Online reputation management (ORM) is a relatively new branch of Internet Marketing but it is getting increased exposure and a lot more companies are realising the importance actively managing their reputation on the Internet.

Online Reputation Management consists of:

1. monitoring what other people are saying about your company online and
2. taking pro-active steps to ensure that your online reputation is improved.

People are increasingly turning to the Internet to search for information about potential suppliers or business partners. It is also becoming increasingly easier to publish any information about a competitor that could be harmful to that competitor's image. If YOUR company is 'the competitor', that could leave your company in a very unenviable position!

Online Reputation Management is the collective name for all the activities related to managing your company's reputation online. It entails any or all of the following:

• Managing your online assets – these include your website, blogs, microsites etc. 
  
  
• First impressions – is your website well designed? Does it create a professional image? Does it contribute and enhance your corporate image?
• SERPS – are your websites appearing high in the search engines? Are there any negative results appearing in the search engines that has to be managed?
• Blogosphere and other sites – monitoring what other people are saying about your company. Are there any disgruntled employees that are saying negative things about your company? 
• Forums, consumer complaint/opinion sites. What is being said about your company on sites such as Hellopeter.com? Are you pro-actively managing these comments?

• Pay per click campaigns.
  Even if your site appears on the first page of the search engines for your targeted keywords, you can still lose business to competitors who hijack these keywords and even your brand names with the use of Pay Per Click campaigns. It might be worth it to run PPC campaigns just to lock out the competition and to dominate the search engine space completely.
  

• Corporate communications.
  Press releases is an important way of increasing your exposure on the Internet.

• Social media (E.g Youtube, facebook, myspace, twitter, linked in, wikipedia)
  Social media is becoming increasingly important. It offers an opportunity to both increase your exposure on the Internet as well as to offer a real opportunity to interact with your clients in a more direct and personal way. If this is done incorrectly it can also have disastrous consequences.
  

• Article marketing
  Article marketing serves multiple purposes. It increased the content both on and off your website, it builds links back to your site and it builds your corporate profile on the Internet.

• Corporate profiling/Brand building
  Increase your exposure on the Internet and build your brand as well as build links back to your website by building a profile about your company and your website through various possible sites such as Squidoo, Google Hub pages, Aboutus.org, Wikipedia etc.