9 Tips for Online Reputation Management

There’s no doubt about it, online reputation management is essential for businesses of all sizes. Enhancements to universal search such as embedded videos and indented news results are drawing user’s eyes (and clicks) further down the page. If there’s negative information online about your brand, users are more likely than ever to find it.

In Part I of this two-part series, we talked about how to establish your online reputation and how to grow your presence. Now learn how to keep a good thing going by protecting and managing your reputation.

Protect Your Online Reputation

You’ve worked hard to build your brand and establish and grow your online reputation, but don’t stop there. These additional steps will reinforce your position as a valued and trusted member of the online community:

• Keep content fresh: Offer a continuous stream of original content supporting your brand. Update your blog with helpful information about your products and keep your social media profiles up to date. For more tips, read our blog about 12 ways to keep your web content fresh.
• Contact is key: Make it easy for customers to reach you by prominently displaying your contact information and letting them know their feedback is welcome.
• Personal vs. professional profiles: Social media profiles are indexed by search engines, which can make any photo, comment or social connection highly visible. Maximize privacy settings on your personal accounts and keep your professional profiles public. Be careful not to overshare.
• Be in the know: Actively monitor what’s being said about your brand online. Use Google Alerts for general web tracking,Technoarati to find mentions of your blog, SocialMention to monitor social media, and Disqus to track your comment threads.
• Use logos: Displaying the logos of industry associations or trade groups you belong to. If you participate in services that speak to the quality and security of your services such as the Better Business Bureau, Angie’s List, Verisign, and be sure to display those logos as well.

Manage Brand Reputation Issues

Even the most successful brands receive negative feedback and criticism online. While there is no magic potion to remove it from the Internet, there’s still plenty you can do to keep negativity from marring your brand.

• Good customer service: It goes a long way. Offer timely and helpful responses when a customer expresses frustration or dissatisfaction with your brand. 
• Keep reviews coming: Search engines rank your most recent reviews highest, so if you get a negative review be sure to ramp up your efforts to get more reviews. Hopefully this will yield positive reviews that can help push the negative ones further down the page.
• Respond to criticism: Know that some review sites such as Yelp allow business owners to respond to negative reviews, so take advantage of this when you feel it’s appropriate.
• Own up to it: If you get negative press for a mistake, offer an apology if appropriate and tell people what you are doing about it. Spread the word across all your digital channels.
• Get a professional: If things really go south, hire an experienced online reputation manager. They’re experts in helping push negative content down and restoring your brand’s good name.