What are the main ways in which our reputation can be damaged online?

There are 3 main pathways which will be discussed below:

Firstly, social networks as we are constantly exposed on them, secondly, comments on platforms such as Google My Business and finally websites and forums.

Reputational issues in social media

If there is no justified reason, they will probably do it from anonymous or false sources, which makes the attack less credible. We can use this to our advantage to defend ourselves publicly against the attack, as well as denouncing it to the social network itself. This is something that must always be done and from different accounts so that the social network believes and gives importance to a newly created account that is damaging your reputation in a negative way.

We should not stand still and leave things to chance, we do not want our image to be tarnished by a lie, if we have a branded hashtag it is very possible that it is being ''tarnished''.

How can we act?

Creating positive posts so that the latest posts towards our hashtag and our brand are positive. To do this we must have many social accounts where we can cover up those negative comments quickly and effectively.

If you have a database of customers, contact them and offer to enter them in a prize draw or give them a discount if they post on that social network with your hashtag and mention your brand in a positive way. This is a very easy and safe tool that can help gain reputation for your company.

Reputation issues on Google My Business platforms

If you have a lot of old accounts with a high local guide, try reporting those attacking comments. They may be removed over time as people tend to do this with new accounts. 

You don't have to be waiting and relying on Google to delete those negative comments, you have to generate positive comments as with social media to displace those negative comments from ''fake'' accounts.

There is also the option to exchange reviews in telegram groups or buy them directly.

Reputation problems in forums

If you know who is attacking you on purpose and is not a customer, contact the forum admins directly in good faith and prove that it is not your customer.

But maybe that forum thread will also rank in Google for our brand and even be given much more visibility.

Reputation problems on websites

If you have reputation problems on websites where you are deliberately being talked about in a negative way, you have two problems:

-The audience of this website

-That this URL can rank in Google

This section is very important as we must not have negative URLs towards us as our customers will search for us on Google and those negative URLs will appear and can damage our online reputation.

We must be transparent and not hide bad criticisms and know how to manage them in an appropriate way.