Go on Instagram or any social media page and read posts by high-profile celebrities, business owners and entrepreneurs, influencers, and others whose followers hang on their every word. Any content published that rubs people the wrong way will ignite a flurry of comments and negative feedback.

For example, let’s look at Kylie Jenner’s most recent social media post where she’s about to board a private jet, and ponders in writing whether she and her boyfriend should take “mine or yours” (meaning which of the two jets they should choose). The caption, whether or not she meant it as tongue and cheek, went viral and generated a slew of negative feedback, with followers calling out the makeup mogul for a number of issues.

For one, she faced backlash over the environmental harm caused by the short trips she’s been known to take on her jet. One Reddit user said:

“It’s so frustrating to see them post stuff like this while living really wasteful lives even though they have all the means to try and be as sustainable as possible.”

Another commenter said it was “annoying when celebrities implore their fans to take action that they themselves seem unwilling to follow through on.”

A Positive Social Media Reputation Takes Ongoing TLC

While most CEOs and business people are not showcasing their jets, the above example is indicative of how statements (even flippant ones) on social media pages can have negative ramifications.

Jenner, as so many others in the public and private sector, should heed the lessons learned when customer sentiment turns against you, and you find yourself scrambling to undo the many negative comments from social media followers (and in customer feedback) as a result of actions taken or not taken, or statements made.

You can choose to either ignore the negativity (which is never a good idea) when customer issues arise, or employ thoughtful and strategic online reputation management so controversies like this are averted.

What’s the First Step in Social Media Reputation Management for a Company Brand?

You must have a social media plan. First, decide which social media channels you want to participate in. Look at your target audience and determine which social media sites make sense for you to post on, share customer stories, invite online reviews, and generate quality content on an ongoing basis.

If your target audience skews on the younger side, Instagram and TikTok may be your social media platforms of choice. If your customers are older, Facebook and Instagram may be two of the social media accounts where you want a presence and you want the customer experience to be featured on.

Think of social media as a form of business discovery apps. These platforms can help you connect with new audiences, expand your digital footprint, and build engagement with followers.

Once you know which social media channels you want to utilize to build and maintain a positive online reputation, decide who in your company (or firm, if you are using a third party) is responsible for posting and commenting along with which topics will be on point for your company brand reputation.

While you want to be current and spontaneous, perhaps there are certain topics you want to avoid to mitigate any potential pitfalls. These topics may be politics or social issues, for example.

Encourage Reviews and User Generated Content for a Positive Brand Image

In addition to your own content, again, invite your customers to share positive reviews about their experiences with your products and services. User-generated content is a great way to showcase your brand and customer experience on social media. Plus, search engines love fresh content, which helps with search engine optimization (SEO) and page ranking. When individuals do a Google search, for example, your social media content will also appear.

In addition, social media reviews are seen by a broad audience and will go further in getting you new customers than simply relying on word of mouth. Consumers trust online reviews as long as they are authentic.

Employ Social Listening Tools Across Your Social Media Networks

It’s important to interact with your customers and potential customers. So you need to know what they are saying about your business. Be sure you have a strategy in place to listen to what they have to say.

Many businesses, unfortunately, don’t check their reviews, missing a real opportunity to further your company’s good reputation. Remember, purchasing decisions are often made based on what other customers are saying about your products and their quality.

There are myriad tools available to monitor your social media feeds. One of the most popular is Sprout Social, which offers an “all-in-one” solution. You may also consider using the services of a social media reputation management team.

So you need to check reviews and customer feedback and respond to both positive and negative reviews and comments.

Deal with Negative Reviews, Respond Professionally

You need to deal with a negative review head-on once it’s online. This is critical to managing your online reputation. If negative reviews or controversial or disparaging social media comments go unchecked, they have a way of taking over and damaging your brand image and online reputation.

As part of your company’s reputation management, deal with a customer complaint or bad customer experiences by trying to turn things around. Find out what the issues are and work to rectify them. Your existing customers will appreciate this and you will get new customers along the way if they believe in your authenticity and transparency.

Remember, you won’t always get positive reviews or comments related to your social media posts and stories. Dissatisfied customers will exist. Highlight and promote comments and glowing reviews by satisfied customers and deal with the negative reviews and feedback as part of your social media management strategy.

Monitor Online Review Websites

Your customers are not only commenting on social media platforms. They are also providing feedback on online review websites. Critical to your social media reputation management is monitoring these sites, including Angi and others, depending on the type of business you have.

Go Beyond Social Media for a Positive Online Reputation

In addition to leveraging social media to enhance your brand’s reputation and image, you can employ other strategies as well to gain new business and increase sales and your customer base.

For example, look at what digital marketing strategies you can employ, such as email marketing that enables you to target specific audiences and drive them to your website and social media platforms. You’ll be engaging with existing customers and, at the same time targeting new customers.

