As we are increasingly living our lives the smart way, with smartphones. Our survival has turned dependent on the power of the internet. Reaching the world with a single click has made us lose control on our own appearance. Oversharing, too much of updates or an issue arising with the customer can become the major threat to your business and brand’s image. Thus, it’s important to seek professional guidance from online reputation managers.
With the booming online exposure, the need for online reputation management has also increased. With the focus to create strong and positive brand image, reputation managers also help you deal with negative publicity in effective ways.
Let’s look at some of the effective online reputation management tips that might help your business / brand:
- Be present on all web properties
Surviving in the highly competitive market with numerous competitors, it is a must to be active on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram. There are several other media sites, specific to your industry, for e.g. LinkedIn can be of great help to connect B2B or with industry professionals, executives and employees. As they say, video is the future of marketing, you can also opt for videos and share it via platforms like YouTube and Vimeo.
- Dare not ignoring your social media accounts
Simply having a social media account is not enough. Develop your audience, build your social media account in order to connect and interact with your customers and increase engagement as well as influence. This helps outrank the posts and further strengthens the social media accounts.
- Create presence for business associates
It is a must to develop as strong social media presence for CEO, MD, founder, business heads, etc. and showcase their characteristics. Because keeping a low-profile can lead you to defaming. Keeping up your business’s identity with the executive is a great strategy for reputation management. Many a times people search by the name of individuals like doctor, lawyer, etc.
- Take up authorship
Authorship marketing has a significant impact on the business. It is primarily for the business where the founder or other business associates have a strong impact on brand identity. Authorship requires individuals, which help associate the author tag with their profiles and not the business page. Authorship develops credibility through the blogs, articles or post published.
- Blogging
One of the key part of reputation management, blogging is a best way to build your ranks with good keywords and SEO. Connecting with your audience through stories and information will not help you win their trust but also make you rank better, thus opening your gateways to direct communication and responses.
- Avoid arguments & apologise
Participate is discussions, and forums. Answer the queries that people have, but avoid getting in arguments as it creates a negative impact and tarnishes your brand image. Be real and transparent, apologise if you fail and try to reconcile the situation and your relationship with the customer. Make amendments, genuinely apologise and make it up to your customer.
__________
While these are some the tried and tested methods for online reputation management, it important to keep do them properly and look for more ways to develop your brand.