Online Reputation Management Strategies To Count On

Spend any time thinking about your online reputation management? That’s what I thought! Based on a study by Erik Qualman of Socialnomics.com nearly three-quarters of consumers report they trust the content provided by online reviews…Also some 80 percent have changed their mind about buying a product after reading only one negative review online, and over 84 percent signify that they see online reviews as a trusted source of information.

You must take negative reviews seriously and take measures to counter the negative effects! Here are five potent online reputation management strategies to do just that:

1. Look at your search results monthly – Monitor your company’s name in Google at a minimum of once a month. Use Google Alerts or mention.net to notify you if you have any activity involving your company name or important keywords. Also, look beyond page one of the search results; negative entries can gain traction and end up on the first page in the near future.
2. Respond to negative content promptly – Attempt to contact the origin of the negative content right away, particularly if they are a dissatisfied customer. Be polite, helpful, and seek to address their concerns in a positive manner. DO NOT get into a flaming match with them. You will be the loser every time!
3. Use your company’s name in your page optimization – Be sure your pages as well as other content are using your company’s name in keywords, tags, URLS, and titles. The more pages you own that bear your company’s name, the better the chance Google will view your site as the authority for this keyword (your company name) and provide you with higher rankings. Also, most negative content will more than likely not have done any SEO.
4. Create more content channels – WordPress.com, Blogger.com or even subdomains of your own site are good for this, along with your social channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and Google . Post fresh content to these channels as well, so they retain their search positions.
5. Ask your customers for reviews – The most apparent and by far the most useful tool for successful online reputation management is to ask your satisfied customers for a review. Stimulate and even reward reviews. This is also your very best source of social proof!

Follow these online reputation management tips and safeguard your good name! It’s the right thing to do.