Why Online Reputation Management Is So Important
Todd Friesen, VP of Search at Position Technologies who is also known as the Oilman, spoke at a PubCon panel today entitled, “Reputation Management: Monitoring Your Brands Online.” The Oilman focused on the importance of managing your online reputation. Here’s what we gathered:
Know the Gossip
Favorable recommendations and reviews can make or break your online business so careful reputation management is critical if you are going to survive in the Internet economy. It is important that you know what is being said about you. Do the research to find out the 10 most common things being said about your company, services and/or products. Two major places to research are in major social media outlets and online review sites.
The Power of Recommendations: Social Media Outlets
80% of adults are more likely to purchase a product or invest in a service that was recommended to them. With over 600 million Internet users traveling the streets of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, one of the first places to ensure a positive reputation is in social media land.
Retweets, Facebook updates and wall posts can serve as free advertisements that promote your brand popularity or as problematic testimonials that may tarnish your reputation for a long time. Fan pages and company profiles are ideal in promoting a healthy view of your company and provide you with the ability to learn what people are saying and thinking about your services and products.
Online Reviews and Articles
Another avenue that should be considered when managing your online reputation is online reviews, blogs and articles. 90% of consumers trust the reviews they read about a particular company service or product.
Do the math. A favorable review could mean unprecedented increases in site traffic, but a bad one in this economy could leave you wondering why you don’t have any clients. You can’t address what you don’t know, so make sure you regularly search for your name among leading product review sites to find out what is being said and be prepared to respond to any favorable or unfavorable comments.
Control the Talk
Understanding what people are saying about your company, brand or services can help you craft messages to counteract negativity. And by taking proactive measures to gain solid ground in the search engines, you can effectively maintain your company’s online reputation. As business continues to grow more competitive, effective online reputation management is more important than ever.
But online reputation management can be time consuming. Sonic SEO is a professional search engine optimization firm that offers a full range of marketing services including high quality online reputation management. To protect your business’ good name online, contact us to invest in professional SEO services today!
I always thought people hated getting ads on their feeds. How can I make my Twitter and Facebook accounts interesting for the public and get them to actually investigate my pages further?
Twitter and Facebook are all about creating and maintaining authentic relationships. Your focus has got to be on providing value to your followers….and taking the time to genuinely interact and engage with them. It takes a lot of time, but that’s the foundation of an effective social media presence.
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