Have you ever Google “yourself”? No? Oh my God! Seriously? Well, even if you admit that you can’t have your name on Google, you must have tried once at least. It is all about fun.
Well, jokes apart. Finding yourself on Google is the strongest aspect of today’s date. Believe it or not? It doesn’t matter whether you are an entrepreneur or working in any other field, online reputation matters a lot if you are dreaming big.
And if it is a matter of a business, then online reputation plays a dramatic role in the business turnover. Statistics say, around 84% of the consumers rely on Google reviews or online feedback before purchasing any products or taking any services.
So, as you see – online reviews matter!
Now the thing is that it is easy to build an online presence using digital marketing strategies and social media tools. But it is hard to manage or maintain the existing online reputation.
Almost every marketer present in the market has a website and a social media profile – enough to build an online presence in the digital world. But only handful of them has managed to keep their online reputation active and drive their business towards success.
Do you know how?
Because they have missed out the guidelines that are required to improve a business’s online reputation.
Are you seeking the same problem? Are you having negative results on search engine result pages? Worry no more! Here in this blog, we have penned down 20 online reputation management tips, embracing which will help your business to improve more.
Excited? Here we go!
1. Browse your Business online:
The first and foremost step for you should be browsing about your business online. For fun? No, not at all. Search your business name in Google will help you to learn about the exact position that you are residing at. Have you noted down the results? If yes, then let us move on to the next step.
2. Control your own brand name:
Another most crucial step is to claim your own brand online. You just can’t let others hack your brand name. You need to monitor that no one is misusing your brand name, brand product or business name for their own sake.
3. Set an alert with Google:
Setting up an alert with Google means that Google will always notify you if there is anything wrong with your brand or if anyone is misusing your brand name. For example, if anything about you is posted anywhere in Google you will be notified in no time by Google. Google gives you round the clock service for this. Amazing right?
4. Add Engaging Content:
Another online reputation management guideline for small business is to add engaging content. This may either be blogs or any other content. But it has to be attractive, engaging, and of course, relevant to your brand. Plenty of tips and tricks are there online. You may go through them if you have any doubt.
5. Post Content Regularly:
Making a schedule to post your content is another important thing that you must not ignore. Whether you post on a regular basis or an interval, it should be done in a schedule. Furthermore, no matter what you post and what your targeted audience is, the schedule needs to be maintained.
6. Stop Giving wrong reviews:
Remember, almost a large percentage of your targeted audience or the potential customers trust on the Google reviews, as said earlier. Hence any fake fact about your products or services will turn down your existing online reputation.
There is no harm in speaking the truth. But there is a great loss in speaking something wrong. Former will be appreciated while the later will leave you in danger.
7. Do something new to your company:
Renovation is another word for building an online presence and seeking attention. Do you know that?
For example, when you renovate your home, neighbours are the first to get attracted to. Isn’t it? The same is for your company.
The moment you renovate your company culture, it is your employees who get attracted first. This eventually improves your business sales. Apply it to see the magic!
8. Improve your Credentials:
To manage the online reputation of your business, you can even showcase yourself as an expert. Improving your business credentials and presenting yourself as a leader will certainly improve your business a lot.
9. Try to seek media attention:
You know the power of media? They can do everything. They don’t need two seconds to make or break your online reputation. The best way to seek media attention is to participate in any community events. For example, donating fund to a local festival or someone in need. No doubt, these will generate high online reviews for the business.
10. Respond quickly and to all reviews:
This might be a bit tiresome but a great way to build brand credibility. Replying to every comment should be enlisted in your duty if you want to gain a strong online reputation.
11. Say ‘no’ to emotions:
There might be multiple negative reviews against your brand. In such circumstances, you need to control your emotions
12. Promote Positive feedback:
Does your website homepage showcases all your positive feedback? If not, you have already missed out the opportunity to highlight your business website.
Positive reviews draw the attention of the audience a lot, thus turning them into potential customers. And more the business sales, higher will be the online reputation of your small business. Hence you just can’t lose this opportunity, isn’t it?
13. Ask the consumer to leave a review:
Reaction to this is of different varieties. For example, some feel happy to leave feedback after making a purchase or availing the services. While some feel irritated to perform the job. Now you can only ask to leave reviews but you can’t insist them to give positive feedback. That will be something beyond your right.
14. Interact with your consumers:
Interacting with your consumers is another way to establish brand reliability, trust, and spread brand awareness. In this way, you even have an idea about what exactly your customers want and how much they are satisfied with you.
15. Enhance the network:
Marketers who have a strong connection worldwide are more lucky to spread brand awareness. Collaborating with other businesses will act as referrals. For example, if a customer of other company needs any services or products that are available to you, then the concerned company will directly refer you without any second thought.
Amazing approach, isn’t it?
16. Re-branding:
Re-branding of a business is a broad approach. This involves redesign of the logo, optimizing images, redesign of the website, and generating or updating content. All these reflect on social media and Google, thus seeking the attention of the audience worldwide. Isn’t this enough to build a strong reputation online?
17. Control your blog comment section:
Your blog comment section is highly responsible for your online reputation. Do you know how? Controlling the comment section will reduce the risk of hampering your reputation, simply by adding negative and fake comments to the blog.
18. Take a part in online discussion related to the same industry type:
Are you monitoring your business reputation on Google regularly? That’s a good habit, actually. Another good habit can add good online feedback to your business – taking part in online discussion related to your brand. Several brand discussions are held online. Being a part of the conversation will help you to gain more knowledge of the latest marketing trends and many more related to your business growth. We guess that would be fruitful enough for your venture.
19. Make a long-term plan:
Building an online reputation for a business is not at all a short-term plan. Definitely, you will admit this. Hence to whatever reputation you are attaining in today’s date or whatever results are showcasing on the front page of Google search result page can’t be changed overnight. It takes enough time and patience to reflect it online.So, it is essential to look for online reputation management specialists to perform the job with perfection.
20. Take help of experts:
Experts are always the best to solve any dilemma. If you still fail to attain the desired online reputation for your business, then hiring experts will be the conclusion. They will guide you in the right direction, solving every issue that you encounter.
Don’t you want your potential customers to trust your online reviews and make their desired purchase from your store or rely on your services? Definitely, you want.
And for this, you need to be specific with your online reputation so that the users browsing your reviews online won’t hesitate to take any kind of action. These include subscribing your products, following your website, adding the items to the cart, wish-listing your products, ordering any items from your site, and so on.
With the growth of social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, etc and with the inception of advanced digital marketing techniques, it has become convenient to build an online presence. But when it comes to online reputation management, the thing is not so easy as it seems to.
Still it mandatory to build a strong position in the competing market. After all, your business success and failure completely depends on your online reputation.
