Blog

It’s everything. The Internet is an open book with universal access to public content. That content can be news, websites, social media posts, blogs, forums, and more.

And it is the place where reputations are made or destroyed – personal and business.

If you own a business or you are a content marketing pro for a business, protecting and managing the company’s online reputation is tantamount – and so many things contribute to that reputation. The question becomes two-fold: What is reputation management and what are the best online reputation management strategies?

Defining Reputation Management

It used to be so simple. A business opened its doors, provided a good product or service to its customers/clients, ran sales and discounts, marketed via traditional media advertising. Its reputation was local, unless it was a Coca-Cola or General Motors.

A reputation was built by treating customers right and by having those customers provide word-of-mouth feedback to their local friends and family. It was easy to “manage” a reputation – take face-to-face customer complaints and handle them well.

How things have changed. Now, businesses have expanded their market reaches online, and those online customers have larger tribes and a voice on review sites and social media. And this has totally disrupted managing a reputation – maintaining that “feel good” relationship with customers.

Reputation Management Tips and Strategies

So, now that you understand what is online reputation management, the task is to protect and maintain it. Ow exactly is this done? The following should be in your repertoire of strategies:

1. Get the Right Online Reputation Management Tools

You cannot address comments and reviews, both good and bad, unless you know they actually exist. And you need to know the minute they appear. You can only do this by having some digital social monitoring tools that will alert you as soon as your brand is mentioned anywhere online. Then you can access those comments and respond quickly.

2. Respond Immediately

This is one of the best online reputation management tips of all. The longer a negative comment or review sits out there without response, the more people see it. Check out every alert you get and access it quickly. If the comment is positive, obviously express appreciation. If it is negative, however, you have to have a response that is practiced and effective.

3. Have a Repertoire of Practiced Responses

Every negative comment is unique, and every customer must be treated personally. However, it is easy to become defensive and argumentative – something you do not want ever to do. There are many examples of companies that have done so and that have suffered greatly, as a result.

You can develop some standard phrases which can be uniquely tweaked for each customer/event. These will keep you focused on a response that validates the customer’s feelings; that expresses an apology when the company is at fault; and that looks for solutions that turn that customer around.

4. Be Proactive on Your Website, Blog and Social Media

One online reputation tips that top reputation management companies all endorse is consistently enhancing the reputation of your brand by publicizing all of the positive news you an. Are you supporting a cause? Can you highlight some of your great team members? Can you develop a thematic approach for some regular humorous or inspirational stories or quotations for a social media platform? Keeping a brand name out in front with positive news and stories can help to mitigate a negative comment or two.

5. Make use of an Online Reputation Management Service/Company

Because online reputations have become such a large factor in a company’s success (and it profits, quite frankly) an entire industry has grown for the sole purpose of taking over the protection and management of companies’ online reputations.

As you scale, and as your market reach grows, it might be wise to contract with such a service. These are pros who do this for a living and who can develop a strategy for both proactive and reactive activities. Finding the best online reputation management company for your needs may take a bit of research. Do what your customers do. Find out what others have to say, read reviews, have discussions with company representatives, and make a wise choice.