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Reputation management is no longer limited to word of mouth, but with most people present on social media in one way or another, the good and bad news spreads with web speed! Benjamin Franklin said “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it” and today this rings truer than ever. This is why we prepared the ultimate 2020 guide to improve your reputation management. Keep reading to find out what you can do to maintain an excellent reputation with no sweat!
Let’s start at the top.
What Is Reputation Management?
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Reputation management refers to creating and maintaining a public image of one’s person, brand or corporation. In today’s social media world, online reputation management has become one of the cornerstones of every successful business’ credibility and companies invest a lot of time and money into establishing their positive reputation/image.
Why Does Online Reputation Matter?
Do you ever consider all the decisions you make every day? What influenced them? Was it a web search, a commercial or review? Most of us aren’t aware!
An online survey by Podium conducted in 2017 suggests that 93% of people base their purchasing decisions on online reviews and at least 60% of people browse reviews weekly. The minimum star rating acceptable for customers is 3.3! This should be a very loud wake-up call for anyone who neglects their online reputation management. Podium’s interesting survey perfectly illustrates the importance of public image in an online world and while in the past, newspapers came and went, the internet is forever.
Corporate Reputation Management
“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well” – Jeff Bezos.
Personal reputation would represent one’s own image and how it is perceived by other people. At Persist Digital, we mostly handle corporate reputation management and cover it in our full reputation management service packages. Before the digital age this meant extensive PR through printed media and live networking, but now a lot of the job can be done online, like through our KitchenDEV reputation management software.
How to Measure Your Corporate Reputation
Do you believe in first impressions? We do! And in 2020 most of them happen on Google’s #1 page! That’s exactly one of the ways to measure your online reputation — Google rank! If you are on the first page of Google, it’s likely that it and your customers consider your site and business to be highly relevant! That’s amazing! Sometimes it takes time and a lot of hard work to improve your rank, but with the help of professionals like our own SEO experts, you can improve your online image in no time.
A good way to determine your reputation is by looking at your reviews.
Are they positive? What do the clients have to say about your company? Nowadays, most purchases that people make are based on looking up reviews of products they are interested in. Bad reviews equal low sales! So check up on those testimonials and respond to them regularly. Encourage your customers to review your business and refer to you whenever possible.
Nothing says bad reputation like unhappy customers, but even more unhappy employees!
A potential downfall for a company is their lack of respect and thoughtfulness for their team. The most successful businesses are transparent and nurture an atmosphere of balance. Does your company do the same? Or are your employees discontent? Ensuring your workers’ satisfaction will no doubt affect your corporate future and reputation. If happy, they will translate their own positivity into customer service and your reputation will soar. If not, you might change your tune to a Joan Jett song.
Then, how do you fare against your competitors?
Are you analyzing their campaigns and actions? You should monitor how you compare and if there is a way you can improve your products and services, jump on it! After all, good marketers copy, great ones steal! But don’t actually steal! ( here’s a great article about it by Neil Patel).
How Can You Improve Your Reputation Management
Rule number one: “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do” – Henry Ford.
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Do what you want to be known and appreciated for.
This is the most important strategy for reputation management:! Build your brand in a way that makes you proud. That way, you won’t have to worry about negative opinions. Invest in your products and services and make them the best they can be. After Google, that is the first contact people will have with your brand. If possible, try to include social proof and testimonials on your website. If people are happily discussing your products, others will want to try them too! People trust people more than businesses, so let your glowing reviews do the talking!
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Never fall out of touch with your audience.
Always apply social listening. Try to follow what customers and clients are saying about your brand, not just on your page but everywhere on social media. You can set up Google alerts with your company name to tackle mentions and bad reviews quickly (but block your own domains, so you don’t get notified for your own mentions). Respond promptly and courteously to negative feedback. Ignoring your customers is a big no-no and won’t get you far.
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Don’t fret about bad reviews. Try to turn that experience around.
Every company has their community and their “non-believers”, so of course, you will get some bad reviews. Don’t fret, just make sure you really listen and apply the changes where necessary. You should always strive to improve your business and customer service management. The best businesses learn from their mistakes. Don’t leave a bad review hanging. Make contact with the customer and see if you can turn that experience around. That being said, don’t pay attention to obvious trolls or buy into their games. Your time is not worth it.
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Hire a marketing agency to handle your reputation management.
Did you know reviews aimed at defaming a company’s reputation that use false information are illegal? For these types of reviews, you should contact the social media or website platform and request immediate removal or seek legal action.
This can be quite an exhausting task, which is why many businesses prefer to have a professional marketing agency handle their reputation management services.
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Monitor your comments carefully.
Remember, not everyone will be as poised as you, you might get face to face with some pretty difficult situations, like negative SEO attacks. These attacks are designed to ruin yours and your website’s online reputation and SEO ranking. It usually involves some sort of spam and links to illicit websites that you didn’t approve. This is another reason why you should monitor your comments carefully. And remember, it’s ok to ask for help. Finding and removing all the negative links is an important job.
Social Media Reputation Management
Social media is an extension of your brand and you should treat it that way. Don’t neglect it. Interact with your audience and encourage growing your community. Social media can do wonders for engagement and customer care which are crucial to your company’s image. Invite people to review your business on social media and start conversations. Social channels are unparalleled in creating an emotional connection with people, a connection that sometimes subconsciously drives us to choose one business over another. Don’t lose sight of this and dare to share the more raw and spontaneous moments from your personal and work life with your followers. With almost 3 billion people on social media during last year, this is an incredible free way to build up awareness about your brand and cultivate a healthy online reputation.
