Since past four to five years, with the increase in the dominance of Internet that gave voice to individuals on social media and other online review sites, a new term “online reputation” has become more relevant. It has largely replaced the terms like PR and word-of-mouth marketing with which marketers and businesses identified with.

This concept is relatively new and in its nascent stage. Yet its impact is huge.

We all need ORM but it is of paramount importance for professionals such as lawyers, those working in healthcare industry, real estate etc. Even for small businesses and large enterprises facing difficulty in managing good reputation online.

Consequently, many reputation management companies have come into being. These are a bunch of professionals - social media experts, web developers, designers, marketers and bloggers who join hands to help any entity (business/individual) effected by negative reviews and poor online reputation.

These experts know the art and science of bumping off the negative reviews/comments/articles from the first or second page of someone’s search results. It, however, doesn’t imply that they tamper with search engine results. They simply push positive content and use “white hat” SEO techniques to improve one’s online reputation.

In all the online reputation management efforts ORM service providers make, even the customer has a role to play. If it is about your online reputation, you should take at least some responsibility. And as you take the partial ownership of fixing your online reputation, here’s how you can get involved and be a part of your brand’s reputation management.

Automate Monitoring; Set Alerts
We have discussed this before. Yet again, we emphasize that your reputation monitoring should be fully automated. You may set alerts in name of your brand, branded products and your chief executives etc. Receiving updates enables you to keep an accurate and up-to-date assessment of your company's online representation. We have compiled a comprehensive list of reputation-monitoring tools, check here.

There are plenty of other online tools, most of them free. A few noteworthy ones are: WhosTalkin and Technorati.

Direct customers to the right support platforms
If you don’t offer your customers a platform to submit their inquiries, concerns, complaints or queries they will definitely go to 3rd party sites such as Yelp to vent out. You may easily avoid this. Create support forums and easily-accessible contact forms for your customers.

Judiciously respond/ignore negatives reviews
Even when online reputation monitoring reveals a negative comment or review, it is not recommended that you always respond to it.

It is best if you try to offer a sincere response to anyone who has a legitimate complaint. However, if the negative review is simply defamatory, simply ignoring it is better as responding would only make things worse.

Encourage positive reviews
Easiest way to suppress negative reviews is surrounding yourself with positive reviews. Reach out to your most coveted customers and ask them to leave positive comments on your online review profiles, such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, or whatever else.

Make Brand Advocates
Let your customers endorse your brand. Bait would be a free gift or invitation to a VIP event and it is most likely that they will talk about their experiences with your brand online. This shall send across a positive message to the prospective customers.