One year in Rome, the festival of the Bona Dea ("good goddess") was held at Caesar's house. No men were permitted, but one did manage to enter disguised as a woman, intent in seducing the Caesar's wife Pompeia. He was caught but was later released with no charges. Nonetheless, Caesar divorced Pompeia, saying that "my wife ought not even to be under suspicion."

What does this have to do with Online Reputation Management (ORM)? After all, Julius was probably just a hot-blooded Italian guy who was too proud and insecure to admit he was jealous of his wife... or he was a very smart businessman who saw that his most valuable asset was his pristine image.

And he would do anything to protect it, specially against suspicion and rumors.

Jump 1,900 years into the future and you see that Julius was probably onto something.  

ORM today is also all about:

• Protecting your brand name
• Preventing others from having misconceptions about your brand and services
• Stopping the spreading of evil rumors

In 100 B.C. Julius had to only worry about the comments behind closed doors--basically "mouth-to-mouth bad-mouthing," if you will. There was no Internet, and the closest the people came to expressing their opinion out loud to big crowds was when they decided if a gladiator would eat it in the Coliseum.

Not so anymore. The Internet gave the ordinary Joe (or Julius, for that matter) a voice, and a loud one at that. One person can make a difference. Why?

For two simple reasons:

• Most consumers research products or services online, prior to buying them
• Most people, specially younger ones, determine their offline purchases according to their online research

Imagine this:

• Your client just launched a pretty new touchpad cellphone to compete with Apple's iPhone
• He has the cellphone on his main website
• He even created a new micro-website just for that cellphone

Using your SEO magic, you got that micro-website in #1 for the search "Cellphone XYZ" and the main site comes in at #2. That's perfect. 

But the SERPs show 8 more results:

• Someone is complaining in a blog that the cellphone is to bulky and not nearly as cool as the iPhone
• Another consumer bought one and the damn thing only lasts 1 hours on a battery charge
• A teen posted a tag for the micro-site, but it's in her "most hated products of the year"
• A man bought one and thinks it has an amazing price/value ratio

What do you think will catch the eye of whomever is searching for that product? People search basically to learn the dirt, not only to ear the praises. And that's smart, because when you buy - and spend money - you want to make the right decision.

What can the client do about this? Two things:

• Improve his design and focus on possible technical and consumer-relation issues. This is his problem.
• Deal with the dirt that is splattered all over the front page of Google. This is your problem.

What you can do:

• Talk to consumers on behalf of your client and show openness in dealing with their complaints
• Don't oppress or try to censor people - convey a clear, gentle, and friendly image
• Respond directly to the issues so that whomever reads the complaints also reads your take on things
• Create more great content about your cellphone; eventually, the content should make it to the first page

Sure, you can also take more drastic, "gray hat" actions:

• Push complaints to the second or third page of the SERPs by upgrading other results

But the main point is: brands cannot put their head in the proverbial hole in the sand and ignore what consumers say about them online, whether it be in personal blogs, communities, forums, reviews, or complaint sites.

It is important to have a great product, but it is also crucial that the perceived buzz around that product is a positive one. At the very least, the buzz around the company that builds the product should be positive.