Why Can’t I Manage My Reputation Online Myself?
Honestly, when it comes to online reputation management (ORM), there is no rule that says you cannot manage it yourself. However, there are a number of positives to using a professional ORM service to help you get the job done.
They Know the Industry
These are the experts. They know the industry and how it works. They can develop a strategy that works to improve your ORM quickly and easily. With the strategy in hand, they can get to work right away.
Because of their industry knowledge, they may have a few “tricks” up their sleeve that really are not actually tricks. They are just simply available options you didn’t know existed.
For instance, are you familiar with search engine optimization, or SEO? ORM makes use of various SEO techniques to hide the negative content lower in the search engine results. It doesn’t go away, because nothing on the Internet really does. But, it goes so far away that people won’t see it.
They Have Time
When you do your own reputation management, you are dedicating a small amount of time that you have to use for a number of other tasks as well. Because the one thing ORM takes a lot of is time, hiring a professional company can take that pressure off of you.
Yes, the ORM company will have multiple clients they are handling the ORM efforts for, but larger companies will have the staff available to dedicate a person, or a small team of people to your tasks specifically.
What the ORM team works out will be based on the size of your business, and your ORM goals. If you are already in the middle of a crisis, then your situation will require immediate attention.
Workflow, Priority & Time Management
They Have Tools You Don’t
While there are tools available online, both free and premium, to help you track:
- Brand mentions
- Search engine results
- Search engine rankings
- Links to your website
These tools are not as effective as some of the tools the industry makes available to experts and ORM companies.
The bottom line is that you will have more efficient resources working for you with an ORM company than if you handled it yourself. They have the resources to launch a more sizable campaign to change your online reputation to a more positive one.
Quality
With a professional team of experts, you’ll get higher quality results. It’s not that you cannot produce quality on your own. It’s that you may not know how. One small mistake, and you could make the situation even worse.
ORM works with writers who can produce top-notch content both your readers, and the search engines love. They work with stellar link builders, who can spread the word about your website, and with social media experts who can create an amazing social media presence.
Sure, hiring an ORM company is going to cost you money, and not all services are created equally. But, the investment is certainly one worth making. When your online reputation is in tact, you are going to increase your bottom line.
If you are spending all your time and energy on managing your own online reputation, then you are not investing it in places where it could be better spent. You could be out there finding investors. You could be out there finding new clients, designing new products and services… or any number of other things you are really the “expert” in.
When it comes to productivity in business, it is truly more efficient to spend money hiring an expert in something you’re not, so you can focus your time and effort in areas where you have expertise.
