5 Ways To Defend Your Online Reputation When The Haters Attack

Haters are everywhere because 97% of them read online reviews. They survive on bringing down people and there’s no reasoning with them. As an entrepreneur, your reputation is everything. You know that it’s key to your digital marketing strategy, your lead generation rates, and your conversion metrics. In short, it’s the foundation of your business.

But when those bad reviews start to flow, you need to act. Don’t expect them to go away. Go out of your way to make sure that you bounce back from reputational damage before customers really start to believe that you suck.

Here are some of the ways in which you can do this.

Never Let Them Drag You Down

The worst thing business owners do to damage their online reputation is to get into a mudslinging match with haters. Yes, they may be morons, but that doesn’t matter because the harsh reality of being an entrepreneur is that you are always going to come off looking worse. You have to maintain a professional persona at all times.

That doesn’t mean you should stay quiet and allow them to say whatever they like unchecked. The trick is to reply professionally without a hint of emotion. When you show emotion, it tends to goad them on. Furthermore, if they are the only ones getting angry they are the ones who are going to come away looking like idiots.

Your strong character should carry the day here.

State that Business Will Continue as Usual

Managing online reputation is a regular task assigned to you daily. But that doesn’t mean it should take away from your core business operations. Customers watching you verbally spar with a hater are worried that you will become less productive and that your products are going to suffer, as a result.

You should state that business will be continuing as normal and that the hater has no impact on what you are doing. In fact, you should go one step further and make it clear that you will be endeavoring to offer an even higher level of service than before.

This is a mark that you are a strong business because you are not allowing little situations to dictate how you run.

Offer Extra Value to the Hater

Regardless of whether you are dealing with a disgruntled employee or a whiner from the general public, the only way you should react is by offering something of greater value. It’s easy to pull your offerings from hater, but it’s actually better to do the exact opposite. Be the bigger person.

You should see haters as a challenge. They are challenging you to do better. Even if the hater doesn’t accept your higher value offering, the point is that anyone reading the exchange has seen what you have done. That’s only going to enhance your reputation, while diminishing the hater’s effect.

Get Help

Sometimes bad reviews can come in clumps. You may want to bury your head when a few bad reviews come in all at the same time, but that’s not a good idea. Reach out for some extra support. Ask someone more experienced than you for advice on how to deal with these people.

It doesn’t have to be someone in business. Sometimes talking to a good friend and venting about the idiots that are inflicting themselves on you can do great things. When you return to the battlefield, you will be able to approach the haters in a calm and controlled manner because you have already worked out your emotions.

Why?

Once a hater attacks your reputation, they have decided to shake your business down to its very core. It can feel like an explosion in your stomach, but the key to getting around this is to focus on why you are doing this in the first place. You will find it far easier to move past any setbacks and difficult situations by keeping your eyes on the prize.

It goes back to what this article said about not getting dragged down. Concentrate on your loyal customers and what you are doing for them. The best thing you can do is to continue to improve your services.

Conclusion

Defending your online reputation from haters can be tough. By approaching haters in a controlled manner without emotion you can come away with a better reputation than you ever anticipated.

What do you think is the most effective tactic for beating the haters?

 

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