With the onslaught of blogs, discussion forums and user-generated media it has changed the flow of information about people, products, and brands forever. Anyone with a computer, a video camera or even a cell phone can post information, reviews, and comments about you and your brand on dozens of highly visited online destinations.

It’s no longer enough to create a website and assume that prospects will learn about your company solely from there. In today’s online social media world, businesses of all shapes and sizes must actively participate in online reputation management.

For small businesses having a good reputation is important to compete against larger competitors. Especially with the increase in online activity. With the introduction of the Internet, many small businesses have to compete harder to maintain their position with their customers.

Did you know:

• 85% of your potential customers use the internet to research your company before they decide to make a purchase.
• 79% of your potential customers value personal and online recommendations in their search for a reputable company.

So What Does This Mean if You’re a Business Owner?

It means that managing your company’s reputation both online and offline has never been so important.

Reputation is critical to a business. A business that acts in an unethical way suffers on many levels including financial (fines, loss of revenue), valuation decreases, branding (distrust) and public relations. Trust is the cornerstone of a successful business and once a brand loses trust with its customers, it can take years to recover if ever.

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that you’ll do things differently.”
–Warren Buffet

In order to help your online reputation, you will need to build a web presence. This allows customers to compare you to your competition. It also helps clients to understand what your business is about while providing a few advantages along the way which include:

• Building Customer Trust – Positive online reputation will increase customer trust overall. You will develop authority, expertise and credibility in your field in the eyes of your customers. The more you gain the trust of your customers, the better the reviews and the increase in customers you will gain.
• Brand Exposure – Building and managing your reputation can also help to promote brand exposure. The more people know about your business the more likely they will shop with you.

Of course we know the best way to manage your online reputation from a business standpoint is to put out great products, provide excellent customer service and honor all your commitments. That’s certainly a great start, but you may still need to monitor and respond to what’s being said about your organization.

Reputation management, however, is not simply about responding to the negative; it’s equally important to amplify the positive.

The only way to control what people say about your company is to be part of the conversation.

Ways to Manage Your Reputation – Get Started…

Local Reputation Management

• Sponsor local fun runs, sporting events or other entertainment avenues to show the local public your committed to the community.
• Donate time, money or services to a charity event to help raise money for a good cause. Businesses who participate in activities such as this are more recognised in the public eye.
• Handle negative feedback and comments politely and constructively. Always offer a positive reply in return. Handle each one individually and address their concerns, disappointments, or negativity politely.

Savvy Businesses realize that the best thing they can do is to serve their community, irrespective of whether or not someone is in a buying cycle. One of the most important tools that you can use is community.

There are 11 Benefits that Communities can give to Your Business – Read Them Here!

Online Reputation Management

Build Your Reputation.

There’s a number of sites that are launched with the sole purpose of allowing you to build an online reputation by inviting people to write reviews about you and your work. LinkedIn is an professional networking community that allows and encourages this practice.

Respond to positive and negative reviews on different review websites.

90% of what people say will impact your business and their buying decision. Take the time to respond to as many reviews as possible. Thank them for the review, respond to the feedback, and encourage them to continue shopping with you.

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Participate in Social Media to Build and Manage Your Reputation.

Social media is a powerful tool that can work wonders for your business when used correctly. Use posts to interact and engage with the customers by answering questions, asking questions, or replying back to positive or negative comments. This is important as customers will see you’re committed to good customer relations.

One of the best ways to combat negative comments is to make sure you have lots of positive content showing up for searches of your name or company. Best practices such as creating well-written LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, and writing and submitting articles to article directories can help assure that you have a lot of positive content attributed to your name online.

Host and Keep Updating a Blog.

A blog with frequently updated content and information is a great tool. By starting a blog and inviting customers to leave comments you can keep an eye out for an potential issues. If customers have an issue, and you help them get the answer by way of your blog, you may turn that issue into something positive and stop them from posting negative comments elsewhere.

If they leave a completely untrue or hateful review on your blog, it may be best to either remove it or answer it tactfully.

Also, we recommend to ask to be a guest blogger on another site in your niche and accept high quality work from others for your site too.

Build Multiple Business Profiles and Employ Social Search Engines.

Claim and enhance your business listings on search engines such as Google Business, Yelp, InsiderPages, and Better Business Bureau.

These sites enhance your business listing and allow users to rate your services and write testimonials. The best thing you can do on these sites is create a great profile and encourage your customers to post positive reviews.

More of these reviews are being picked up by search engines like Google and shown in their local directories.

Sign up for News Alerts.

Google allows you to set up custom searches on Google News for any phrase, such as your name.

When you subscribe to this search, either via RSS or e-mail, you’ll receive an alert anytime your search phrase shows up in the news. If you need to closely monitor what’s being said online in real time, use Twitter’s search.twitter.com feature.

Once you have created a strong online and offline reputation, it’s time to market your company.

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If you want or need any help connect with us on one of our social media platforms or on our contact us form!

Managing your business’s reputation is crucial to whether your business will be successful. By following the tips and tricks above you can easily generate the reputation you’re looking for while maintaining credibility with your customers. So how is your business reputation fairing in this competitive world?

Talk Soon,

Nicky and Dave