes. To that last question, at least! Shady people can certainly use reputation management services just like how a thief can use a lost and found bin, but it doesn’t particularly change what they did and what they’re doing.
Rather than give a blanket response of “everyone”, let’s have a look at who can use a reputation management service in a way that benefits them in the long term:
• Students who are about to enter the job pool
• Employees who are looking to switch jobs or are in the interviewing process
• A business owner that deals a lot with the public in some fashion, either directly or indirectly
• Employees who are at the forefront of a company fiasco
• People who went through some traumatic or stressful public event
The number of people who can’t utilize the service is low, and restricted to those who don’t use the internet or are not in the right age bracket for it to really be relevant. For example, a 6 year old boy probably doesn’t exist according to the internet unless his parents have talked about him, and someone in their mid-70s is probably busy doing other things besides attaching their name to posts on the internet and then being trash-talked by someone on several public forums. While it’s not impossible, it’s a safe bet.
What It Is
So, what actually is reputation management? It used to be a widely held belief that companies whooffered reputation management simply created false webpages and keyword spammed them to the top of search results in order to give their recipient a good name. This used to be true, or at least, it used to be something that was possible. Google changing how they function and legitimate businesses entering the market have altered this rather drastically, and now you’ll find their services being valid to most
demographics.
In its most simplest perspective, reputation management is the act of ensuring that the bad content about you or your business isn’t the first thing people see when they look you up and to also make the great content about you becomes visible. This can be taken a step further, with reputation management companies also acting as your public relations department or managing your social media accounts in order to keep them active and responsive to clients.
If you desire an even more basic look at it, think of it this way: Reputation management companies are the good friend who watched you get bullied for something you didn’t do or something you did as a mistake by everyone around you, only to step in and say, “Hey, guys, what about all the great things Jon did like x, y, and z?”
That’s right, they’re just like your best friend, only professional, online, and probably not singular. They make the bad things small and the good things big. You shouldn’t be remembered by your mistakes or the incorrect opinions of someone who is disgruntled, and these guys make sure you don’t.
