DIY Online Reputation Management Guide

Are you wondering what people have to say or think about your online business? Are you interested in social media marketing to improve your reputation online? Here, you will learn how to manage, research, and protect the brand’s reputation with the help of social media.

What’s Your Online Reputation?

No matter whether you have the e-commerce website or public official like a politician, reputation is one most important attribute. One thing that is very important in any relationship is trust and it is related to the reputation. Building a positive reputation online is important for making sales, as customers can buy from the sites that they trust.

Reputation management generally refers to a process of maintaining, generating as well as promoting your brand’s reputation. Customers make use of various sources to form the perceptions of the brand’s trustworthiness, which includes reviews online, social media posts and accounts, and quality of the company’s website & content. Building a positive reputation is very important in making the sales, as customers can buy only from the sites that they trust.

Company Online Reputation Management

That depends on the size of the company, reputation management online is as simple as answering some Facebook messages every week, or complex as organizing, responding and evaluating to plenty of emails, calls, messages, mentions, reviews, videos and lots more. We will focus on the reputation management techniques online that work right for the small & medium sized of businesses, as most of the e-commerce merchant’s fall in such category.

Managing the Product Reviews

In order to start, first, put yourself in your customers’ place and think about how you shop on the internet. Suppose you are on Amazon, then chances are you will look for the product reviews and Questions and Answers section just to see what people have to say about the certain product.

Will you buy any product that has 1-star reviews? Most likely not.

One of the important components of maintaining the positive reputation online is to ensure that you are offering the best quality of the product —it is very simple to get the positive reviews & mentions if the product is better than your competition.

Managing Your Reputation Online within Google or Other Search Engines

Let us say that you are looking for the coffee maker or are interested at Nespresso. Reviews are very good on Amazon as well as price is also higher than others thus before you buy you have to do some research on the company. Thus, you visit google & type in your brand name:

Like you may see, besides the organic links to Nespresso site, there’s the Twitter feed from brand and company social media applications like Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook pages. This information is important to the brand’s reputation online. Suppose you see any negative results when you Google the name of the business or business’ reviews, to address these issues must be your top priority. Ideally, you want to solve your customer’s problem very effectively that they will remove negative review & replace this with the positive (neutral) review. At the least, you have to show anybody else reading your review that you have responded politely, promptly, and have taken a reasonable step for resolving any issue.

Managing Your Online Reputation on Facebook and Other Social Media Sites

Facebook is the place where people will go and tell the whole world how they like any product and company — or if they hate it. Facebook has now become popular ways for the customers to reach to the people for support, and the last step for unsatisfied customers is leaving negative reviews on Facebook or other social media platforms. Customers will pay a lot of attention to what many people have to say about you, however what you are saying back — if you are responding to the user issues effectively and fast and showing how much you actually care about the customer satisfaction, you will not just mitigate effects of negative comment, but build the brand trust. The customers like to see the brands to go the extra mile for their customers, and good customer service is the best way of retaining your customers.

How to React to the Negative Reviews?

The best method of reacting to the negative comments and reviews is with a helpful and positive response. In the examples above, business was sensitive and respectful to poor experiences that the customers faced, or took each reasonable step for resolving an issue and to ensure the customer is pleased. It is how you must communicate, particularly if you wish to build a solid reputation online. Even though customer review is misinformed and misleading, you should approach it professionally and calmly.

Surest method to damage your online reputation is being rude & lack empathy with the customers, and to get defensive. Even though the customer review is misinformed and misleading, you should approach this calmly, professionally as well as show you know the source of customer’s unhappiness & display that you have done everything you may make this right.

Relationship with Your Customers

It is not always about a product. You might not see it right away, however, your customer thinks about the relationship with a brand.  Online reputation management actually is very important to retain your current customers than attracting new ones. It is to ensure that you offer the customer experience, which is positive and to ensure the repeat customers is the best way of building an online reputation. Suppose you do not let them down, then your customers will stay loyal to you for a long time.

New technology advancements

With technology advances, small and new brands can compete based on the strength of the online reputations. Now, anybody can post feedback about the company, product, and service for the whole world to see and comment. They will give the shoutout on Twitter and influence your company or brand on Instagram and give it a positive boost. It presents a huge opportunity for the small businesses.