The Internet is a wonderful place where anyone can tell their story. Unfortunately, anyone can also tell your story for you.
Whether you are branding yourself or your company online, it is important to make sure that your reputation is being well managed. Your prospective customers turn to Google to learn more about you and your business. Regardless of the facts or if the links on the first page of Google are accurate for those researching your brand, it is important to thoroughly manage your online reputation.
How do you know what people are saying about you? Look no further than Google. Search for your company or product name. What results do you see? Is the first page of listings favorable? Are your web properties showing up? It is imperative that you create a schedule to monitor the results from your Google search so you can react accordingly to any negative content online about you or your company.
You’ll never show up in searches for your company unless you produce that content and those sites in the first place. A helpful recommendation would be to get to work on building out your website with quality content that is helpful to your customers.
While your website should be your hub of activity, you can also produce content on other sites. The easiest to get going are often social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. When you establish a page on Facebook, for example, those are likely to show up in search results when people search for your company.
What happens when you search for “[your company] sucks” or “[your company] reviews”? Yes, people are talking about you! These are great opportunities to respond to customers in a public forum. Reach out and help them. Fix the problem and make the customers’ day.
Sometimes you may suffer a significant setback from negative publicity. This can overshadow all the positive news about you or your company on the web with just a single negative story. There is a growing industry of companies dedicated to helping you improve your online reputation. Sites like Reputation.com or Integrity Defenders will help you erase your negative reputation by promoting the good news and items about you or your company.
Even if you don’t have any blemishes in your online history, you shouldn’t ignore your online reputation. You need to be proactively establishing your good brand in many venues across the web. This, of course, includes your own site, social media properties, forums, and review sites.
One of the very best ways to protect an online reputation is to make sure customers get the very best in products and service. There are some things companies can and should do that can help them overcome issues related to creating a culture of service. This video offers great insights on how to overcome the problems:
http://www.upyourservice.com/video-theater/five-essential-problems-to-overcome-when-building-service-culture
I agree with Tamara, customers are the key of our businesses! If we have just one unhappy customer, we can have problems with our online reputation. It’s not a good thing, but we have different opinions about different things…it’s just a normal thing on the Internet and in life in general. Because of this, if we have a good reputation, our company can be successful!
Thi is so true. i think that the internet is such a powerful tool and that in an age were most people rely on the world wide web for information and knowledge, it is vital that you protect your reputation.
@Roddy – so true. For many people, your reputation is what they see online and only online. So it is important to maintain a healthy reputation where most people will see it.