Why Should We Worry About ORM?

Here’s a  perfect example of why ORM has suddenly become important.  Just check out this “juicy story” I found at RipOffReport.com.  Somebody made some seriously ugly accusations of a pool builder:

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“<Pool Builder> Wrote False Information About Other Builders…“

“My ex-girlfriend works for ABC Pools in Dallas. I want to let everyone know that she wrote (several times) negative information about other companies in her industry on rip-off report and then tells her customers to go read it.

“Last summer we had some people over from her work and they took turns creating accounts and pretending to be upset customers of their competition. I know they did it a few times. I think it is pretty sad and hopefully some people will consider this who and what they are dealing with.

“I won’t begin to tell you some of the other stories about what they did to some of their actual customers, another story, another time. But that’s the kind of person she is and some of them are.”

John, <city>, U.S.A.

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Wow – what a great idea! Let’s use the BBB and Rip-off Report and Twitter and every other blog and complaint site we can think of to badmouth our competitors! That way, we’ll be the only ones left standing without a black mark, and people will flock to us instead. Who needs “marketing” or ethics and integrity when you can just go around slamming your competitors online with impunity?

The sad ugly truth here is that this ugly accusation is totally false, but still, here it is, posted on the Internet for all the world to see. I say again, the report up above about “False Information” is bogus lie of its own. I happen to know the pool builder who was accused in the complaint (not ABC Pools), and he doesn’t have anyone commiting such dastardly deeds; nor does he have anyone in his office in any kind of current or past relationship with anyone named “John.” The whole thing was made up.

This is by no means the first time I’ve had to try to help a client get past an ugly complaint on the Internet – true or otherwise. Historically, what we’ve done is load up the client’s website with good, solid, positive information about their company, and then use a thorough SEO process (search engine optimization) to slowly push the negative stuff “further down the list.” That has worked pretty well for us in the past, but it doesn’t help much when guys like “John” are making up stories about ex-girlfriends while they’re throwing you and your company under the bus.

It takes months for good SEO to really take effect, while it only takes “John” about 20 minutes to post his complaint. (And of course, the search engines just love “fresh content….”) If “John” has friends, (people like that hang out together, don’t they?), then you could be fighting an unjust, uphill battle that you can never win.

Thank goodness we found an antidote to “John”!

And thank goodness my SEO specialist stays on the cutting edge of SEO developments. (I’m so lucky to have her on my team!) Just last week, she told me about the latest strategy that has been developed to combat this type of issue. Sort of the “flipside” of SEO, it’s called ORM (Online Reputation Management). This is where an SEO specialist will go out and “flood the Internet” with all kinds of great postings about you & your company, so that the occasional whiny complaints from people like “John” and his ilk get essentially “washed away.”

And yes, of course, we offer Online Reputation Management (ORM) Services. The cost is the same as if you’re implementing an SEO program. There’s an initial set up cost, and then a monthly or quarterly “maintenance” cost. And just like SEO, you’re not locked into anything forever. You just do it long enough to get the results you want, then back off, or stop doing it altogether. That is at last until someone in your office has a nasty break-up with someone named “John,” who then puts another nasty story on rip-off reports. My oh my, why can’t we all just get along?