Effective Online Reputation Management Helps Boost Your Business Reputation

As technology continues to dominate how business is performed, an active online reputation management plan is key. Today, your location, how you treat customers and anything else people deem worthy of discussing will show up in either a positive or negative way, and will either help or hurt your business. Have you taken the time to see what’s been said about your company online?

What Others Say Matters

Today’s customers go straight to the Internet to see what others are saying about you before they step through the door or place an order online. In fact, one recent study found that “among U.S. adults who have searched online, nearly half have researched online before doing business with a company. Forty-five percent (45%) have found something that made them decide NOT to do business.”

Maintaining a positive business reputation online makes a tremendous difference in the volume of traffic and number of customers you receive. Potentially, reputation management will make a difference in whether or not your company stays in business or shuts its doors.

Tackle the Negative

A good online marketing strategy includes a strong plan for effective online reputation management. Tackling negative reviews should be one of the main objectives. Depending on the site, negative comments, such as 3^rd party reviews or reviews with defamatory comments, may or may not be removed. However, as a general rule, most other negative comments will continue to live out there for all to see. This could have a snowball effect. When negative reviews are not addressed, the search engine results pages become filled with negative reviews that will deter potential customers from doing business with you.

Online Reputation Management Tips:

• Be swift in addressing questions or complaints. Customers appreciate companies that are interactive and within reach.
• Encourage reviews from your customers. Happy customers usually have no problem giving good reviews.
• Many review sites do not allow reviewers to speak on behalf of another person who received a service. Request negative 3rd party reviews to be removed on sites where 3^rd party reviews are against the rules.
• Monitor what is being said about your company often and rectify any ongoing problems in your company, such as a product malfunction or poor customer service.

Effective online reputation management can help to increase your customers, expand your popularity and give you a positive return on your investment. Your business reputation reflects your brand. Keep it positive.