Reputation in any business is the key to its survival and success in a competitive industry. As a business owner, you always hope that your customers/clients feel the same as you do about the brand you are offering. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case! The hardest part about reputation is that it is largely influenced by what others say and do. The whole episode gets tricky when it comes to your online reputation.
Your offering’s online reputation is constantly re-defined and evolving by every review, social media comment, and blog post. The moment a potential customer discovers your brand, they make judgments or even buying decisions as per the content they have found online. The real-time, sharing, and automation features of today’s web have since granted business owners remarkable opportunities to influence positively or negatively the strongest of online business reputation. Because of that, it is essential than never before to monitor and/or protect your online reputation. Luckily, there are many ways to proactively improve and manage your enterprise reputation online, and this article looks at the top three options. Take a look at the below:
1). Always be monitoring your social media accounts
As soon as you unveil your presence in the online business world, it is vital that you build your social media profiles. That way, you will establish your name, phone number, and address consistency across the internet. In the end, it is more likely that you will increase the number of your website or brand mentions.
That said and done, it is worthless building out social media profiles and leaving them unmonitored. In fact, from the visitor’s point of view, it paints a poor image if the said accounts have not been updated for years or several months, leaving people to assume that you are not watching the progress of your online business. Therefore, checking out your social media accounts on a regular basis is necessary for monitoring your reputation online. Although you may not post something every day, it is still essential to check your accounts daily to keep up with present engagements. It is paramount to respond to both negative and positive comments as well as mentions of your brand.
2). Sign up/setup for Google Alerts
Another important option to monitor your reputation online is using Google Alerts, as this will ultimately watch or look out for mentions across the internet. Google will instantly notify you anytime new content is published on the web containing some of the keywords that you already choose. Google allows you to set alerts for your brand’s name, business name, or even common misspellings of your enterprise name. With this option, you will always atop of what is talked about your business by others, so you can promptly acknowledge (and engage back) positive mentions and resolve negative reviews. Since you want to monitor what your competitors are doing, it is also important to create Google Alerts for your competitor(s) names.
3). Keep tabs your top review sites
One of the most important options to monitor your reputation online is to check daily on your top review sites Houzz, Angie’s List, ZocDoc, Healthgrades, Facebook, Google, Yelp, etc. These sites, with online directories, allow anyone anytime to add a listing. It, therefore, implies that, even if you did not list your business brand on the said sites, it may still be found there, of course, collecting reviews. Remember to claim your listings and monitor these review sites frequently. It is highly recommended that you visit each of the site’s settings and activate to receive notifications, so you do not miss out if a new review(s) comes in.
Your online reputation may take years to build, and tarnishes in seconds if not monitored appropriately. Be conscious about what other people think about your brand, reflect on their reviews to improve your business image, keep an eye on what your competitors are doing, and always be reliable and honest. Maintaining a good online reputation is not a walk in the park, but it is simple. Consistency in monitoring is the key to success and survival!
