I recently spoke about corporate reputation defense with a reporter for a pharmaceutical trade publication called MedAdNews. The article is finally on the publication’s website, and it provides some interesting insight into the challenges corporations face in protecting their reputations online. This issue is applicable to businesses of all sorts, not just pharmaceutical companies.

I remain deeply skeptical about most reputation defense services. One obvious problem is that many of these services claim to undo negative publicity after the fact. In a world where Google has essentially become an on-demand private detective for the masses, that’s an approach that simply won’t work. It can take months to counteract negative information that turns up on the first page of Google search results. In some cases, it simply won’t be possible to counteract negative search results.

Companies that care about their reputation need to be proactive about creating a positive search profile and strong consumer relations well in advance of any bad news. In a world of blogs and social networks that means participating online and actively engaging consumers in a transparent and authentic manner.

If this sounds time consuming, it can be. Not only that, chances are this new approach will require a skill set that might not fit neatly into existing job descriptions or departmental structures.

However, the payoff is clearly worth the effort. Companies that succeed in building goodwill with consumers and strong organic search results will be well positioned to weather any attack on their reputation in the future.

If you’d like to talk about building an effective social media strategy with an eye towards defending your corporate reputation online, give us a call.

• How To Protect Your Reputation Online
• The Thin Web Line