New Delhi: In 2010, a medium-sized business in the retail industry was shocked to discover that one of its former employees had posted destructive comments on an industry-specific forum with an anonymous username.

Just a day later, the company's name and business had begun to take a hit. Yet, the company hardly took any pro-active step to arrest and erases such damaging online presence -- in the hope that it would fade away.

Rather, it magnified. This is where experts are needed - and they are called online reputation managers.

If a brand is not controlled on the internet by its creator, someone else will, says Neha Kumar of Appin Technology Lab (ATL), a company that is into what it describes as "internet reputation marketing".

In fact, she adds, if the reaction time is not swift, the dent to reputation of a firm can reach irreversible proportions.

But there is more to online reputation management than correcting perceptions. "Internet reputation marketing is not limited to just the handling of a crisis. It is more about the sustenance of a constructive and encouraging presence," said Kumar.

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