It’s no surprise that your brand’s online reputation can highly affect your business in the digital age. Having a negative online presence, or even no presence at all can leave a negative impression on potential customers and deter them from doing business with your company. All of the hard work from digital marketing, campaigns, advertising, etc., goes to waste if you have a negative online presence. This is why you need to have a successful reputation management plan intact.
Online Reputation Management 101
What is Reputation Management?
At its core, online reputation management is monitoring and improving how your brand is perceived online. It’s a multi-faceted concept of actively monitoring all social media channels, reviews, feedback, and comments and addressing those comments while resolving any issues if they occur. While managing your online presence is essential, it’s also essential to have a plan and strategy in place to prevent and solve any future problems.
How to Get Started
Building a positive brand image begins online and if online reputation management is not consistently at the top of your to-do list, then your brand and business are likely to run into dilemmas. Here are a few steps to get started:
- Research.
Google your business. Make sure all the information is accurate and correct then delve into any customer comments or feedback. It might be beneficial to have separate windows to easily manage the various sites; one window for the sites you have control over and the ones where you have limited control.
Social media channels are sites your company has control over. You immediately address problems or concerns as they arise. Third-party sites, Yelp, Facebook, Google reviews, are sites your company has limited control over.
- Create a plan.
No matter the outcome of your research and audit of your online presence, a plan and strategy must be actively in place to help manage your online reputation. Once you know exactly where your brand stands online, it’s easier to direct focus on areas that need improvement. Have a specific position dedicated to consistently monitoring your online presence.
Then create a plan for how to respond to comments and feedback, particularly negative feedback. Address the problem immediately publicly via the channel the customer used, use a thoughtful and considerate tone, discuss privately with said customer, and work to resolve the issue.
- Document everything.
Have active documentation of the reputation management process; what your findings were online, what needs to be improved, what is working properly, the plan for addressing reviews. Keeping all relative information at hand and in one place can make the process run smoother.
- Listen to the feedback.
This goes beyond addressing negative comments, take note if customers share the same complaint or what they all agree works for your business. Ask frequently for new reviews from satisfied customers. It’s also beneficial to engage the positive comments as well, the negative comments shouldn’t get all the attention. Let your customers know you care.
Why You Need Online Reputation Management
Everyone can benefit from reputation management; doctors, small businesses, freelancers, etc. We all need to have a positive online presence for our brand or business to succeed. Online reputation is impacted by not only what others say about your business, but also what you post online and what is found when customers search for your business.
Your online presence highly affects customers’ buying decisions. Ignoring or not addressing your business’s online reputation can create bigger problems and negatively affect your success as a business.
Let Digital Mules Help
Online reputation management is a continuous process and requires constant attention. Most customers will read the reviews of your business’s goods or services before even landing on your website. Be proactive and listen to their feedback. It goes beyond having happy customers, it’s having those happy customers being vocal online with their satisfaction. At Digital Mules, we can take over the sometimes daunting task of managing your online reputation. Our experienced team utilizes an array of tools and strategies to protect and promote your brand. Contact us today to get started on mastering your online presence.