Who Needs Online Reputation Management? You Do!!!

How to Manage your Online Reputation

You might think that online reputation management isn’t something you need concern yourself with. I would implore you to reconsider that thought!

According to eMarketer 83% of consumers claim that online reviews influence their opinions about a particular company, and 8 of 10 of these individuals added that a damaging entry on the internet has caused them to change their opinion. One poor review, whether true or untrue, can thwart all of your best efforts if you don’t have an online reputation strategy in place. With that in mind, we would like to offer five strategies your business can implement to monitor and strengthen your online reputation management.

1. Monitoring your brand names – Listening what’s being said about you and your company is of vital importance. There are a number wonderful free tools to help in this regard. Take a look at Google Alerts, Hootsuite, and Social Mention among others.
2. Claim all your social properties – Unclaimed social media sites can be utilized by your rivals for nefarious exploits. Be sure you claim all social sites that apply to your brand.
3. Own as much of page one of Google as you can – One proactive way to make sure what people read about you when they Google you is to own most if not all of Google page one for your brand names. This makes it much harder for flyby attacks to have much if any impact.
4. Go after customer reviews – Customer reviews aren’t just going to appear on your website: you have to ask for them. Don’t be shy about asking for reviews. Quite often, your clients are going to be flattered you asked. And of course if you offer incentives, make it clear that you’re not trying to bribe them or manipulate their review!
5. Engage with your people – Interacting with those writing comments, Facebook posts and tweets is an excellent way to head off any damage from the get-go. Don’t participate in mud-slinging however, regardless of how justified you're feeling! Thank them for their contribution to the discussion, and politely disagree, standing up for yourself. (If they’re not right, of course!)

Online reputation management is incredibly crucial today, when customers can tweet, post or video form wherever they are. Don’t forget this one!