ORM specialist Veribo makes a play for the South African market

Spend enough time talking to companies about their online and social media efforts, and you’ll start to realise just how important online reputation management is.

And while there are plenty of tools available for people to use, there are instances where a specialised ORM provider can be useful.

That’s exactly what Veribo — an ORM provider with offices in Tel-Aviv, London and now Cape Town — will be hoping it can convince the South African market.

“The South African market has been lacking a premium and globally recognised ORM offering for some time,” says Ran Blayer, Global CEO of Veribo.

“The model has been highly successful in numerous countries and after a steadily increasing number of business enquiries from African-based companies and entities, we decided to open an office and appoint Business Development Managers in Cape Town and Johannesburg to answer to this demand”.

According to the company’s site, it uses a blend of continuous and intensive R&D to maximise its clients’ online presences.

“There is an undeniable hunger in South Africa for more technology in the Online Reputation Management realm,” he says, adding that the company has begun working with various PR and marketing agencies, and that it has also received direct requests from the corporate sector.

“With more international ORM trends trickling into the country, we foresee the demand for implementing a more premium ORM strategy increasing,” Blayer says.

“With nearly 25 million Internet users in South Africa and a 14% one-year growth, online research is only going to increase and with that so will the need for more complex ORM strategies.”

Veribo claims to have a diverse clientele set including organisations in the private sector as well as high profile individuals and professionals who are looking to maximise their online reputation.

Blayer reckons his service is “critical in today’s working environment where an increasing amount of South Africans are using search engines to look into and build references on brands, people and services. We give control back to our clients by helping them effectively manage their front-page search results, and avoiding the damage that unsolicited and often false reports and articles can cause to one’s reputation”.