Reputation is something that make a business rise to the top or crumble like a cookie. Many do not consider the impact their reputation can make on their business. Fortunately, the guidance and tips presented here can really benefit any potential business owner.
Monitoring your personal reputation or business brand is very critical to online reputation management. Set up automatic alerts to happen when your name comes up. Use Trackur, Monitor This and Google Alerts to send you notices when new content comes up. That way, you can know the very next day, if not sooner, when someone is talking about you.
Keep your reputation up by making unsatisfied customers happy. Turning negative experiences into good ones can show customers that you do care. If the information is available online, it increases the audience of those who know you are willing to rectify a situation. Others will see how you assist the unhappy customer and will leave with a positive impression.
Set realistic expectations with your customers. If you own a small business, let your customers know when you will respond to their questions. If you cannot answer every question immediately, place a banner saying that all questions will be answered within a certain amount of time, such as within 72 hours.
Make sure that at least several of your business web pages are optimized for your business name. You want Google to recognize your business homepage as the authoritative Internet site about your business. You want to have the number one search position for your business name, not number two or three behind a Wikipedia article or some blog. Make sure that your website is the first listing someone sees when they Google your brand.
A great way to build up your reputation is to optimize your web page for critical key phrases. This generally will be the company name you have. Search engines like authoritativeness. Your site will gain more credibility if they view your business as official.
Do not ask site owners to remove information about you just because it is a bit unflattering. People are entitled to their opinions and you don’t want anyone to think that you believe the opposite. There is a chance that petitioning site owners to remove opinionated statements will backfire on you.
If you come across a negative comment or review about your company, do not ignore it. Post a response to it and defend your position. Sometimes people who post negative comments only tell one side of the story. It is up to you to present your side of it so the readers will get a fuller picture.
Social media can be a friend or enemy of your business. You need to learn how to use it to your advantage. Create your own pages on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Address the concerns of customers calmly and do what you can to make them happy. This will benefit your business immensely.
Mastering reputation management means learning all you can. Not figuring out how to shape the perceptions of people can really make it hard on you to do well in business. Read this advice again if need be, and follow it to help your business be successful.