Internet Reputation Services image of cartoon exterminator working for a reputation management company

Ways to Use Your Blog for Online Reputation Management and Repair

With social media the way that it is today, you could go from an excellent reputation to a lousy reputation overnight. If you are looking for a simple way to repair your online reputation, keep reading.

Having a strong online reputation is essential for every business to be successful. Harnessing the power of social media and intelligent web design can be the key to achieving this goal. You will find that when you have a positive online reputation, your customer base will continually grow.

As quickly as you can use social media to boost your online reputation, it can just as easily be destroyed in the blink of an eye. All it takes is one negative review, and all your hard work can be flushed down the drain.

Fortunately, reputation repair is something that can be achieved with just a little bit of work. You have the power of using your blog to rebuild your brand image. Below, I will talk about the various ways you can use your blog to repair your online reputation to its once former glory.

Content

The best way to repair a negative reputation is to write content that targets and responds to your audience. Instead of filler articles, you will want to make sure you are writing every article with your primary audience in mind.

You will need to talk to your analytics team to identify your target audience. While under normal circumstances, you will always be trying to find a new audience, in crisis mode, you will need to fall back to your faithful customers. Take time to read customer feedback and respond accordingly. You will want to make the changes your customers suggest. After all, they are the people who make your business possible.

Frequency

If there were something more important than the type of content that you were writing, it would be the frequency in which you write it. Frequency is a delicate balance of providing your customers with plenty of relevant information to read and overwhelming them.

We have all seen blog pages that put up dozens of articles in a day. While this may be great for initial algorithms, it can be quite hard to maintain. Depending on the length of your articles, even one blog post a day can be a bit much. I would say that you don’t want to post more than 2,000 words a week. While this may seem quite low, you have to remember that your customers have other content they enjoy reading. If you are providing them with too much to read, they will either miss something or stop reading altogether.

Social Media

Is said you were going to use your blog for reputation repair, so why am I suggesting social media. Well, this is how you are going to harvest more readers. It will also ping your customers that you have new content to read. While you may have an RSS feed, your customers may not. This will let them know you have provided them with more great content. It will also allow them to share your link. Studies have shown that friends of your customers are likely to read links to posts more than they are likely to go to a random page they link.

Whenever you come out with a new blog, make sure to link it on all of your social media platforms. Just remember, each platform has unique users. By this, I mean they expect different things. Provide your customers on the various platforms the information you wish for them to read in a way that is characteristic of what they are used to seeing.

Comments

Something that many bloggers fail to do is to ask for feedback. Not only will this help your algorithm results, but it will also let your customers know that you genuinely care what they have to say. Additionally, you will be able to drown out the negative reviews with more relevant comments and reviews. Google likes to see new content. So, asking for your customers to weigh in on your blog will mostly have them help you to repair your online reputation.

The final thing I am going to mention about comments and reviews is to make sure when you are asking your customers for these reviews, and you will want to reply to them. Customers like to know they have not wasted their time telling you how they feel. Don’t just answer the negative reviews or comments, answer all of them.

Guest Posts

By far, the best way to get around the negative reviews or comments is to associate yourself with positive reviews and comments. This means you will need to seek out other websites and affiliates that will allow you to write content for their site. In the industry, we call this guest blogging. Essentially, it means you are posting content on a website in which you do not have a relationship. It is an equally beneficial arrangement where they get content for their page, and you get a backlink for positive traction on your repair campaign. Don’t be surprised if there is a fee associated with doing this as they have to pay their employees as well.

Conclusion

Receiving a negative review or comment can be quite upsetting, especially if it threatens your online reputation. Even worse, if it threatens your business as a whole. The great thing is that you can take control of your reputation and get it back on track. This can be achieved by dedicating yourself to writing heartfelt content that really speaks to your customers. Make sure that you find new and inventive ways to amass new followers. Never, and I do mean never, forget about your faithful customers in your quest for a better online reputation. At the end of the day, a great way to maintain a positive brand image is to monitor your site on a daily basis. Combine this with checking over the review sites, and you will be set.