Online reputation management case study - An example of a solution we provided for a manufacturing client experiencing active negative press in multiple places.
Our client is a manufacturing firm that creates tools for machining. This high-profile company has reached a level of maturity and success where the emergence of online detractors is inevitable. Small missteps take on the aspect of mountainous problems as competitors and sensationalists focus only on the negative (because it sells newspapers).
The problems this firm faced were enormous. 90% of the first page of Google search results was negative and 80% of the second page. Their online reputation problems included multiple incidences of negative journalism, negative blog comments, negative YouTube comments, and more. The less than flattering content was refreshed regularly due to the high-profile nature of the company.
We informed the company that a 100% solution was most likely not possible, then got to work on damage control. Our first objective was to ascertain the keywords most problematic to their internet reputation. The list was narrowed to five key phrases that were identified as highest priority. These keyphrases raised negative search results in Sports Illustrated, blogs, online newspapers, and other popular online web destinations.
We then created a one-year online reputation management plan with the primary objective of first page dilution. The plan contained a list of existing positive content, new content such as websites, blogs, articles, YouTube and MetaCafe videos, and press releases timed to be released at specific intervals.
A content plan was created and approved by the client and content execution began. Search engine submissions and aggressive search engine optimization helped boost the relevance of the existing and created content. First page search results began to change after only two weeks. Our success has been measured by the percentage of first page dominance we have helped our client achieve. In less than six months we had achieved 80% positive domination of the first page of search engine results. At times we have achieved 100% however new negatives are constantly being created by major online properties and must be diluted and pushed off.
Case Study: Online Reputation Management