Establish Your Company Name As a Thought Leader

Beef up your company blog by becoming an industry authority in your niche market. You can then post on your social media channels to showcase your expertise and drive more traffic to your website. This will help boost your digital reputation.

Keep It Fresh: Generate Content Often

Publish content regularly to help retain customers and generate new business. This isn’t a one and one tactic. It’s a long-term strategy that will help with building your business and your online reputation with positive search results.

Ensure that when employees post information — whether on social media sites, your website, or on any other digital platform — that they don’t include or reveal sensitive data about customers.

Utilizing an ORM Social Media Reputation Management Firm

You may find you don’t have the resources to keep up with your social media reputation, including monitoring what is being said about your company and brand. An Online Reputation Management (ORM) company provides services that will help manage your company’s reputation on a social media platform, your website, review sites, blogs, etc.

An ORM can audit your social media content to ensure your brand is presented in the best light — that positive content is what comes up in search results.

An ORM can also help you with the impact from the fallout of a negative incident that’s damaging to your business.

Contact ReputationSciences Today

Whether you are a business owner or an individual, you know that building and maintaining a good social media reputation is a complex and challenging process. That process has to be comprehensive. With social media reputation management across platforms, you gain a visible digital footprint that can help you stand out from the competition.

A reliable partner is just what you need to get started. Contact us or call ReputationSciences at (844) 458-6735 to learn about managing your business reputation with a free consultation.

The post How Can You Improve Social Media Reputation Management? appeared first on Reputation Sciences.

Today an individual’s and business’s online reputation is integral to their personal and brand success. It takes years to build trust and credibility and to establish yourself as a thought leader, innovator, pioneer, and visionary and your company brand as providing quality products and services and a firm on which people can rely. It also requires ongoing online reputation management that only an experienced firm can provide.

An online reputation management (ORM) intimately understands how search engines work; how information is compiled and ranked in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing; the utmost importance of creating and posting positive content; the impact of negative reviews on review sites and social media platforms have on an individual’s and company’s online reputation; and, most importantly, how to leverage your online presence for optimum reputational results.

ORM Strategies: An Online Reputation Management (ORM) Begins with an Online Reputation Audit

The first order of business is to find out what your online reputation is. Do you have an online presence — if you don’t have ongoing content about your business online, others will.

What comes up when someone searches your name or your company’s name? Are there positive reviews? Is your business online portrayed the way you want it to be?

Is there negative feedback showing on Google, Angi, and other review sites? Are you seeing negative customer reviews?

What types of comments are on your social media channels? And, if there are negative comments, are you or your staff providing timely reactions to try to turn negativity into a positive review? Or are any negative comments out there going unaddressed, allowing customers and prospects to form their own opinions?

Have there been any events, incidents, or unexpected crises that could potentially turn public opinion against you or the company if articles come up about the event/crisis in the search engines? It just takes one miscalculation or misstep to damage a company’s reputation.

Once your company’s online reputation is revealed via an audit, strategies and techniques will be developed and created to either boost and enhance your reputation or change it for the better if there are any issues.

What’s Next? Start creating positive online content.

Create Content for Your Brand Online on Website, Social Media

You and your business do a lot of great things, so it’s important to share what you do online. This means developing and putting in place an online reputation management strategy to create and post positive content.

How does an online reputation management company do this?

Start with your website: Tell your brand story

Does the Home Page of your site tell your story? How well is your About Us page written? Does it reflect your core business, your values, brand credibility and brand image? If not, it’s time to get to work on this and beef up the content.

Does your website contain online reviews that reflect customer satisfaction? Customer testimonials are great, as long as they are authentic. They help bring your products and services to life. People want to do business with a company that others laud. It’s a great way to get new potential customers.

Does your site appear on page one for branded terms — which is where you want to be? This takes keyword research which can be accomplished with on-page optimization and via blog content.

Speaking of blogs, what’s happening with the blog section of your website? Search engines love content, which again helps you rank on page one. The blog has to include relevant content. Plus, it’s important not to have any duplicate content.

Blogs are a great way to enhance your brand’s reputation. An online reputation management firm can help you create blog topics, interview staff to gain insight, and ghost-write articles that elevate the company brand reputation — as well as your own.

A deep dive into your social media accounts

You have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram accounts. They need to be monitored and maintained with posts and shares to help with search engine optimization (SEO) and organic growth.

You want to encourage your customers to go on your social media channels and share their experiences. If, for example, you have a restaurant, you want people to post photos and positive online reviews and tag your establishment. If you own a clothing store, you want customers to wear your clothes, post photos and tag your retail shop. If you’re a physician, perhaps a dermatologist, what better way than to put in a good word about your services than on social media!!

But social media accounts need to be managed so that if there are any negative reviews, they can be addressed immediately. An ORM strategy will include social media management and monitoring and help you with customer engagement.

