Within my job role I spend a lot of time with small businesses, helping them to find new ways of working and best practices to find success. I work exclusively with traditional brick and mortar businesses and one of the most surprising things which I find is the great lack of understanding which many of these owners have in terms of the internet and how they can use it. There seems to be a common belief that if you operate offline, then you don’t need to use any online tools, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Specifically I try to recommend to many of these businesses to utilize both digital marketing and reputation management companies, in order to boost their success. I often point to reputation management consultant reviews to show them the benefits which a business like theirs can count with a service such as rep management, which is usually where their opinions begin to change.
A positive online reputation is vital for every type of business and here are the keys to improving how your business is viewed online.
Social Media
Social media is like word of mouth on steroids and it is a place where a business can build a great reputation, or have it damaged beyond belief. The key to utilizing social media to increase your reputation is to share high quality content which is relative to your business, to engage with people directly and to promote what your company is all about. The danger of social media is that bad news spreads very quickly so if you are not producing great content, you could seriously damage your reputation.rep
Negative Content
Negative content which has been written about your business online could cause serious problems for businesses and it is vital that this content is not easily found. Content cannot be deleted from the internet so you will need to produce large amounts of positive content which ranks well, in order to relegate the negative content down the search rankings. Type your business name into a search engine and see whether the content is positive or negative, if it is the latter then you need to take action.
Reviews
What are people saying about your business on review sites? If it is negative then you need to be active in replying to those who have written the content, turn it into a marketing opportunity, or set them straight if they are wrong. Positive content should be responded to as well, a simple thanks can really go a long way. Remember that when people are considering using your business they will check out reviews to see what kind of experience people have had, it is at this point where many will make the decision which is why you must ensure that they like what they see.
Just because you don’t operate online, does not mean that it isn’t a great tool for your business, your consumer is online, so you should be as well.