No matter how great your products are or whether you offer the best service, your brand has a lot to say about you. You will need to have a good online reputation so that your marketing efforts are worthwhile. Anything – and everything – that you say on the internet will affect your brand in some way, along with anything and everything that happens in the offline world. It takes months and sometimes year to build a reputation but just minutes to destroy it. Here are four ways to improve your online reputation and increase the traffic and sales.
Monitor Your Reputation:
Before you can do anything, you need to know how your brand is viewed. You need to know everything about your online reputation – including everything you have said, people say about you and any passing comments made. If you have a poor reputation, it will be much harder and take more time to improve it. If nothing is said about you, it will help to speed up the process but will not be as easy as if you already have a good reputation.
Check out social networking websites to see how people view you and any review websites to see what people say. If there are bad comments, you can try to work it out with the person – or offer a polite rebuttal to explain your side of the story.
Build Relationships with Others:
When there has been a positive remark about your company, drop by and say thank you – whether in public or by sending an email. This will help to build a relationship with the people. If there is a negative comment, ask for a reason (if one isn’t already given) and see how you can turn that frown upside down.
Social media makes building relationships very easy. You can create a page so that people can ask questions and find out more about you. Answer them directly and add more information that may interest your customers.
Clear Up Confusion and Miscommunication:
One of the biggest reasons for a negative reputation is due to confusion or miscommunication. It’s fine saying sorry if you are in the wrong but what happens when the person writing was in the wrong? State the facts in a polite way so that others will understand more about the situation. It is very easy to start writing angrily but this will do nothing to help your reputation. By being polite and friendly and simply clearing up the problem, you will show people that you are willing to work things out and that you’re not the bad guy that others make you out to be.
Listen to Others’ Suggestions:
There are times that people will have suggestions. They may want you to bring out a new product or a new way of doing something. You don’t have to follow their suggestions but let them know that they are being listened to and you will take them into consideration. If something won’t work for the company image then you can clearly state that but make sure you have all your facts straight and understand why a customer or potential customer is making a suggestion.
Building a good online reputation is important if you want to build your business and keep it going. Take some time to see everything that others have written or said about your first and then work from there. You may find that you just need to maintain your current standing or you may find that you need to seriously improve your management and the way you handle customers.
Author bio:
This guest post was written by Katharine, an internet marketer. She has spent years building her own brand and has found success after investing her time and for information click here.
