Reputation management – Top Strategies

It is rightly said, that reputation cannot be ignored whether in life or in business. You cannot afford to overlook this most important factor as far as your business is concerned. It can make or break your brand. Online reputation is a fragile aspect that needs to be handled with care and patience. While promoting your business effectively, you also need to keep an eye on what others are saying about your business. You must have a strong reputation management strategy in place; for you never know when it may come handy.

To quote Warren Buffet- “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” That’s the effect a negative comment on your business can cause. If you do not watch out who is saying what about your business, it will be too late to salvage your reputation. What strategies can you have in place to avoid any untoward incidence or better your online reputation?

• Build on your brand name. Your business needs to be identified with your company name. Create a website which reiterates and establishes the name of your company. Most pages of the website should announce it. It is observed that most sites use ‘we’, ‘our’ and ‘us’; it is advisable to use the company name here. It is better said as- “SubmitEdge is an SEO company dedicated … “or “At SubmitEdge we are dedicated to….” than saying “We are dedicated to…
• Second step would be to make your presence felt on the web. Using SEO as a tool, optimize your site for the keywords that speak about your company. If a negative comment is doing rounds, you cannot obviously remove it. But you can obliterate it by pushing positive comments about your business to the fore.
• Do not ignore any negative post by any unsatisfied customer. As far as possible, address it. If it is an inauthentic comment, defend your company. If not, be apologetic if need be and rectify the problem. But do not ignore it. Take time out and deal with their concern with care; only then can you rebuild the trust. Otherwise one unhappy customer with their comment can take away a lot of customers.
• Pay attention to your social media pages. Choose the social medium with care. Too much or too less visibility may both not work in your favor. So do not oversell yourself nor be missing totally. Keep an eye on what is being displayed when people search for your business or company. Take the help of sites like SocialMention, Technorati, TweetBeep or Addict-o-matic to keep track on your site’s online reputation.
• Remember, you cannot control what is being said about you. You may try your best to build a reputation but it is not possible to always please all. Any time a negative comment may crop up, taking your reputation down. Be calm and patient while working on rebuilding the trust and do not expect miraculous results overnight. But work at it consistently and soon your brand will assume the position it once held.

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