An ORM Agency Gets Positive Content Published

An online reputation management firm will also employ a strategy to garner free publicity. As mentioned, search engines love content. One way to get content online is to write and submit articles to publications on topics of interest to their readership and in your wheelhouse. An online reputation management firm will determine which topics fit your expertise and will help boost your brand reputation.

From there, the online reputation management firm will create a schedule of articles based on the topics they’ve researched. There are guidelines to follow for each publication with which an ORM is familiar. Articles ranging from 600 to 1,000 words, depending on the publication requirements, will be written and reviewed by you. These are not self-promoting articles but serve to convey your expertise in a certain area.

As the online reputation management firm builds up your library of articles that are published regularly, your brand online will gain traction. When someone types in your name or a specific topic, like “how to build a great team,” your article in CEO World or Entrepreneur magazine, for example, will appear in searches.

This is a great way to build credibility.

More ORM Strategies: Write and Send Out Press Releases

When you have a new product, get a press release out to the publications in your industry, whether B2B or B2C. If you hired new talent, get press releases written and distributed. This valuable content helps with your online reputation management and with Google search engine results and rankings. The more you publish positive content, the more successful your brand’s online reputation will be.

An ORM will write and distribute the press releases.

Encourage Customers to Post Reviews

Get more reviews on your website and on your Google Local Business Profile and Angi (if applicable). The more reviews you get, the better for your search engine strategies and, ultimately, your company’s reputation. Personal recommendations go a very long way in getting new customers.

Turn Those Negative Reviews Around

Unfortunately, not all customers provide positive feedback. Online reputation management services also include assisting companies with negative reviews.

First, in writing a lot of great content, the negative comments will begin to disappear from page one of the search engines. At the same time, it’s important to address the negative reviews and comments to resolve whatever issues the customer has. An ORM strategy can help you turn negative feedback from someone into a person who becomes an advocate for your company.

Your company’s reputation is not only based on everything great about it, your staff, and products and services, but also on how you deal with a potentially delicate or bad situation.

Online reviews are important. The majority of people, before making a purchase, will read online reviews about a brand to help them with their decision-making process.

How you deal with bad reviews speaks to your credibility and transparency. An online reputation management strategy that helps you manage negative comments, press, reviews, etc., is critical to your brand’s reputation.

Recap: Online Reputation Management ORM Strategies

Your online reputation is key to your company’s success. You want to ensure a positive public perception and create brand credibility. This takes reputation management. Here’s a recap of the strategies an online reputation management firm can provide you with for improved search results and an enhanced and positive reputation.

• A reputation online audit that includes analyzing brand mentions to develop key strategies
• A review of your website and blog content to enhance your brand story and optimize existing content for search results, and to post fresh content on the Internet regularly (remember, search engine optimization is key in getting your company ranked at the top of search engines)
• Social media management and monitoring for negative mentions
• Creation of articles on relevant topics to be published in industry and business magazines
• Press release (PR) development and distribution to assist with the success of your online business, promote new products and services, new staff, community service, etc.
• Managing and dealing with a negative customer review or negative content; an ORM helps neutralize negative content by developing positive content that appears in search results.

The ORM process begins with a free consultation to determine a company’s online reputation needs and how to best proceed. Brand perception is critical for all companies and must be managed on a regular basis to ensure continued success in the market.

Contact ReputationSciences Today

Whether you are a business owner or an individual, you know that building and maintaining a good reputation is a complex and challenging process. That process has to be comprehensive. It has to include not just your website, but a variety of outlets (such as review sites) that tend to rank highly across industry searches. But that doesn’t make it impossible.

A reliable partner is just what you need to get started. Contact us or call ReputationSciences at (844) 458-6735 to learn about managing your business reputation with a free consultation.

The post ORM Strategies to Help with Reputation Management appeared first on Reputation Sciences.

Whether you are an individual or run a business, your reputation has a tremendous impact on how well you do. The better your reputation, the more successful you can be in your industry niche.

This is especially true in the case of your online reputation, which can literally be seen by millions. One of the better gauges of how you are envisioned is through reviews related to your business management or even you personally.

How Reviews Impact Your Online Reputation

Reviews shed a light on experiences others have had in their dealings with an establishment, their management practices, and of course, the products or services they provide, and the outcome of that experience. All of this can significantly impact your brand’s reputation and, if negative experiences are shared, can place you or your business in jeopardy.

The fact that reviews can be quickly uploaded via mobile devices by the general public means that a lot of information, good and bad, can be seen online in little or no time. If you delivered on your promise with regard to your services, you’ll often receive a positive review online that reflects this.

On the other hand, if you fell short on quality, missed deadlines, or otherwise gave a customer or client less than stellar service, whatever the reason, they might decide to leave an unfavorable review. They will express their dissatisfaction through these customer stories, which can have a great influence on others who read their comments. Some interested in your service or product may even reach out to the reviewer to get further clarification for the negative review, making a bad situation worse.

