Before the creation of the internet, the only way to get your name to the public was through word of mouth and basic marketing strategies. This meant that you had to have an engaging television ad, print ad, and radio ad. Some companies would even take it a step further and use billboard ads, but space was much more limited as the bigger companies would purchase a large portion of the advertising board in order to get the best positions. This was true of any medium, but at least with the other three, you had a lot more choice and opportunity to be seen or heard from. The only other way was through word of mouth. Back then, just as today, people value other people’s opinion more than the company they are considering doing business with. The only difference between then and now is that now most of the customers are online. For this reason, greater attention must be placed on your online profile as you will have to modify the image of your company. This would mean that you are going to ensure the positive image of your company in a digital manner. The benefit to doing digital marketing is that you will get greater feedback about your campaigns. In addition to this, there are some basic rules that you are going to need to follow in order to maintain your online reputation. Take a look below for the ten basic things that you need to focus on when it comes to making the switch to digital marketing.
Present Yourself Properly
As discussed above, people talk. They will talk about you whether it be positive or negative. In the event that you want it to be positive, then you are going to have to work for that positive reputation. Make sure you welcome all forms of feedback from your customers. You do not want people to think that you only focused on good reviews or publicity. Embrace all the reviews and use them as a learning tool to improve your company. This means that you are going to have to be completely transparent with your customers and show them the bad reviews but show them how you have made changes to better serve customers in the future.
Search Yourself
Even ten years ago, when people and companies would use a search engine to look themselves up, it was seen as being vain. This is, simply, no longer the case. In the event that you want to improve your online presence, you would have to consider your profile all together in order to get a thorough understanding of your online condition. To do this, you are going to have to search for yourself. By far the best search engine to do that is Google, but you should not stop there. While Google does hold the majority share of the market when it comes to search engines, they are not the only search engine that people use. Make sure you search with the big search engines and find out all that you can about what people are saying about you. Once you have been able to determine all the that people are saying about you, you can then fix these issues.
Stay in Touch
Your customers want you to keep in touch with them. They may not know that is what they want, but studies have shown that the more contact you keep with your customers, the more loyal they become as customer. The reasoning behind this is that you consume their minds all together, to the point that when someone thinks about a product or brand related to your brand, you are the first name that come up. Consider Kleenex, Google, and Thermos; these brands have become the name of the product despite being a brand. This is what you must strive for, keeping in touch with customers is the way you are going to accomplish that.
Google Alerts
If you want to stay current on what your customers, the media, and others are saying about you, using Google Alerts is the answer. Simply put the words that you want Google to notify you about and wait. When anyone mentions your brand or industry, Google will notify you and you will be able to respond accordingly.
Page One Of Google
You need to know how to stay on the first page of Google at all times. The reason is, that the days of people going to the second page is nearly over. As a matter of fact, the days are coming to an end for results past the first to display on the screen. This means that fewer and fewer people are even bothering to scroll to the end of a search engine results page (SERP). When you know how to stay on page one (preferably near the top) you have everything that you need for a strong online reputation management campaign. However, if you do not know how to remain on the first page you may experience some difficulties in terms of creating power reputation tools for your online marketing.
Negative Media And Reviews
There used to be an old saying, “there is no such thing as bad press.” Simply put, that is wrong. While the public may be talking about your company, it does not give you the advertising that you need to increase rankings. In this day and age, one false move can lead you down a very painful path in terms of revenue and investors. Consider Samsung some three years ago and how they have had to work extra hard to get back their good reputation. The did so by acknowledging the mistake and rectifying the error. You are going to have to do that as well, should any negative attention be drawn to your company name.
Discourage Negative Or False Information
This may be easier said than done, however if you are able to prove to the search engine that there have been egregious accusations about your company, they will suppress the results for you. This is essential to maintaining your good reputation. The problem is, once that information goes viral, you are going to have to work very hard to disprove it to the masses. Note that a lot of money may be placed in to this type of campaign but you do have the assurance that you will be maintaining a lot of good customers in the long run.
Getting The Law Involved
Sometimes you have no choice but to get the law involved in your business. Sadly, there are many people out there that try to make a bad name for businesses for their financial gain. Know when to get the law involved and structure your case in order to win. In the event that you do not win, others that are playing the smear campaign strategy to get rich may think twice before trying it again.
Learning To Be Better
With every review, you have every chance to learn from what has been said. Even if it is a five-star review, you can learn what your customers like and replicate that. In the event that the review is negative you can learn from it by understanding what steps to take in order to rectify the situation and making the necessary corrections. It is all about getting better over time and putting your best foot forward.
The Professionals
When all else fails, you need to call in the professionals. They have the ability to monitor and maintain your online reputation with tried and tested methods. For years now, they have been able to suppress slanderous material from the search results and give their clients back their good reputation.
When it comes to preserving your online reputation, there should be no stone left unturned. Make sure that you follow the simple steps above and you will find that your clients will return to you time and time again.