Online reputation is the perception others have of a person or business based on what they see when they search for you on Google, social media pages and review sites like Yelp. It is a critical aspect of your digital marketing strategy and can have a dramatic impact on your success as a business owner.
A strong online reputation is a key to gaining new customers, growing your business and building brand loyalty. A negative reputation, however, can prevent you from reaching your marketing goals and keeping current customers. This guide will teach you everything you need to know about online reputation management so that you can make smart choices to boost your brand.
The first step to improving your online reputation is creating a strategy and putting it in place. This will help you monitor your online presence, keep you aware of what people are saying about you and provide you with the tools to react quickly if needed.
Monitoring your online reputation requires regular research of the keywords associated with your industry, business and product. You need to check for information like hashtags, relevant news stories, and user comments on various platforms including Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.
This is an ongoing process and should be part of your digital marketing strategy to ensure that your reputation stays healthy and positive. You can use software to track and report on the results of your efforts. These tools will give you insight into the number of mentions, where they occur and which ones are most influential. They will also show you the sentiment of your mentions and highlight any issues that need immediate attention.
It takes time to build a solid online reputation. Once you do, it is important to maintain it. This is because people regularly look up businesses and people before making decisions, especially when it comes to purchasing products or services. In fact, 59% of shoppers say that they read reviews before buying from a local business.
Negative online reviews will have a significant impact on your reputation, but you can minimize their effect by having a solid plan in place. This should include a protocol for responding to unhappy customers as well as a system for getting positive reviews from happy customers. For example, you can use a tool like Reputation Live to enable your front-line team to ask for reviews right on the spot in-store using SMS. This gets much better response rates than asking for a review on your website or through a phone call.
A good reputation can help you attract and retain the best employees. This is because people want to work for companies that have a good reputation and are perceived as trustworthy. A bad reputation, on the other hand, can drive people away and hurt your company’s bottom line. This is why it is so important to have a reputation management strategy in place.