How to Combat Negative Comments or Reviews

There are steps that can be taken to restore confidence in you and/or your establishment. Respond to a negative review politely, with the intent of rectifying the situation to the best of your abilities. If there is something that can be done to improve the quality of your service (or product) or to ensure that there isn’t a repeat of the incident with others making use of your services, it’ll go a long way toward improving public relations.

You can also take steps, in the case of unfair or biased reviews or comments that are defamatory or false, to have these removed from public view. This requires contacting the webmaster of the site and providing proof that the comments posted were solely done to discredit you, or affect your sales and bear no actual merit. Your online reputation necessitates that you fix any actual issues so that you are able to attract new customers and avoid bad news and bad press.

You don’t want people going on search engines and finding negative reviews. Review management is a proven solution to protect and repair your online reputation.

A Reputational Platform Offers Many Viable Solutions

In order to keep customers happy and gain more business, you need to take command of the customer experience and how they talk about your company online. This can require quite a lot of time, which is why there are companies set up and prepared to assist you in keeping track of how your business is performing, how you are perceived and help in maintaining the positive aspects of what you do.

A company that provides these types of online platforms has the tools to help you to track your progress, find out what matters most to consumers, and anticipate just what your business needs to maintain its good standings. They accomplish this by using tools, such as reputation management software, that help to enable the process. You’ll be able to track potential issues and then have management immediately address any problems that arise using data and actionable insights to get to the crux of the problem.

One of the advantages of using an online reputation management firm is having access to all reviews on different sites in one place. This allows them to work with you to comb through online reviews and determine their legitimacy. This can give you access to a slew of online reviews related to your business listings. Having the proper tools to maintain control of your online reputation management efforts is essential to your marketing efforts.

There are also reputational tools you can use, including the Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measures customer experience and predicts business growth. NPS is the key measure of your customers’ overall perception of your brand, is a leading indicator of growth, and provides a useful gauge for your customer experience management (CEM) program.

Others May Target Your Business for Personal Reasons

There are times when a competitor might post fake reviews in an attempt to disrupt your business reputation by posting a false or negative review. You can have these posts removed if you can prove they aren’t authentic, but this process can prove difficult as well as time-consuming. False or irrelevant reviews can also come from other sources. This sort of thing happens to businesses all the time.

Former or Current Employees Can Do You Harm As Well

Employees with a bone to pick with management, whether they feel they were unfairly treated, or fired, or have complaints about working conditions, may post a bad review as a way of discrediting your business and reputation, affecting your ability to bring in new customers. Negative reviews can have quite an impact, so monitor all reviews, as this is essential in order to gain insight into how your company may be perceived.

Even a strong brand might find difficulty in overcoming too much bad press, so go over each negative review to determine its legitimacy. Internet trolls can be another factor. They often target businesses simply because they can, and often have no real agenda other than to be a nuisance, costing you time and money to prove that their comments aren’t a real reflection of your business and they exist only to cause damage to your corporate branding.

If you can identify reviews that are solely created as a way of unfairly portraying your business as less than competent, or unreliable, you need to restore your reputation before the damage becomes unmanageable.

Social Media and Positive Content

Social media allows you to restore your reputation and create positive messages by posting good customer feedback found via search engines and culled from reputable review sites. You can start by creating or hiring a social media marketing team. They should build on your brand’s online presence, posting the best reviews from major review sites in an attempt to manage and restore your company’s reputation if necessary. They can also share customer stories that are relatable.

Customer feedback is part of reputation management, and new reviews appearing on social media websites in real time can be a big part of that management process.

Keys to Online Reputation Management

Reputation management is just that, managing your reputation. An ORM (Online Reputation Management) partners to help provide you with the tools necessary to succeed. They utilize online reputation management software, visit review sites, including Google reviews, and work to improve or restore your reputation, allowing you to garner more customers and maintain good standing in your community.

Regardless of your industry, you need to monitor your progress and update your website to reflect changes and improvements made, as this will help improve your position in search results. This can be accomplished by using a reputation platform to address any issues.

Contact ReputationSciences Today

Whether you are a business owner or an individual, you know that maintaining good reputation is a complex and challenging process. That process has to be comprehensive. It has to include not just your website, but a variety of outlets (such as review sites) that tend to rank highly across industry searches. But that doesn’t make it impossible.

A reliable partner, in fact, may be just what you need to get started. Contact us to learn about and begin to implement the nuances of review management for protecting your business reputation.

The post How Strong Is Your Reputational Platform? appeared first on Reputation Sciences.

Impact of Bad Online Reviews

As a business owner, you encourage customers to leave online reviews after using your product or benefiting from one of your services. In fact, online reviews help boost a business’s reputation — it’s sort of today’s word of mouth, only digitally.

