To get ahead in business, you need to be a step ahead of the conversation. Success isn’t just about what you do—it’s about knowing what others are saying about you and how they perceive your brand. By tuning into the online conversation and understanding your reputation, you can shape the narrative, turn feedback into opportunity, and position yourself ahead of the competition.
Online reputation management is an important part of digital strategy. But how is it done, and what are the benefits for your business?
What Goes Into Managing Your Online Reputation?
1. Soliciting Feedback
A feedback system helps you gather and organize customer opinions or suggestions. It helps improve your products, services, or processes to increase client satisfaction. You can gather feedback online, including comments, questionnaires, ratings, customer service chats, surveys, and polls. Consider working with an online reputation management agency to monitor your feedback and implement change.
2. Growing Your Digital Presence
Building your online presence is a proactive way of shaping the narrative around your business. You should engage with followers and provide relevant and meaningful content. This could include any of the following:
• Website
A web designer can work with you to create a user-friendly website tailored to your unique brand identity. Websites aren’t one-size-fits-all—create a professional digital presence that helps you stand out from the competition.
• Blog
Use your blog to showcase expertise and core values. The information you share should be relevant and informative to your readers (not a sales pitch). This is how you develop credibility with the customer and establish yourself as an authority in your industry.
• Social Media Platforms
Engage with your followers on social media platforms to stay active. Responding to user questions or comments or sharing relevant articles on websites like LinkedIn helps keep your business part of the conversation. Keep your pages professional, relevant, and engaging for customers.
3. Monitoring Review Forums
Research shows that most customers rely on online forums or review sites before making a purchase. You should monitor online comments and respond to feedback, both positive and negative. Some of the most common review sites include Yelp, Trustpilot, TripAdvisor, and Reddit; it’s important to track these sites to help shape the conversation and turn unsatisfied customers into happy ones.
4. Setting up Alert Systems
Set up alert systems to know when others are mentioning you or your brand in the media. Google Alerts is a free tool that helps you track reviews, news articles, social media posts, or comments about your brand or your competitors.
If your alert system does pull up negative reviews, you may not be able to remove them, but you can politely respond to minimize damage. You can also create positive or neutral content to outrank the negative content.
Another idea is to set your alert system to monitor keywords related to your industry. This helps you stay up to date on information and news updates affecting your business.
5. Implementing a Strategy
An effective online reputation management strategy involves monitoring various platforms for feedback, keywords, and mentions and using that data to guide your brand strategy. The first step is knowing what others say about your brand, but the next step is how you respond. A reputation management company can work with you to develop a strategy for taking control of the online narrative about your company.
What Are the Benefits of Online Reputation Management?
1. Preventing Damage to Reputation
Managing your online reputation and building your brand through thoughtful, relevant content helps you stay ahead of the conversation and shapes how others perceive your business. By actively monitoring your reputation, you can quickly address any negative comments or misinformation, preventing potential damage to your image.
2. Maintaining a Competitive Edge
Monitoring your online reputation helps you see how customers respond to your products or services so you can stay ahead of the competition. You can position yourself ahead of the competition by using customer feedback to make improvements and shape the industry’s expectations.
3. Boosting Your Credibility
Customers want to know you care about their experience and feedback. You establish yourself as a trustworthy and professional business by responding to reviews and troubleshooting concerns. This credibility boosts brand loyalty and can ultimately increase sales.
4. Gaining Valuable Insights
Tracking your online review sites and social media platforms can help you understand how customers respond to your products or services. This data can then drive your marketing strategy to attract and retain new customers.
5. Creating Marketing Opportunities
Monitoring your online reputation gives you valuable insights into your business and how others perceive you. It also allows you to better understand who your customers are and what’s important to them. Use this information to establish credibility and better appeal to customers through targeted marketing initiatives.
The key to staying competitive in business is actively managing your online reputation. Focusing solely on your products or services is not enough; how customers perceive your brand plays a huge role in your success. By paying attention to how you appear online (in reviews, customer feedback, social media mentions, news articles, etc.), you can strengthen your brand and build trust with your customers.