By Ryan Caldwell
Online reputation management is an important part of doing business today, as a poor online reputation can hurt a business by turning prospective buyers off. The following outreach and response strategies can help you identify and engage with customers online and maintain a positive reputation.
1. Proactively Monitor How You’re Perceived Online.
Make a point of searching for your company’s name (and your own, for that matter) at least once a month. Go through the first couple of pages of search results and make note of any of them which are less than positive. Someone looking for information about your company is not likely to go beyond page two, but it pays to monitor the top five pages of results (as they do shift). You can also setup Google Alerts to send you an email whenever your company is mentioned online.
2. If You Find Something Negative, Reach Out To The Source.
The Internet is like an office water cooler. Anyone and everyone can express an opinion on review websites, online forums or blogs, and sometimes, even, the person writing the piece may be basing it on information that’s outdated or incorrect. Unfortunately, their readers are unlikely to take the time to seek verification.
Your first step in such a case is to reach out to the source and ask them to correct the misinformation. In our experience, as long as they are not too emotionally invested in the issue, the vast majority of online users are happy to have an error pointed out and will correct it.
Another solution is to post a tactful response in the comment section showing that you understand the concern. The main goal with a comment response is to put your company on higher ground than the person offering the rant. Most people respect companies that have the courage to respond.
3. Pick Your FIghts and Know When To Do Nothing.
Sometimes you will run into a rant by someone who is completely irrational and unwilling to engage in dialogue. In these cases, you’ll have to decide whether the rant is doing enough damage to justify a response.
Sometimes these negative comments have very high visibility and need to be addressed as soon as possible (e.g. when they are on popular review sites). But, sometimes, you’ll find that a blogger with zero audience has written something negative about your company. Rather than fuel the fire and create an audience that wasn’t there, it’s may be best to let it go. Don’t make a problem worse by drawing attention to something that wouldn’t otherwise get noticed.
4. Encourage Public Testimonials From Your Best Customers and Clients.
While it seems that online users are more likely to take the time to write negative responses than positive ones, you can change this by reaching out to your best customers and encouraging them to write a review. You can even reference specific sites that you’d appreciate a review on. A simple reminder via email can often do the trick. For example, “We appreciate your business and encourage you to let us know how we’re doing by visiting this site and writing a quick review.”
Positive off-site reviews on popular review sites are priceless, but it is also valuable to have positive testimonials on your own site as well as Twitter and Facebook. The most important step is to simply ask for feedback and offer specific instructions for how to do so ... keeping it quick and easy.
5. Use Social Networking Sites to Your Advantage.
Invite customers to follow your company on Twitter and Facebook, and share with them interesting tidbits about your company, including new product launches, specials, and other information they’ll find relevant and interesting. Monitor your accounts and address any questions or concerns posted promptly. Users like to know that companies care enough to address their concerns, and most will be thrilled to see a response.
6. Build Your Own Community.
If you find that people are voicing their opinions about your site or your business, consider starting a forum where customers can ask questions, share concerns and get advice from a company representative and each other. This is a great opportunity for you to ask for feedback about what your company is doing well (so far) and how you can improve. By presenting your company as one that is interacting with customers regularly and listening to their concerns, you can proactively address issues before they go viral.
Ryan Caldwell is the owner of BusinessPundit, an online business blog designed to help and entertain small business owners. Follow him on Twitter @BusinessPundit.
Photo credit: George Doyle, Stockbyte/Thinkstock
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