By Allan Maurer
WASHINGTON, DC—A discussion that dominated one Web-focused panel at TechJournal South’s Internet Summit in November concluded that companies must monitor and manage their online reputations. One way to do that is to hire a firm such as DC-based RepEquity, which CEO Tripp Donnelly says uses “a marriage of art and science” to help companies balance their online reputations.
RepEquity leverages its search algorithm expertise to provide Online Reputation Management (ORM).
ORM is the practice of employing tactics on behalf of companies – and increasingly for individuals – to proactively showcase positive content across search engines, while protecting brands and reputations from damaging content or social media brought to light through search queries.
According to the recent November 2008 Hitwise online report, brand and name searches account for 86 percent of all Internet searches. “The days when people type in domain names are gone,” says Donnelly. Most people now have search bars on their browser toolbar and use that rather than the address bar, he notes.
No editorial authority in search
So, says Donnelly, search engines are the filters through which the world now gets its information online. Many people even rate it their number one source for finding news. “But there is no editorial authority in search,” says Donnelly. “Whatever is true or false can appear on page one of the search results. And an industry report shows that 90 percent of people trust what they find on that first page. Two-thirds never pass page three of a search.”
What that means to a company is that a brand-busting bad product review or reputation-bashing comments about a company executive can show up on the first page of its search results—even if the company’s brand or the executive has far more positive than negative reactions overall.
“Companies come to us wanting to own and manage the search engine rankings that showcase their brands when people search for them,” says Donnelly. “Some come to us wondering why four year old rankings still pop up on the first page, while newer ones are on page seven. We apply a marriage of art and science to better manage search engine results.”
Not all clients need reputation repair
Donnelly is quick to point out that RepEquity uses “white hat” methods, not underhanded tricks, to help companies position themselves, their executives and their brands more favorably online.
“We have a tactical solution to better manage search engine results,” he says. “About half our clients are not really here for reputation reshaping or repair. They just want to better control that window people see. They want the most associated, best content they can have about their brand or executives up there.”
Some clients, though, do come to the company when their rankings are all quite negative. “Then we use a crisis method,” says Donnelly. “We can come in and provide better parity so that it’s not just dominated by commentary.”
Founded in 2007, the company was initially funded through client acquisitions. In just the last couple of quarters, it signed deals with marketing and PR firms that don’t have in-house online reputation management capabilities. They have clients coming to them saying, ‘Great job getting us in the Wall Street Journal, but why do negative four-year-old articles still show up as number two on search engine pages?’ We resolve the why and how.”
Donnelly knows about that world first hand. “I was director of corporate communications for a public company, a wireless distributor doing $400 million in revenue with a billion dollar market cap at its height.
Need was obvious
“We did everything online. At the time, we had a couple of hundred consumer complaints out of 7.5 million customers. I had an initiative to go to the top PR firms and agencies and say, ‘Here’s our problem, how do we manage this?’ No one had an answer.”
He did have the benefit of working with “true technologists” at the company and put together a team to take on the problem in-house. “We became quite effective,” he says. Once he left the company, he found that there was a broad demand for a method to deal with online reputation management.
“You can see that from the clients we attracted,” he says. “We have had clients from traditional financial services, from retail firms and brands, to people and organizations in the political world and some A-list Hollywood celebrities,” he says, although confidentiality agreements prevent him from naming them.
After his career in the push media world of paid online search, he says, “In the pull media world, you need better controls.”
The company raised what it calls “a significant investment” in an undisclosed amount from Enhanced Capital Partners early this month (December 2008).
“We believe RepEquity is well-positioned to seize on an enormous market opportunity, and are reassured by their growth in the last year,” said Mark Slusar, director of Enhanced Capital Partners’ DC Fund, at the time.
On the Web: www.repequity.com
© 2008, TechJournal South. All rights reserved.
