We need to talk about your online reputation. If you are a business owner, it is important that you make sure that you have the best possible reputation. Not only offline, but online as well. The worst thing that could happen to you is that you get a bad online reputation and lose money as a result of it. These bad reputations can come from anywhere, but today we are going to be focusing on your online reputation. You can develop a bad online reputation simply by having people write negative reviews about your company. Just remember that as much as 25% of your company’s revenues can be directly linked to your online reputation. The reason for this is that up to 50% of customers have stated that they will not do business in which they have found bad reviews. Nearly everyone (92%) reads reviews about a company in order to decide if they want to do business with them. Just remember, we are now in the information age and everyone has a voice. That means that anyone that has access to the internet can write a review about your company. They can write the most heinous things about your company and there is nothing you can do to stop them. You can, however, mitigate the backlash by following a few simple steps. That is the basis of this blog. We are going to share with you all the things that you need to do in order to make sure that you have a stellar reputation online. Following these steps will ensure that you maintain your brand image and protect your reputation. So, without further ado, let’s dive right in.
Monitor Your Reputation
If you intend on protecting your reputation, you are going to first need to know how to monitor it, in the first place. Essentially, you first need to know what people are saying about you before you can properly respond to them. Failing to keep an eye on what people say about you will not allow you to defend your brand. Fortunately, for you, there are several ways in which you can accomplish this. All of these suggestions are third-party software that you can use to monitor your reputation.
- The first item on the list is If This Then That (IFTTT). This tool will allow you to scan the internet for any mention of your company’s name. It doesn’t make the distinction between good or bad, it simply looks for your name. When it does find your name, you will receive a daily email that will give you a list of all the websites, message boards, forums, social media outlets, and review sites that have your name mentioned. You can then proceed to review what has bee said about you and decide how you wish to respond.
- Next up is Me on the Web. It functions much in the same way as IFTTT. Simply input your company’s name and wait for the daily mail.
- Ice Rocket is the next on the docket. This one is more aimed at social media, but it functions in much the same way as the other two. If you are really concerned about what is being said about you on social media, then this is the clear winner in our eyes.
Properly using these tools will allow you to monitor all that is being said about your business and permit you to devise a plan of attack. Not only will it help you to keep up with what people are saying about you, but it will also let you keep in touch with industry trends.
Claim your Search Engine Results Page
The top reason that the negative reviews get to the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) is that so many businesses fail to claim their name. This means that you are going to have to take some steps to secure your spot in the top ten results of the SERP. To do this is rather simple, but it can take a fair amount of time to maintain. It will all be worth it in the end when you suppress the negative press that you are receiving. Locking down the SERP will make it that much harder for the negative reviews to leak in. You are going to want to do the following.
- Create social media profiles with your company’s name.
- Have people write about you.
- Have multiple websites with similar names to your company.
- Contribute to other online publications (forum boards and message boards).
By doing the steps above, you will start to move your name into the higher positions. As we told you, this will not be easy, but it will be worth it in the end. By simply making great content for your customers to read, the pages you make will naturally have more traffic than the negative review sites. This will tell Google and other SERPs that your content is what people want to read. This will push the negative stuff further down.
Use Social Media
One of the most powerful tools that you can use in the online world of today is social media. This is where the new generations get all their information. Not only do they get the news and the weather from social media, but they also read about company’s there too. So, you are going to want to make sure that you have a strong social media presence. This will also give you a way to keep in touch with your customers on a regular basis. Most of the time no one bothers calling a place of business anymore, they simply navigate to the company’s social media profiles and ask questions there. If you want to keep in touch with them, you must do so on social media. Besides, this will give you the opportunity to do some marketing and offer special discounts to your followers.
Listen to Your Customers
When you do get a negative review (yes, we said when, because in business it is only a matter of time before you do), don’t ignore it. Doing so means that you miss an opportunity to improve your reputation with that customer. They are upset and you need to make it right. It will also allow you to make improvements in the way that your business does business. Try to remember that just because a customer writes a negative review, they are not a bad person. Take that negative and spin it into a positive. Use it as a learning tool to help make your company better.
Conclusion
When it comes to managing your online reputation, we know that it can be a little bit difficult. There are a whole lot of steps that you need to take, but each and every one of them is money in the bank. Following the steps that we outlined above will allow you to manage your reputation in a new and interesting way. The digital age is upon us and if you are going to survive in this world, you need to make sure that your online reputation has a few blemishes as humanly possible.