Why You Need Online Reputation Management Services
In this digital society, information shared has the potential to reach an enormous audience, all over the world. Businesses shifted on the web and social media marketing wave making the internet evolve into a more complex organism. It is no longer enough to establish your internet presence. Now you have to manage it. Your reputation is everything and should be well protected.
What you should know
1. The Statistics
Research has it that 90% of all customers use the internet when searching for services or products they are interested in. 99 percent of the internet users never get past the first page of the search engine results page. If you want your enterprise to stay ahead, you can't avoid this factor.
2. The Web User Experience
Search for your business brand, product or service and see what comes up. Now put yourself in the shoes of the potential customer. Do you like what you see? If you answered No, then there is the need to manage your reputation.
Online Reputation and Reputation Services
Your enterprise will have an online reputation whether you choose to manage it or not. The big worry is, what type of reputation it will be.
Online reputation involves tools that are used to improve and your name or brand's good standing. It includes the things that enhance or restore the brand image, by countering and eliminating the negative content found on the internet. Defeating these negative components with positive content improves the business credibility and customer trust.
Effective online reputation management services includes;
- Search results removal
- Suppression
- Protection
- Reputation monitoring.
It takes more years to build a reputation, and it takes a very short time ruin it. Potential customers may change their purchase decisions when they see bad reviews, negative blog posts and comments attacking your business. When it comes to building the required positive awareness about a brand, it takes a lot of time and effort to maintain a company's online reputation
Components that determine your online image
- Comments you post on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linked-in, etc
- Videos you share on YouTube, Vine etc
- Images you share on Flickr, Instagram, etc.
- Posts and articles you publish online
- Comments you share on other people's blogs, articles, and message boards.
- Geo-location information that you broadcast through services such as Gowalla and Foursquare
- Comments that other people make about you in social media and blog posts
Online reputation management services include the following activities;
There are some activities that are involved in effectively managing a business's reputation. Each of these services must be carefully considered for a company to achieve success in its marketing strategy. These services include;
1. Creating brands image
This deals with being visible online by use of resources under your control. These resources include websites, social media accounts, blogs, business directory listings, image portfolios, syndicated articles among others. The advantage of keeping tabs to this aspect is that you get
control over the search engine listings.
2. Monitoring brand's online reputation.
This deals with keeping watch on a daily basis of what others are posting and saying in relation to your business via different web media. You can do the monitoring by use of free or paid monitoring tools. Data about company keywords, both positive and negative is collated various sources and analyzed.
3. Managing the brand reputation. - It involves using the results of the monitoring process and taking the appropriate measures to control adverse publicity.
Benefits of having a reputable online image include;
- It promotes the good name of a brand, business or company
- A business with a good reputation will attract more customers leading to more sales
- Reputable companies have a huge following and become more connected with other reputable global brands.
- Social sites continue to grow every day and this gives brands with good reputation an opportunity to advance their products/services and improve with these sites.
Efficient management of online reputation involves;
- Countering the negative reviews
- Engaging with the organs that posted negative content
- Maintaining the positive and truthful position without engaging in any form of fight
- Having the will to apologize and admit to any shortcomings about a situation
- Appreciating the people who have made positive reviews and incorporated them in your offline and online marketing content.
People are researching about businesses online and increasingly making decisions based on what they find. Having plenty of online reviews emanating from satisfied customers and engaging with your audience on social media contributes to a robust online presence that attracts many new clients. Many companies are participating in online marketing strategies with the hope of protecting their company from negative bloggers and defamatory content submitted by anonymous business competitors. Seeking online reputation management services is quite important as it serves as the defense to negative and defamatory content against your business.