People search for a local business to meet their needs — whether it’s to try a new local Italian restaurant, find a new accountant or financial planner nearby, hire an interior designer, change physicians, or contract with a real estate agent to sell their house. What better way than to read online reviews to see what other people think of the business one is considering patronizing or using. Most people trust online reviews to help in their decision-making process.

Customers Focus on Negative Info

While reading through the comments, however, it’s only human nature that people will tend to focus on the negative reviews. They can read dozens of positive reviews but it’s the bad online review that will stand out and make a lasting impression.

Some may ask those who wrote a negative review to expand further, wanting more details about why they are unhappy about a product or service. For example, someone may complain about the outdoor seating at a restaurant, saying that the experience was terrible (particularly in today’s environment where outdoor dining has become the norm). This will inevitably turn people off from visiting the restaurant. These types of negative online reviews are bad for business, especially when they go unaddressed.

Or let’s say you want to purchase an immune-boosting supplement to see if it really does what its marketing promotion says it does. Perhaps there are negative reviews on the review site section of Amazon with one or no stars where the product is for sale. An individual may comment that the supplement tastes bad or that they experienced zero results after taking the supplement for x number of weeks. These are honest reviews, most likely, but they are also providing negative feedback, which will inevitably hurt sales.

It’s important to contact customers that post negative comments and see what can be done to rectify the situation, apologize for their bad experience, or to counter in a polite way. You want to see if you can turn around the bad review they posted.

Free Speech Allows Customers to Post Reviews

It’s important to note that companies cannot prohibit customers from voicing honest albeit negative feedback online. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection, “gag clauses are illegal” to include in one’s terms and conditions and clauses. Companies that use these tactics will be penalized.

There is a difference, however, between saying you don’t like a product or are unhappy with the service, and making false claims about a product or service and disparaging a company with untruths.

Is the Online Review an Honest Review, False Statement, Or a Defamation Claim?

In some cases, negative reviews can also be false statements — even defamatory. Unfortunately, these can be posts written by a disgruntled employee who has been wrongfully terminated, individuals who are trolls and want to write a bad review, a competitor looking to gain an edge in your niche market, or a customer who is simply angry. The online reviewer can be anyone with a gripe, or even worse, a vindictive nature looking to cause online chaos.

What Can You Do About Bad Reviews?

Most importantly, respond directly to all reviews. If you feel that the review is not honest but rather false or defamatory, you can choose to take legal action. A law firm can help you bring a defamation lawsuit against the person responsible for the review, but it’s important that you feel confident you can prove the defamation claim. Also, a lawsuit can cost a significant amount of money. The money you expend on a lawsuit may be better spent utilizing other strategies to deal with and manage negative information.

Work with an Online Reputation Management Company

In lieu of making a defamation claim and pursuing a lawsuit, many businesses turn to an online reputation management (ORM) firm to help with negative reviews. Remember, consumers can post a negative review and are entitled to their opinions, but that review should be truthful. What you don’t want is to have negative information to impact getting potential customers and losing existing clients.

A professional ORM will develop a strategy to create and post positive content online. This includes writing relevant and meaningful content to be included on your website, blogs, Google My Business (your profile), in professional publications catered to your niche market, and featured positive customer reviews. Your services and products will appear on the Internet in a positive light, consistently, and on an ongoing basis. This will help rank the positive content at the top of the search engines such as Google. It will also help to suppress negative and disparaging information.

Contact ReputationSciences Today

Whether you are a business owner or an individual, you know that maintaining a great online reputation is a complex and challenging process. That process has to be comprehensive. It has to include not just your website, but a variety of outlets (such as review sites) that tend to rank highly across industry searches. But that doesn’t make it impossible.

A reliable partner, in fact, may be just what you need to get started. Contact us to learn about and begin to implement the nuances of review management for protecting your business reputation.

The post Can I Be Sued for Posting a Negative Review? appeared first on Reputation Sciences.

In today’s world, businesses can no longer rely solely on word of mouth to succeed. A strong digital reputation is crucial if you want to stand out in your industry. But what is a good reputation, and how do you begin to build one? From online reviews to a strong social media presence to a solid community presence, here are 20 ways to stand out from your competitors.

What Is a Reputation, Anyways?

Let’s start with the basics: What is a reputation? In general, reputation is defined as a widespread belief of something or someone. When it comes to the realm of business, this is more strictly understood as the general public perception of your company, and if it follows through on the promises it offers. Centuries ago, a positive reputation would be built simply by word of mouth. But in today’s fast-paced, digital world, much (though not all!) of a company’s reputation is dependent on the Internet.

Why is Your Reputation Important?

It’s easiest to think of corporate reputation as a type of marketing. It’s a way to draw in new customers and advertise your business as better than the competition. When a customer turns to the Internet to scour through their seemingly endless options, they’re going to choose the business with the best reviews or highest overall customer satisfaction. A quality, good reputation will impact existing client relationships and draws fresh clients, too.

