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Reputation Management 101: How To Promote Your Press Release

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No matter how good your press release has been written, if it does not get any mileage online, nobody will know about your product or service. Reputation management experts note that it’s not enough that you have a perfectly written promotional piece. You have to get people to talk about you. This is where fostering a relationship with reporters and industry influencers comes in.

Decide What You Want To Happen And Focus

Reporters get dozens of letters and emails every day from friends and strangers pitching stories and hoping to get their products or businesses featured. Because of this flood of messages, chances are, the reporter will have only a split second to decide if he or she wants to give your message attention or not. What do you do to stand out? Find out what they are interested in and anchor from there.

Do not spam writers and editors. In addition to being annoying, it will not help your brand at all and will only further flood his or her inbox. To get noticed, find out first what the writer or publication’s demographics and target readers are. That’s what you build on.

For example, if you are selling an orange juice, don’t pitch to a writer who’s only interested in apple juice. If you must, relate the benefits of orange juice alongside apple juice so the media person will have something to write about. Of course, this is an oversimplification — but surely you get the idea. Pitching to somebody who will find no value in your product or service is a waste of time.

Don’t Spread Yourself Too Thinly

Sending out your press release to every possible news agency, writer and editor available is no way to effectively promote your business. This is lazy and sloppy work. Worse, it can brand you as a jack of all trades but master of none. Create a niche. Find out which publications have some relation to your product. Research which writers are likely to give you the time of day. Know their beats and areas of expertise. That’s how you create a positive reputation.

Once you have identified your target reports and outlets, get personal. Sending out generic press releases sends off the message that you really don’t know who you’re talking to. This will likely result in a disinterested (or worse, offended) receiver. Due to the number of pitches they receive on a daily basis, these people can identify a generic press release from the first sentence. So be sure to find out something on your target reader, so you can create an effective hook.

Be Knowledgeable About Industry Trends

The movement of articles is faster online than on print. This is because editors can easily switch out a story with another depending on the attention it is getting and the content it carries. If your press release gets trumped by a big story, you can expect your online presence to get relegated to the back pages, if not removed.

That said, your press release should be packaged in a way to is relevant to what is currently trending. By coming out with fresh content and timing its release properly, you can enjoy placement success. Another strategy would be to hold off on having your content released until the current trending topic has started to subside. This way, when the editor isn’t too overwhelmed, he or she can lend your press release his or her attention. In short, don’t swim in a school. Find a way where you can swim above and get light.

Make Your PR Easy To Digest And Share

When it comes to effective reputation management, the challenge is to not get drowned in the mass of similar news. In addition to being relevant and timely, you should also make your press release easy to share. Give it a viral element. Make it entertaining. Inject something that people will want to engage in. Otherwise, your press release will just stay where it is — in their inbox — and not move at all.

 

When Ripoff Report Threatens Your Online Reputation: What To Do

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Building a positive and solid reputation for your business is relatively easy when you’re just starting out. However, in these social media driven times, one small mistake could also spell its end. With so many people having access to the Internet, bringing a business up or making it fail can happen in just seconds. This is why you should be wary about what’s posted about you online.

Take the case of taxidermist Marissa Hernandez. When she was just starting out from her New York home, she established name that made her service provide of choice by many locals. At 20 years old, she was already managing a small business and created a solid source of income.

However, years later, she suddenly noticed a drop in sales. She typed her name into Google search and discovered that a report had been filed on a website called Ripoff Report complaining about her work. The said report even went as far as saying that she had been accepting orders that involved illegal animals.

Worried about her business, claiming that none of those allegations were true, she discovered that the Ripoff Report complaint was not filed by a customer, but actually a competitor. While she was eventually able to convince the competitor to have the complaint removed, things don’t really work that way with the site. Hernandez then decided to reach out to the website directly and was rejected. Follow-up calls and emails were ignored and the report remained online. At that point, Hernandez started contemplating whether she should just shut down because she was getting zero orders.

The Ripoff Report Effect

Ripoff Report is a popular website where people can anonymously posted complaints about a certain person or business. While there’s nothing wrong with posting reviews, the fact that users can file anonymously creates a huge problem. You can’t really verify if the claims are true or not.

When the site was first established in 1999, it was a go-to place for reviews. However, because of its questionable process, it has turned into an often-unreliable source of untrue (and sometimes damaging) reports. Worse, once you are mentioned on the site, you have to go through hell and high water to get your information corrected — if at all. At present, Ripoff Report remains high up in Google search results, despite its reputation. Thus, a single mention spells a major problem.

