If you are new to the business world or have just started your business, it is essential that you know that building your online reputation is a time-consuming task that can become quite overwhelming. Building your reputation from the ground up will be the most daunting task you have ever experienced. The main reason for this is that it will not happen overnight. It might not even occur in a few months. Yet, building an online reputation that you can be proud of is achievable if you are willing to put in the time.
The main reason you want to build an online reputation is that you want people to buy your goods or services. Without and online reputation, you will get minimal sales. This is because people prefer to obtain information about your company before doing business with you. It goes back to that infinite loop of companies that want employees to have the experience, but you cannot get experience without landing a job. However, it is much less complicated than that scenario. There are several ways that you can start getting reviews and other user-generated content about your product or service. I will go into more detail about this later. For now, let’s focus on the list of helpful tips on how to start building your online reputation today.
Establish A Website
After you have everything ready to go to your physical or online store, the first order of business will be establishing a website. Without a website, your company is severely handicapped in today’s digital age.
A lot of start-up companies assume that having a social media presence is good enough. I am here to tell you that it is not. How will you direct your customers to the place that you are selling your goods or services if you don’t have a website? Without a website, your business will look like a fly by night organization that is out to rip people off. So, you need to invest in having a five-star website. If you are good at building websites, then, by all means, save yourself some money and build it yourself. However, if you are not well versed in coding a website, it is best to leave it up to the professionals. After all, a potential customer’s first impression of you will be what they see on your website. As your mother always told you, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
Develop A Social Media Strategy
Regardless of whether you are already on a social media platform and performing well, you still need to develop a plan on how you will keep your customers engaged. Many companies will start a social media page and post random things on it. This is not telling the story that your company wants to tell. Essentially, you want to say to your customers about your products and get them to engage with you. Engagements come in many different iterations. The primary forms of interaction with your page are likes, shares, and comments. Hence the reason that many businesses asked for this in the past. It is worth noting that Facebook and Google will penalize your posts if you ask for those now. The reason for this is the results will not be organic. They may be sharing because they like you, or you are offering a promotional code for interactions. This goes against organic traffic and leans more to the side of buying reviews.
Demonstrate Your Expertise
Show your customers that you are an expert in your field by delivering them high-quality content that is packed full of industry insights and knowledge of your chosen field. It never hurts to share posts from other businesses that are also knowledgeable on the topic. It may seem counterintuitive to post from a competitor’s website, but this will convey to your customers that you are only interested in providing them with the best information. It will also demonstrate that you are willing to continue to research your field and provide them with up-to-date information, even if it isn’t from you.
Paid Ads
Much like advertising on television or in the local paper, you can advertise on the internet. There are several ways to go about this, but I will focus on the main choices.
First and foremost, Google AdWords. I am going to start by telling you that this way of advertisement is very competitive. Essentially, you are competing with every other company in your field to have a chance at keywords for advertising. If you are in the home hardware business, you will be competing with Ace Hardware, Home Depot, and Lowe’s. Not only do they have more money, but they have a better internet reputation than you do at this point. Therefore, Google wants to make sure that the keywords are associated with a reputable company. Start by choosing lesser-used keywords and work your way up from there.
Second is paying influencers to mention your product or brand. You should know that if you are trying to get a very popular influencer, you will pay a large sum to secure their time. Again, you will want to focus on influencers that are close to starting. They will be willing to take less money from you to put your advertisement in their pictures or videos. Once you have established yourself, you can go after those larger influencers.
Conclusion
Online reputation is difficult to manage if you don’t know what you are doing. Hopefully, this has given you a bit of insight into some of the ways you can go about getting your brand known. Remember, when you are just starting, you want to take baby steps. You have to learn to crawl before you can run. Get your website going, connect with your community on social media, and pay for advertisements to get a better click-through rate. Before you know it, you will be well known in your industry. All you have to do then is maintain your online reputation.