Personal and Business Reputation Management

Individuals and companies both have reputations to protect. For an individual, a good reputation can be the difference between landing a job, getting approved for an apartment, one’s self-esteem, and even a successful romantic life.

For a business, a good reputation can drastically affect revenue. A bad reputation can lead to a drop-off in customers, and make it hard to sell products. Below are 20 tips on how a business can improve its reputation, though many of these tips can apply to individuals hoping to add value to their online perception as well.

Improving Your Digital Reputation

There are two major differences in how a company can work on their business reputation: online, and in real life. In recent years, the Internet has proven to be invaluable at boosting reputations. Let’s start by identifying 10 key ways you can boost your online reputation.

1. Post positive customer reviews. Set up a dedicated spot on your website to share customer experience that represents positive interactions with your business.
2. Work with local press or interview with online interest groups. Don’t turn down any opportunities for media exposure! It helps to get your business ethos across to customers in outlets beyond your immediate website and will show up at the top of search results when customers are looking online.
3. Hire a photographer and/or videographer. Beyond words, it’s helpful to have visual information to back up your services. Working with a professional reduces the risk of negative images spreading online.
4. Curate your social media accounts. An active social media presence is a crucial way to connect with customers — the top social platforms (Instagram and Facebook) are often the first place someone will look to try and find information about your business, or find deals. You can also control the narrative by establishing a brand voice, and even including humor!
5. Have easy-to-find customer services information. On both your website and your social media accounts, it’s important to have either an email address or a phone number (ideally, both!) where customers can reach a real person if they need help.
6. Be transparent. Whether it’s shipping dates, product info, warranties or beyond, make it clear what your consumers can expect from you so that they have no reason to be left disappointed. Occasionally, things happen — but set yourself up for success by laying all your cards on the table from the start.
7. Respond to negative reviews. No matter how good a company is, there will always be negative opinions out there. Come up with a plan on how to respond to these in advance — it can even be helpful to have a document prepped with starter answers — and reply to customers who have had issues. Other consumers who see these negative reviews will also see that you’ve responded, which ultimately bolsters your reputation.
8. Pay attention to day-to-day events. Unfortunately, in today’s fast-paced, online sphere, it can be easy for a small misstep to turn into a viral moment. Make sure you keep your finger on the pulse when it comes to current events so that your social media presence doesn’t ever feel ignorant or out of step with what’s happening in the news.
9. Be authentic. In any online marketing, social media or promotional materials, make sure you stick to an authentic voice. Consumers are easily aware nowadays of brands that try too hard — and will see right through overpromises.
10. Repair any aspect of a negative reputation. Perhaps there is already content circulating online that is damaging to your business reputation, and you’re hoping to address how people perceive your company. An online reputation management (ORM) company can find and erase any negative content, giving you more opportunities to change your reputation into something positive.

These tips can help you formulate a comprehensive reputation management strategy, giving you the ability to improve and repair your reputation as you build brand recognition online.

Improving Your Real-World Reputation

Although an online reputation is important in gaining more customers, there’s still plenty you can — and should! — do to manage your reputation outside of the realm of the Internet. Here are 10 tips on how to maintain a strong reputation through concrete practices.

1. Invest in good customer service. Similar to broadcasting your customer services online, you need to ensure that you can back up that promise with actual help provided by well-trained employees, whether it’s in stores or simply on the end of a phone line.
2. Follow through on promises. From client deadlines to product guarantees, the more you can stick to the promises you make, the more likely you’ll receive word-of-mouth reviews that bolster your reputation.
3. Go above & beyond. Whether you throw in the occasional freebie or follow-through after a customer experience, it’s the little things that customers will remember — and this ultimately provides extra value to your reputation.
4. Be positive, even when it’s hard. A positive mindset in the workplace matters, and will definitely influence sales! Cheerful employees always leave a lasting impression. Beyond that, it helps to maintain a positive attitude even in times of crisis. Keeping things light and treating customers as friends will always improve your reputation.
5. Cultivate a productive, safe organization. Your employees are a crucial aspect to maintaining a positive reputation, so it’s also the responsibility of a corporation to invest in a communicative human resources department and provide a constructive workplace. Employee feedback sites with reviews from current and former employees are also critical in maintaining a good reputation.
6. Be consistent. Don’t just show off for one top client — every customer should matter! When you put in the effort for all customer interactions to be 110%, your reputation will soar.
7. Figure out what companies you admire, and emulate them. It’s okay to be jealous of your competitors! Figure out several things that make them stand out, and find a way to incorporate those into your own business. Maybe they work with a local charity, or have a strong community presence. Do some research into others in your industry and see how you could apply this to your own reputation.
8. Think of challenges as opportunities. There will undoubtedly be hurdles to your business reputation in some way, but these should be looked at as growth opportunities. How could you better handle these types of issues moving forward? Come up with a game plan and prepare to address future risks.
9. Get out into the world. Meet customers face-to-face by setting up events or going to conferences in your industry. Charity or holiday-based events that you can sponsor are also a great way to improve a business reputation.
10. Work on your environmental impact. Many consumers today expect companies to address their environmental footprint. Address this head-on within your organization to get ahead of the curve and mitigate your reputational risk.

