If there’s something celebrities want is have a Reputation –  a good reputation.

When celebrities get a bad reputation, it usually impacts their ability to get into new roles or even loosing a current role they may have. Their entire career literally depends on it.

In fact, getting a bad image might continue haunting them even after retiring from their career, which will affect their future endeavors, potentially making the rest of their lives difficult.

Reputation is more fragile today than ever. The internet made it possible to easily access and disseminate information that can vastly affect the reputation of, not only a celebrity but everyone like the reputation of an actor, wealthy person, etc.. Thousands of news, articles, blogs, social media posts, online reviews, and other online content are published every day and most of them contain inaccurate, false, or misleading information – especially in the celebrity world.

This is because this provocative content easily go viral and it’s purpose is to catch people’s attention in the information era. There’s so much content that a lot of online website go extreme to compete in the crowd… just for getting attention. As a celebrity, it’s easy to become the target of malicious online publications and that’s why online reputation management is very important.

Online Reputation Management for Celebrities

Online reputation management (ORM) is a crucial process that any celebrity should think about. The following sections cover how to build a good online reputation and how to maintain it by monitoring the web. There’s also a section that covers what to do when negative content is found and how to respond to them in a way that keeps your good image intact.

Building a “Good Celebrity Reputation”

As a celebrity, building a good online reputation should be the first and most important thing you should do. One of the easiest ways to do that is by creating a strong social media presence. You can do that by regularly creating content on various social media platforms. You can post regular status updates, write comments, upload pictures, or write about your present, upcoming or past projects. Sharing positive press about you from external sources such as a website through your social media accounts is also another excellent way of building trust and reputation.

In addition to regularly posting updates on various social media sites (the most prevalent ones are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), responding to comments and posts is also very important. This will show fans and followers that you want to interact with them and that you appreciate them. However, make sure that you only do this sparingly so to not let your fans expect that you will always be there, ready to answer their posts and comments at all times.

Monitoring the Web

Actively monitor the web for any content that talks about you. If you don’t know what people are saying about you, then you won’t be able to respond to issues or be able to effectively connect and interact with your fans.

If you are updated on what the internet is saying about you, you can easily spot problems early on and you’ll have the opportunity to mitigate them before they go big. Being active on social media is one of the best ways to do it. Check your social media accounts often and monitor the hashtags that are about or related to you and see what people are posting or commenting.

You can also set-up Google alerts.

This will allow you to track a particular word or phrase. Whenever your word or phrase is mentioned on the internet, you’ll receive an email with the link to the online article or discussion or video containing or related to your words or phrase. Creating an alert for your name, your brand, your band name (if you are a band), your company name (if you are a high-profile businessman), and any other closely related terms like your manager’s name or your girlfriend’s or boyfriend’s name, etc. are all important terms that you should monitor.

Responding to Negative Content

You’re bound to see a negative write-up or comment about you on the internet. No matter how hard you try to keep your image as clean as possible, there will always be flaws and people will often try to make it into a big fuss. An example is when you are seen drinking soda with your manager in a bar – people might interpret that as having a relationship with the manager, although, in reality, you’re just discussing your next project. People sometimes always try to see the negative in everything; they are trying to make a simple thing into a big issue.

If you are actively monitoring the web and social media, you’ll easily find these negative contents as soon as they sprout. Once you found one, don’t immediately react to it. Carefully read it and once you have a clear understanding of what it’s trying to say, only then you should respond.

For comments in social media, you can use a humorous way to refute a claim, especially if the controversy isn’t that serious (everything is less serious in early stages so it’s important to be able to react fast – but not so fast you lose your logical sense, especially in emotional scenarios like a negative content attacking your family, etc.). Sometimes, simply ignoring the claim works.

However, there are times when you’ll be compelled to reply to an issue, especially the ones that have become sensational. Although you know that the claim is untrue, don’t make the mistake of responding something along the lines of “I will sue you!” or in a harsh and angry way. Don’t let emotions play a role when you are responding to negative issues. It will only negatively impact your reputation.

Final Thoughts

Today, online reputation is everything. Building, monitoring, and maintaining it plays a crucial role in making sure that your career continues to grow. But as you can see, it can be very time-consuming. As you gain more and more popularity and you get busier and busier, you’ll have less and less time to devote to it, but you must not completely ignore it.

You can hire ORM firms to help you if that’s the case – but never stop personally monitoring and maintaining your online reputation and most importantly, personally responding to issues. It’s because you’re the only one who truly knows you and therefore, knows how to respond to them in the best way possible.