Andy Warhol had no idea what was around the corner when he proclaimed that everyone would be famous for only fifteen minutes. With the internet it is possible to achieve fame — and notoriety — in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, once something is on the web, it doesn’t go away after fifteen minutes. This means that the online reputation of a company, product, brand, or individual, once damaged, is hard to repair, since the bad things never go away.
Social media has been accused of making the problem worse by giving a digital printing press to anyone who can type in a status field. That is only half the story. Social media can also be used to generate positive online publicity . This can help protect a brand against future reputation attacks or it can be used to combat negative reports and opinions.
That is only one of the many effective internet tips for applying social media to a reputation management problem. Creating and maintaining an informative blog and writing guest articles for blogs and news sites is another tactic that can successfully replace bad reports with good results in search engines.
Companies can also make use of slide shows, social videos , photo essays, and podcasts to get their side of the story out there. They may want to directly, and rationally, refute negative claims about them or they may ignore the negative stuff and instead focus on extolling their good points.
Social media has made it easier for competitors and personal enemies to spread false and damaging information about companies and individuals. However, it has also made it much easier for the attacked and their loyal supporters to defend against those attacks.