Tips to Improve Your Reputation on the Internet

Do you have a poor reputation on the internet? It's not too late to make some changes. Online reputation management is an important part of any company's marketing strategy. If your company has been accused in the past, or if you are just starting out and want to keep things clean, these five tips will help improve your online reputation!  

What Is Reputation Management?

Online reputation management is the process of monitoring and modifying your company's online presence. Online reviews, social media posts and articles written about you can all be managed to improve your brand image. SendPulse (2021) states that brands analyze their online reputation using social media monitoring tools and reports.

 

How To Do Reputation Management for Your Brand

1) Monitor what people are saying about your brand

on the internet. Use a tool like Mention to track online mentions of your brand, and know what people are saying before it's too late!

Don't be caught off guard - monitor what is being said about you on social media channels as well as blogs or websites that could have an impact on your company image so you can take action right away if necessary.  

2) Develop an action plan for when something goes wrong

Make sure you have a plan in place to deal with negative feedback or reviews. If someone has said something bad about your brand, make it right and apologize. Don't ignore the problem, apologize quickly and resolve it. Online review sites like Yelp are great examples of how you can use honest feedback to your advantage - just make sure that when someone has a bad experience with your company they know there is an actual person on the other end who wants to take care of them.  

3) Be proactive with social media engagement

Customers expect you to be active on social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. Use these sites as a way to engage with your customers, not just broadcast information out into the void. Your company should have an identifiable brand personality that shines through in everything it does - including its presence on social media platforms.  

If your company is on social media, make sure the tone of voice matches that of your brand in your replies to comments or questions.  

4) Respond quickly when someone mentions or writes about you online

If someone has mentioned your brand online, whether it is a positive or negative remark, make sure you respond quickly.  According to a Harvard Business Review article, “strong positive reputation among stakeholders across multiple categories will result in a strong positive reputation for the company overall (Eccles, Newquist, & Schatz, 2007).” This means that if you respond quickly to someone who has mentioned your brand online, whether it is negative or positive, the next time they see something about your company it will be more likely to have a positive effect.

Keeping up with all mentions of yourself on the internet can seem like an impossible task. A good way to keep track of them is to set up a Google Alert for your brand name. This can be done easily by going to google.com/alerts and putting in your company name, website address or product names that you want to track mentions of online.

In order to respond quickly it is also important not only to know when someone has mentioned your brand but where they have mentioned it. This can be done by setting up alerts for your brand across different social media sites. For example, you could set up a Google Alert to track when someone mentions your company on Twitter or Facebook so that if they post something negative you will be able to respond quickly and take action before the comment gets any more attention.

5) Build relationships with bloggers

Bloggers are online influencers who can help build awareness of your brand, so make sure you maintain relationships with them. Building relationships with bloggers will help you get more exposure for your brand and allow people in social media circles to advocate for you. You can do this by commenting on their blog, sharing and liking or re-blogging their posts. You can also do it by providing them with free samples to review so they have something good to say about your brand. This will help you gain more exposure for your product in social media circles as well as among the blogger's followers who trust that person - which is a great way to build your reputation online.

 

With these 5 tips, you should be well-equipped to improve your reputation on the internet. For more information about how our team can help with this process or any other marketing initiatives, send us a message today!

 

Sources

Eccles, R., Newquist, S., & Schatz, R. (2007, February 1). Reputation and its risks. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2007/02/reputation-and-its-risks

SendPulse. (2021, August 28). What is reputation management — Guide. https://sendpulse.com/support/glossary/reputation-management

 

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