Online Reputation Management and Controversial Tactics

Online Reputation Management (ORM) refers to the practice of attempting to control or influence the public perception of an organization, individual, or brand on the internet. In the digital age, a company's reputation is heavily shaped by search engine results, social media chatter, and user reviews (Wang & Sun, 2021). Organizations actively manage their presence on high-traffic, authoritative websites like eBay, Wikipedia, and Google to ensure that information presented to potential customers and partners is favorable (Wong, 2013).

Key Areas of Focus

ORM strategies primarily target areas where public sentiment and search visibility intersect:

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs): The ultimate goal is often to push negative or damaging content off the first page of search results, replacing them with positive or neutral information. This involves Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, such as creating large volumes of optimized, positive content.

Review Platforms: Sites like Yelp, Google Maps, and industry-specific review platforms are crucial. Managing star ratings and textual reviews directly impacts customer trust and purchasing decisions.

Social Media: Monitoring and engaging with social media conversations allows brands to quickly respond to crises and cultivate a positive, interactive presence.

Authoritative Websites: Maintaining control over informational resources like Wikipedia and monitoring third-party marketplace comments (e.g., eBay seller ratings) is essential for broad-based reputation control.

Controversial and Unethical Tactics

While many ORM strategies are legitimate (e.g., responding professionally to negative reviews, publishing high-quality content), some firms employ controversial, unethical, and sometimes illegal tactics to achieve favorable results (Tuk-van Heerikhuizen, 2018).

Manufacturing Positive Sentiment: A common practice involves generating artificial positivity to dilute existing negativity. This includes:

Creating fake, positive reviews of the individual or business to counteract genuine negative feedback (Tuk-van Heerikhuizen, 2018).

Astroturfing third-party websites and forums by creating anonymous, seemingly genuine accounts that post positive testimonials or aggressively criticize legitimate negative reviews.

Digital Suppression and Attack: More aggressive, destructive tactics aim to remove negative content entirely:

The use of spambots or launching denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against competing businesses or sites hosting damaging content to force them temporarily or permanently off the web. This is a severe form of digital harassment and is often illegal.

Using sophisticated SEO and link-building schemes to demote the ranking of negative search results, making them virtually invisible to the average user.

These aggressive strategies often violate the terms of service of the host platforms (e.g., review manipulation on Google or Yelp) and undermine the trust that consumers place in online information (Tuk-van Heerikhuizen, 2018).

References

Tuk-van Heerikhuizen, F. (2018). Online Reputation Management - A Guide to Ethical and Unethical Practices. Independent Study Paper.

Wang, Z., & Sun, J. (2021). Research on Online Reputation Management Strategies of Enterprises in the Big Data Era. Proceedings of the 2021 3rd International Conference on Economic Management and Cultural Heritage (EMCH 2021).

Wong, K. (2013, February 13). The Dark Side of Online Reputation Management. Forbes.