Working with an ORM

Sometimes, a company’s reputation may face challenges — or it may even be one’s own personal reputation that needs a bit of help. It can be daunting to figure out where to start when it comes to fixing a reputation in more detail, especially when digital information seems permanent.

Luckily, online reputation management (ORM) companies can help. They can manage your reputation by searching for, identifying, and actually removing negative online content that damages a person’s reputation or a company’s reputation. Things like blog posts, Google images, negative reviews, and even mugshots can be deleted so that you can start fresh with your professional endeavors.

Another element of enhancing a reputation is creating positive content, which will show up in Internet search results. Any elements of a bad reputation will slowly disappear as an ORM creates and disseminates new blog posts, LinkedIn updates, and other social media posts.

Key Takeaways

At the end of the day, both individuals and companies have a lot to gain from a good reputation. It can take a lot of time and effort to build up a positive reputation, which is why many people often turn to an ORM for assistance. From social media management to blog posts and marketing efforts, reputation management is a key area of investment for any business or individual looking to succeed!

Contact ReputationSciences Today

Whether you are a business owner or an individual, you know that building and maintaining a good reputation is a complex and challenging process. That process has to be comprehensive. It has to include not just your website, but a variety of outlets (such as review sites) that tend to rank highly across industry searches. But that doesn’t make it impossible.

A reliable partner is just what you need to get started. Contact us or call ReputationSciences at (844) 458-6735 to learn about managing your business reputation with a free consultation.

The post What Is a Good Reputation, and How Do I Build One? appeared first on Reputation Sciences.

What Is a Positive Reputation?

One’s reputation is often based on external perceptions, how people — the public at large, stakeholders, competitors — perceive you, your personal brand, and your company brand. It begins with how you define your business (your mission statement, value proposition), including your company’s internal culture and the core values you’ve established which are then shared with and embraced by everyone throughout the company. According to a senior lecturer at the Manchester Business School, about 50% of a company’s reputational management comes from the CEO with the other 50% coming from employees.

Your core values may include integrity, transparency, empowerment, and trust. These values are conveyed throughout the company and in your branding (name, logo, tagline, design, company voice, and tone); corporate communications; marketing materials (emails, press releases), including your online presence (social media accounts, website, Google reviews, blog, online reviews, etc); customer service; and actions. Your values are the foundation of your reputation. A positive reputation is perceived as trustworthy, credible, reliable, and desirable.

Importance of a Good Business Reputation

A good business reputation provides you with key advantages:

• It helps you build trust and a customer’s loyalty. Customers will continue to buy your products and services even during difficult economic times; it’s human psychology for us to be loyal to those we can rely on time and again and whose company’s reputation is impeccable (or at least close to it).
• Customers will become your advocates. Those with a great customer experience will tell friends and family about your products and/or services and will also write positive reviews, giving your company five-star ratings in their online reviews. Depending on the type of business you own, customers may even become influencers for you, especially if your target demographic is younger and scrolling through Instagram and other social media platforms day in, day out.
• Your company is better able to help your human resources department in attracting prospective employees and retaining top talent. People want to work for companies with a great business reputation. Candidates will research your business reputation online before applying for a position to see whether you have a good reputation in the industry.
• You’ll gain a competitive edge and strong market value. This will better enable you to distinguish your brand from others in your niche industry.
• You’ll see increased revenue and profits. Companies with a positive business reputation and higher ratings online get more business.
• You’ll be better able to withstand negative reviews and a potential PR crisis. A solid company reputation will help you face reputational risk as a result of an incident or mishap.

The Internet’s Impact on a Positive Digital Reputation

In the past, businesses communicated and maintained their company’s reputation with television ads, print ads, and, of course, great customer service and word of mouth (referrals). But the Internet and social media have changed much of this. People, of course, still expect and demand great service, but they people can now access all kinds of information online before even deciding to do business with your company.

Businesses are under a microscope and every action and inaction is scrutinized. Consumers read online reviews, online conversations, negative feedback (about a product or service or an individual at the company), and visit review sites to gain insight into what customers love about a company and what they don’t like. A company’s reputation can be damaged easily. Therefore, it’s critical to have a strong online business reputation management strategy in place.

Gen Z and Millennials Look at a Company’s Reputation

While everyone wants to do business with a company with a good reputation, this is particularly important for Generation Z and millennials, who rank reputation importance at the top of the list of the companies from which they choose to buy products or utilize services. Every decision they make involves looking online first, including social media posts and comments. They will check out your company’s online reputation to get an idea of the brand’s authenticity and transparency along with the business’s ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) initiatives.

