How To Monitor Your Online Brand With Reputation Management
Reputation Management
Your business’s online reputation can either build your brand and attract more new customers or degrade your brand and create a public relations nightmare. Even as you build your online visibility through Search Engine Optimization, you should be aware of the online image portrayed for your business as it gains status throughout the Internet.
This is well known in the off-line world, but businesses are now realizing that in today’s online communities, reputation is particularly meaningful. Blog comments can be one method for consumers of your products or services to interject their opinions about your company or brand.
More important though are the “Reviews” left on the major business sites where your company listing is displayed, for example: Local.Yahoo.com, SuperPages.com, Yelp.com, etc. This is especially important for local businesses. One of the ways to monitor this activity is called “Reputation Management.”
Monitoring Your Online Reputation
A quick and easy way to monitor your online reputation is to set up Google “Alerts” (www.google.com/alerts). Once set up you’ll get email updates from Google of the latest news, postings or comments related to the specific keywords you’ve set for tracking.
My recommendation is to use your company name, brands and other terms related to your specific business. Over time go in and delete those terms that are not producing the results you’re looking for and focus on those that provide relevant feedback.
Using Google Alerts is also a great way to monitor your competition. Set up correctly, you’ll consistently get informed every time new information about those competitors is published somewhere online.
Getting Quality Online Business Reviews
Seriously, the number one best way to accomplish this is to just ask your customers. There are many ways to ask, include personal conversations or in mass via an email blast to your customer list or with a physical mailing that includes an incentive to respond. You can then take your customer’s responses and post them to your website and to third-party business sites.
You’ll want to be sure to have these reviews posted to a variety of sites to ensure a natural authenticity is maintained. When you know the customer personally, it’s almost always helpful to provide several examples of the type of review or testimonial you’re looking for. For example, be sure that they mention either your company by name or your brand.
One caveat, be careful not to outsource this activity to a company who may also be interjecting their own business into the references you’re paying to have listed.
The best way is to direct your customer to the specific website where your company listing is located and where the site has enabled a “review” to be posted.
Here is a List of Some of the Most Popular Review Sites
The best approach is to rotate between several of these each time you solicit reviews you’re your customers so that over time you’ll be spreading your reviews across as many sites as possible. Adding Reputation Management to your Internet Marketing Tools will help maintain your brand online.
- bbb.org
- bing.com/local
- brownbook.com
- businessdirectory.bizjournals.com
- citycliq.com
- cityguide.com
- citysearch.com
- cityslick.net
- citysquares.com
- dexknows.com
- insiderpages.com
- judysbook.com
- kudzu.com
- local.botw.org
- local.com
- local.yahoo.com
- localadlink.com
- localdatabase.com
- maps.google.com
- matchpoint.com
- merchantcircle.com
- openlist.com
- planetbuzz.com
- rateitall.com
- ratepoint.com
- sitejabber.com
- superpages.com
- switchboard.com
- yellowbook.com
- yellowpages.aol.com
- yellowpages.com
- yelp.com
- zagat.com
If you have a physical, walk-in, business, providing a printed promotion with a time limit offer for their review can be very helpful in building a positive online reputation for your business.
Author Steve Josephs is owner of Intellidon Marketing LLC, a Search Engine Marketing and Seo Services firm specializing in attracting new customers for local businesses through Online Marketing Strategies. See: Wikipedia on Search Engine Optimization.