What To Do When You’re Mentioned

However, there is something you can do to recover. Do not close down and give up just yet. You can employ reputation management strategies or get in touch with professional reputation management firms to help push the bad stuff to the back and bring only the good to the front. This involves a technical process.

Ignore

Once you or your business appears on Ripoff Report, the first thing to do is to not engage. When you leave a comment or post, you only refresh the page and keep it active and relevant. Your goal is to make the page about you extinct by ignoring it. Remember, Google’s algorithm notices which sites are active and which are dormant. Do not give your detractors the time of day by responding to the negative press.

Acknowledge The Problem

When somebody complains about you, it’s most likely because there IS something about your product or service that he or she does not like. Even when you think your business is stellar, you cannot please everybody. The best way to deal with this is to contact the posted directly and try to make amends.

By creating a positive relationship with someone who used to complain about you, you build a fresh start. You might even convert this disgruntled customer into an advocate, so he or she will start writing good things about you. Reaching out to your client will not erase the Ripoff Report complaint, but it will open channels for people to say something positive instead. Also take it as an opportunity to make improvements to your service.

Hire A Pro

There are online reputation management services whose focus is to change what appears on Google’s search results, so all the negative stuff is pushed to the 5th page and so on. When somebody types your name or business’s name on Google search, the general response would be to check out only the first or second page (sometimes third).

You can employ SEO practices to make sure your first few pages go in your favor, but this can be tricky. The smartest bet is to get in touch with the pros. After all, you need a fast fix to your problem or else you will continue to shed clients. By promoting only positive content about you online via reputation management strategies, you minimize the appearance of bad press and make the good stuff rank in their place.

Understanding Reputation Management: What Your Search Results Mean

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In this age of the Internet, it is no suprise when someone tries to Google your name to find out more about you. Whether it’s a potential employer, a former colleague, a professor, a new friend, a long-lost family member or anybody curious, it matters that what comes up sways in your favor. That said, understanding how to monitor your results and making sure only the good stuff comes up is key. This is what online reputation management is all about.

How do you know if the results are good or bad? How do you make them favorable to you? For this discussion, let’s use the name of Ellevest CEO Sallie Krawcheck to get examples of what bad, good and excellent search results might look like.

The Whys and Hows of Searching On Google

Google’s search function is designed to give the users the best possible results that answer a certain question. The service makes use of artificial intelligence, using keywords, algorithms and the context behind the words that are typed in to come with a list of information that can help the reader. This is done in a way that is easily understood.

For Sallie Krawcheck, typing her name in would likely turn up some professional images, biographical and career information, social media accounts and recent news about her. However, it’s not always the good stuff that comes up. Some CEOs see news about recent controversies they’ve been embroiled in, whether professionally or personally, and this instantly paints an ugly picture.

If somebody is typing your name on Google search, that could mean that person knows little to nothing about you. When the page results in a mix of facts and unsavory news (worse, photos), that could brand you for life. If that person happens to be someone who wants to do business with you, then seeing negative news will have that person heading for the door.

 

Investing In Your Search Results

When Google’s robots decide that it’s your bad past issues that deserve the front page, it’s time to take matters into your own hands. This is where reputation management comes in.

Now, let’s go back to Sallie Krawcheck as an example. When you type in “Ellevest CEO” on the search engine, only favorable and factual results about Krawcheck will apear. While your search words did not form a complete sentence, Google’s smart algorithm figured out what you were trying to look for, so it gave you exactly what you need.

Now, notice on the upper right part of the first page there’s a box where perhaps the most important information about Krawcheck appears. This is usually the Wikipedia page. By clicking on the arrows on that area, Google takes you to other related pages that may be of help in your search for knowledge.

On the other hand, when you type in “Sallie Krawcheck” on the search bar, something else comes up. Sure, some of it still says she’s CEO of Ellevate, but it also shows off her Twitter account, company profile and professional bio and other features or mentions of her online. The results range from professional to personal.

Lucky for her, the results are good. If they hadn’t, then she would have to employ SEO and reputation management techniques to ensure that the questionable stuff are relegated to the far back and only the good ones are on the first and second pages. When it comes to your reputation online, search results can be a challenge because it reads everything that’s been said about you on the Internet, even the embarrassing ones.

Past is past, but not on the Internet. Fortunately, we have online reputation management strategies we can employ to make sure the bad stays buried in the back. Beyond pushing the good stuff to the fore, this effort requires a technicality that is best handled by the pros. With the experts on your case, you can rest assured that when somebody Googles your name, you don’t cower in embarrassment. Investing in a professional reputation management service is your answer to achieving this level of confidence online.