Reputation Management Mistakes and Bad Practices
Ignoring your online reputation can be detrimental to your business that is why you need to minimize mistakes and bad practices. Here are some common mistakes that many people make when attempting to boost their image online.
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Ignoring (Bad) Reviews
Though it’s unsavory to engage in an argument with customers, bad reviews shouldn’t be ignored. The issue with most companies is finding a balance and an appropriate response to negative feedback about their company. Try to understand where the client is coming from and set your feelings aside. Customer service is crucial for a good reputation, something many companies can attest to. Do you remember the Nordstrom story with a customer who returned car tires even though they don’t sell them? They accepted the return! Now, we’re not saying you should go that far, but excellent customer service reputation does separate a business from their competitors. And it goes without saying you should absolutely reply to good reviews. It only takes a couple of minutes to say thank you and your customers will appreciate it! Remember that your future clients will see these reviews and your (lack of) responses. This could influence their purchasing decision and your company’s reputation.
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Lack Of Consistency
Did you know that a big number of customers goes straight from a company’s website to their social media profiles? If they checked yours, what would they find there?
You should stay current and upload fresh content regularly at high traffic hours when your audience is most engaged. Don’t miss an opportunity to reach more customers by being idle on social media or your blog. Another pet peeve is not updating your website year in the footer. Don’t leave it outdated, website visitors will think you are no longer in business. Even though it doesn’t seem like these things greatly influence sales or a brand’s reputation, they do! The little things add up and customers want to be sure of your credibility if they are going to make a purchase.
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Fake Reviews
Did you know Google and Yelp have algorithms that can spot and sift through fake reviews?
You should never waste your time coming up with them. This will cause a lot of damage to your online reputation and it could lower your SEO rank. Instead of fake reviews, approach your customers and encourage them to say a few words about your products or services. Make sure to impart how important customer feedback is since you will use it to improve your business. You’d be surprised how many people will gladly review if asked politely. Especially after an amazing experience.
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Blackhat SEO
We’ve all heard about it, blackhat SEO. No matter how desperate you are to grow your business and online ranking, don’t fall into a blackhat SEO trap. These aggressive tactics are deceitful and they won’t reflect well on your website or business reputation. Generating website traffic with whitehat SEO techniques takes time, but your clients will prefer the high-value content and appreciate your brand for the honesty and hard work you put into it. There is no need to reach for blackhat SEO. If, by chance, you’ve been damaged by this practice, you might want to talk to a professional about improving your reputation online. Recovering from negative SEO attacks is a long and complicated process sometimes best left for professional SEO marketing agencies. Your SEO reputation management should always be transparent and impeccable, following the best practices.
Learn how to manage Google reviews and contact us for more info.
The Benefits of Online Reputation Management Software
The benefits of online reputation management are multiple, but having a reputation management software that will automate the process of handling reviews is of an incredible importance.
Reputation management companies are multiplying by day and that alone can show us the growing significance businesses put on public perception of their brand. Almost every company has a PR and reputation management department and if they don’t they certainly use one of the many reputation management softwares out there.
For example, these softwares, like KitchenDEV Reputation Management Tool, can handle a number of reputation management activities that would take up a lot of your time. They can help you manage your reviews in real time, deliver personalized, localized campaigns to your target audience, edit or hide snippets of reviews so you can stay in control of your content and image.
Here’s how reputation management strategy looks like with RateMB automated solution for digital reputation management.
If you’re wondering how to do online reputation management the right and easiest way, this is one of the most valuable tips we can give you.
Total Transparency: The Persist Digital Way
We are aware of the reputation management importance here at Persist Digital. Our main approach is transparency, respect, and gratitude. Everything we do internally and for our clients is cataloged in detail and reviewed. We work together to improve our company and our clients’ businesses and to help you decide, we show you reputation management examples of the work we already did for our client and the resulst achieved.
One of the ways we create reputation management strategy is by employing the many tips we’ve shared in this article. Online reputation management service is a part of our full-service packages that include SEO copywriting, social media and digital marketing, web development and design, as well as paid marketing strategies and implementation.
If you need help recovering your reputation from a negative SEO attack or just building awareness around your brand, Persist Digital is the right reputation management company for you. Contact our reputation management experts today and see what we can do about getting your reputation management polished and squeaky clean with plenty of stellar reviews!
Contact Persist Digital To Start Improving Your Online Reputation Today
With our online reputation management services we will help you improve your brand or business image online and increase your credibility.
We will help you:
- Acquire more authentic & more quality customer reviews on Google, Yelp, Houzz, and Facebook with our automated tool.
- Establish you as an expert by joining conversations, helping potential customers, and increasing awareness about your brand.
- Proudly display your reviews and ratings on your website and promote on social media. Let everyone know why you are the best.
- Monitor your reviews so you can respond to both positive and negative ones which will repair a damaged online reputation, and outrank negative reviews.
- Grow the fan base for your kitchen & bath showroom, and generate more leads.
- Handle digital reputation management for your business
We are a reputation management agency that has been guiding kitchen & bath showrooms in NY and NJ like yours for more than 6 years, helping them gain new leads, increase sales, and motivate customers to keep coming back to their kitchen & bath showrooms. Our reputation management experts can do the same for you! Whether you need brand reputation management, digital reputation management, or small business reputation management, we give the most affordable reputation management pricing.