Top Strategies for Online Reputation Management

When going through the buying cycle, customers do extensive research to ensure their purchase makes financial, logical, and emotional sense. The more time and money customers invest in your product or service, the more likely they are to research your business’s reputation and weigh it against that of your competitors.

Searching social media posts and browsing consumer sites with reviews are often a significant component of your potential customer’s research strategy. If your business has bad press or poor reviews, consumers will find it, and you will lose them to your competitors.

By implementing the online reputation management strategies below, you can build a positive brand image and ensure proper business representation.

Understand Your Audience

Interacting with your target audience is integral to online reputation management. Consequently, a thorough understanding of your followers and their needs and frame of mind are critical to ensure you use the correct tone, promoting optimal engagement.

For example, a daycare center’s brand voicing should be friendly, empathetic, and comforting, while a tax attorney’s tone should be informational, authoritative, and professional.

Build a Positive Image

Focusing on what you can control goes a long way towards effective reputation management. Building a positive image starts with your website and social media platforms, and it requires active ongoing management. This strategy involves the following:

• Verifying that the contact details on your website and Google My Business listing are correct
• Making your website user-friendly, with fast loading speeds and easy navigation
• Posting valuable, relevant, and authoritative content on your blog and social media platforms regularly
• Creating white papers to help readers make decisions or understand complex issues
• Adding positive testimonials from satisfied customers to your home page

Being active on social media and responding to comments, questions, and messages will promote engagement with your followers and build a positive brand image.

Cultivate Transparency

Businesses often make the mistake of trying to prevent negative comments at all costs. If you are not open to criticism and feedback, you may fall out of touch with your audience’s needs.

However, by being transparent, you establish open communication as a platform for building trust. Your followers may also view your willingness to learn from mistakes as a competitive advantage. Cultivate transparency by asking customers for feedback and addressing criticism publicly.

Provide dissatisfied customers access to a one-on-one communication channel where they can air their grievances. Doing so allows the opportunity to convert a potentially harmful public review into a positive one.

Monitor the Web for Brand Mentions

When someone posts a review on a consumer site, social media platform, or public forum, you must respond as soon as possible. However, scrolling through all platforms is time-consuming, and you will likely miss brand mentions. A tool for tracking brand mentions will notify you immediately when someone mentions your business online.

Responding to a negative review allows you to show that you care about your customers, and you should always be courteous, helpful, and professional. Never try to outwit a complaining customer or respond sarcastically. If a complaint is frivolous or overly critical, others will see it for what it is, and it won’t reflect negatively on your business.
Discredit Your Attackers
Being transparent doesn’t mean you have to put up with unlawful behavior or malignant online attacks against your business. If someone posts false information online, file a criminal charge or civil suit against them and do so publicly.

Discredit Your Attackers

Being transparent doesn’t mean you have to put up with unlawful behavior or malignant online attacks against your business. If someone posts false information online, file a criminal charge or civil suit against them and do so publicly.

Focus on Search Engine Optimization

If you have an optimized Google My Business listing, user-friendly website, and content-rich blog, you put your best foot forward where it matters most.

Almost all potential customers who want to learn more about your business’s reputation will do a Google search. With proper search engine optimization, you increase your control over the top search engine results, pushing bad publicity down and out of sight.

Search engines such as Google have highly sophisticated algorithms, which they use to select the most relevant results for their searchers’ queries. However, the relevance and usefulness of your web content are not the only factors search engines consider. Your website should also be easy to navigate with fast loading speeds.

Contact Digital Engage

A sound online reputation management strategy is critical to mitigate the consequences of bad press or negative reviews and ensure sustainable business growth. At Digital Engage, we can provide you with reputation management solutions as a comprehensive service package. Call us today at (423) 397-2467 to schedule an initial consultation and start managing your brand image.