If there have been any missteps throughout the company’s history, these generations are looking to see how a brand managed them. Was the business forthright? Did the business immediately issue a statement that said it’s directly responsible for the misstep? Did the business apologize and seek to improve where it may have gone wrong? The same goes for personal reputations. Are individuals taking responsibility and/or explaining the facts around an incident that reflects badly on them? No doubt, in the age of social media and “gotcha journalism,” a company’s online reputation is key to its continued success.

How to Keep a Positive Reputation Online

Your business reputation can be maintained with a strong reputation management program in place. A business reputation management strategy is designed to boost and keep your online reputation positive and protected. Your online reputation can be managed by an experienced online reputation management (ORM) company along with your internal reputation management department if one exists. Smaller companies that don’t have internal resources should turn to a business reputation management company for managing corporate reputations online.

The Basics: Online Reputation Management Strategies

Reputation management in today’s digital era involves the following initial strategies:

• Begin by Googling/searching your company name to see what comes up and note positive and negative results. Are most of the search results positive? Or is there negative information coming up that will result in a damaged reputation?
• Monitor searches paying particular attention to reviews and conversations and comments. Regarding negative reviews or comments, improve any issue that is causing the problem and resulting in dissatisfied customers. Respond politely to any negative comments in a timely manner. Don’t get frustrated even if you know what is being said is not true.
• Visit review sites to see what customers are writing. Thank those who are saying positive things and again address any negativity.

Great Tips: Create Positive Content for Reputation Protection & Management

To protect your business online, a reputational management company will develop a strategy that incorporates creating and posting positive content. This is a strategy employed by many in the business world to affect reputation in creative ways, avert potential threats you may be concerned about, deal with any PR disaster to minimize reputational risk, and for rebuilding trust.

• Write articles or have articles ghost-written for you individually or on behalf of your company on relevant topics that are germane to your business and your own interests. Get these articles published in magazines like Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Forbes, CEO World, and other publications to establish yourself as a thought leader. The more articles you have published, the more positive content will appear in searches. Any negative results in search will eventually rank lower on the page and disappear with the right strategy.
• Write articles sourcing you as the expert and have them posted on authoritative sites and multiple channels with links to your LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, Facebook, and other platforms.
• Optimize your website, including your About Us page and bio, for search with keyword phrases. Include imagery related to what your brand is all about and optimize the photos with keyword phrases.
• Implement a monthly schedule to have a blog post added to your site on a weekly basis. This will help boost your search rankings with positive content related to your business. Your customers will learn more about what you are doing and have to offer via a fresh, new blog post. You will also drive more traffic to your site for new customers, and new employees will better understand your business and values, as well.
• Update your business page everywhere — on Google, LinkedIn, and all social media platforms. Post positive things regularly on social media about the company, along with promotional messages that engage your customers, including the excellent service you offer. This will also help drive new customers your way.
• Ask your happy customers to visit review sites pertinent to your business, like Trip Advisor, Angi, Google Customer Reviews, Amazon, Better Business Bureau (BBB). Ask them to write a review, and talk about their experience with you. Again, your customers are your best advocates, those that can help tell your story and help you build and maintain your reputation. Customers are more than happy to write reviews.

A Good Reputation Strategy Is Ongoing

Keeping your reputation positive is important and should be continually a top-of-mind strategy. Remember, it’s not a one-and-done deal. Any type of bad news can ruin a company and its reputation so you want to consistently be on top of creating positive news and content about your business and engaging with your customers and stakeholders. Being engaged means looking at the important facets of your company and determining what you should feature when developing content that resonates. Some tactics come with lower costs than others — like asking your customers for reviews. This doesn’t cost a thing but will go a long way in building and maintaining your company’s reputation.

If you’ve had some bad press, you may consider getting a couple of focus groups together to determine how best to address any negativity via press releases, advertising, social media, and other methods as well as via an online platform like Zoom or holding a video conference to speak directly to your customers and stakeholders. Be sure your body language is in sync with what you are saying. Honesty is key.

Reputational risk is a critical issue that all companies need to manage. Without a positive reputation, consumers and stakeholders question everything about a business — its products and services, its market values, and how the business operates.

Contact ReputationSciences Today

Whether you are a business owner or an individual, you know that how to keep a good reputation is a complex and challenging process. That process has to be comprehensive. It has to include not just your website, but a variety of outlets (such as review sites) that tend to rank highly across industry searches. But that doesn’t make it impossible.

A reliable partner, in fact, may be just what you need to get started. Contact us to learn about and begin to implement the nuances of search engine optimization for managing your business reputation.

The post How to Keep a Good Reputation: Your Guide for 2022 appeared first on Reputation Sciences.