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Online Reputation Management

Online Reputation Management for Businesses

The need for online reputation management for businesses:

  • 82% of U.S. adults say they at least sometimes read online customer ratings or reviews before purchasing items for the first time, including 40% who say they always or almost always do so. (Pew Institute)
  • 65% of U.S. adults who say they always or almost always read online ratings and reviews believe that they are generally accurate. (Pew Institute)
  • Every one star increase in a Yelp rating means a 5 to 9% increase in revenue. (Harvard Business School).
  • Businesses risk losing 22% of business when potential customers find one negative article on the first page of their search results. (Moz)
    • Businesses with two negatives on the first page of search results risk losing 44% of its customers.
    • If three negative articles pop up in a search query, the potential for lost customers increases to 59.2%.
    • Have four or more negative articles about your company or product appearing in Google search results? You’re likely to lose 70% of potential customers.

Online reviews help you gain insight into your target audience and your business.  Even negative ones.  And it’s important to respond to positive reviews to build further engagement, and even more critical to respond to negative reviews to mitigate their damage.

And while you don’t want to worry too much about negative online reviews – most people are less likely to trust that a business really only has 5-star reviews as they are to trust a business with a mix of reviews – there comes a point that you want to make sure you’re proactively managing your the online presence of your business.  The point at which you need professional help with your online reputation management may be now if you’re experiencing an influx of bad reviews or bad press.

Online reputation management is not a quick fix, especially for bad press, but a method to showcase your best accomplishments and help your business take control of your own story.  It includes several tactics and benefits:

  • Professionally respond to negative and untruthful claims.
  • Ensure that your online search profile reflects your company or personal brand.
  • Identify and address staged competitor attacks.
  • Protect your name with a positive, authentic online presence.
  • Establish yourself as an authority on the internet and across social networks.
  • Leverage a network of online relationships to build trust and credibility.

Online Reputation Management for Individuals

The need for personal online reputation monitoring:

  • Nearly 50% of US adults who Google themselves say the results aren’t positive. (Denver Post)
  • According to Career Builder, 70% of employers use social media to screen candidates, up from 11% in 2006.
  • 85% of U.S. recruiters and HR professionals say that an employee’s online reputation influences their hiring decisions at least to some extent. (JobHunt.com)

The importance of online reputation is not limited to job seekers.  Facebook is a favorite recruiting tool for colleges (82%).  When researching your company, prospective clients may also research you, especially if you are C-level employee.  Even your future in-laws, or a prospective date, may be researching you online.

Many of these are big life moments you’ll see coming. Others, like networking or attracting new clients, occur on a near-constant basis.  This is why it’s important for your online reputation to remain positive.

Online reputation management is also critical for small business owners and entrepreneurs and professionals such as doctors, attorneys, accountants, consultants, freelancers and contractors.

We can help you create a positive online identity and remove or suppress negative online search results.

Our 3-Step Online Reputation Management Program

We help manage your online reputation through a three-step process:

1. Online Profile Research

… to find all possible current listings for you or your business.  Because of the ability for almost anyone to make a listing for your business on many of the online platforms available, there are often listings that you aren’t even aware of.  Other online platforms use automation to pull information from other sources and build their listings.  This information can often become outdated and incorrect.  We perform full research to find your online profiles, check the information, and find the keywords that you/your business are being found through.

2. Online Profile Building / Rebuilding

Part of the process of suppressing negative information online depends upon more current posting of positive information.

If you do not have a website, even a basic one, we will help you set one up.  We will make sure it is search engine optimized to find your name plus positive search terms we have identified.

We will also claim any unclaimed online profiles, and establish new ones where they make the most sense.  We will then work to populate these listings with positive search results and develop online content.

We will also help you respond to any existing reviews – both positive and negative – and develop a strategy to request reviews from your happiest customers.

3. Online Reputation Monitoring

We will preform ongoing monitoring of your name or brand on the internet, continuing to respond to positive and negative reviews as appropriate, performing additional online content management, and alerting you to any issues.

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