One of the major considerations for any business is to consider whether their online reputation is positive or not. It’s your duty to make sure that you are protecting your online reputation to the best of your ability. But sometimes you need to take a step back and take an honest look in the mirror.
Are you defending your online reputation against haters in the best possible way?
The Proactive Approach
To begin with, you need to conduct the first test. Are you taking a proactive approach to defending your online reputation?
You need to know where you stand when it comes to your online reputation. You may be an entrepreneurial gambler, but this is no place for taking risks.
You should have a Google Alerts signal setup for a number of terms relating to your company. Furthermore, you should be taking into account what customers are saying about you. If you’re completely in the dark about this, you need to change that.
Without a proactive approach, you can’t defend your online reputation because the chances are you don’t know anything about it.
Do You Know What Customers are Saying?
There are two ways you can find out what customers are saying about you. The first way is to just look at the reviews your products are receiving on websites Amazon. Your product could be curtailing your reputation because it just isn’t good enough. Find out what customers really think so you can make any necessary changes.
The number one reason why companies have poor online reputations is because their main product or service isn’t the best it could be. And 67% of customers are influenced by online reviews.
Once you know what customers are saying, you can react to any negative feedback by making tweaks to your value proposition. It’s a lot of effort to continually make changes like this, but this is what successful companies do. They release multiple versions of the same product over its lifespan.
But what if you don’t have enough reviews to find out what your target audience really thinks?
Set up a focus group of loyal customers via your email list. In exchange for discounts, freebies, and other special gifts these customers will give you targeted feedback about your product. They will tell you what’s wrong with it and what they would like to see.
Adopt this big company tactic and it will do a lot to develop your brand’s online reputation.
Protecting Your Social Media Reputation
Social media represents a graveyard for brands big and small. There’s no faster way to destroy years of hard work than to post something that’s badly targeted or too controversial. To protect your online reputation you have to pay special attention to social media.
For a start, you should have consistent messaging across your brand. Anyone with social media posting rights should have a document that details what they can and can’t post about. Ideally, you should limit the number of people with posting rights to reduce the risk of potential mistakes.
What happens when you actually make a social media mistake?
That’s something that’s bound to happen because everyone makes mistakes. This doesn’t have to mean the end of your company, though. You can recover from social media mistakes as long as you act fast. Often, all you need to do is remove the offending post and apologize for it.
Should You Employ a Professional Online Reputation Organization to Help?
Online reputation management companies can play a vital part in defending your online reputation. Through using the power of SEO, they can force even the most attention-grabbing Tweets into obscurity. However, they represent a cure, not prevention.
The best way to protect your online reputation as a company is to take a proactive approach and make sure that you don’t have to react to mistakes in the first place. Through taking some simple precautions via your product and social media you can reduce the number of mistakes you are making.
Last Word – Defend Your Online Reputation Today
Starting early is the key to protecting your online reputation. Don’t wait until you already have a stricken reputation in order to do something. The best plan of attack is to defend your online reputation now. Find out the current state of your reputation and begin making changes to improve the customer experience and enhance your brand image.
By getting a head start on your competitors, you will obtain a competitive advantage that will benefit you long into the future. How will you defend your online reputation today?
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