With the rise of social media, peer-to-peer reviews and personal blogs, the internet has never before had such a profound and powerful impact on both making and breaking the reputations of businesses and corporations.
A few bad remarks or negative feedback posts and customers around the world will begin to question your company’s standing, whereas a few good comments could open up your services to a whole new audience.
So how can you manage your corporate reputation online to ensure that you’re getter the best publicity possible, and help your business prospects in the process?
Research
The first thing that you need to do to manage you online reputation, is to discover what is already being said about your business.
Visit relevant forums, social media sites and review sights to try and get an insight into what you’re already receiving praise for or conversely, being criticised because of.
At this stage, try not to interfere with posts being made about your company. Just use it as an opportunity to learn all that you can about your current internet standing.
Monitoring tools
Once you’ve identified sites on which your business is discussed or mentioned, you can use monitoring tools to keep track of the conversations in which you’re named.
This will help you to keep abreast of all current chatter and see whether your new management policy works once you’ve put it in place.
Use research and monitoring tools to find out what’s already being said on the web
Your own website
Your own corporate website is the easiest place from which to control your online reputation.
A well designed, well maintained and well thought out website will instantly make potential customers feel more confident in your services. So if your website has been allowed to stagnate, your first job is to revitalise it, make it relevant and make it interesting.
Social media
Social media is one of the most powerful tools available for managing online reputations, so use it wisely and effectively.
Take the time to research which social media site would be the most relevant for your company. Each site is targeted towards a slightly different audience, so choosing the right one is crucial.
Next it’s time to create a profile. If you’re looking to improve your corporate reputation, try to make the profile as approachable and engaging as possible.
Fill it out with information about your company, and try to give it a personal tone so that potential customers will warm to your company.
Use the opportunity provided by social media to connect with your customer base. The social media platforms give them a direct link to you, so by joining up you’re giving them a platform to engage and converse with your business.
Occasionally, you may find that you receive negative comments on your social media profiles. If this does occur, make sure that you respond promptly and politely. There’s nothing worse for visitors to your site than seeing a criticism go ignored.
Make links with other websites
On both your own website and social media sites, try to connect with other relevant companies by building links with them.
Offer reciprocal links or even reviews and recommendations to well respected companies as their reputation will inevitably rub off on you by association and help to improve the reputation of your company.
Improving and maintaining an online reputation is incredibly important for continued growth of your company. Though it may take time and effort to monitor and influence your company image, the results can be impressive.
With reviews, blogs and forums becoming ever more trusted and important, now is the perfect time to start your online charm offensive.
Author bio: Tom Reynolds, marketing executive at SAS London, London digital agency based in London, UK.
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