As much as we value quality products and hardworking staff as critical components of any business, let’s face it: running a successful company requires more than a good head for business in 2022. 

You may have the best product in your niche to offer customers, and you may even have extremely positive feedback. However, none of that matters if new customers perceive your brand as having a bad reputation online. So, every business owner must understand social media and how best to represent yourself and your business online. 

Of course, if keeping track of your business’s online presence feels overwhelming, you can always hire a professional agency such as Reputation Management Company to handle things for you. You’re free to focus on the fun aspects of running your own company while leaving the confusing parts to the experts.

In the meantime, here are four tips we use to establish and maintain online reputations.

1. Put Yourself and Your Company Out There

Before managing your online reputation, you first have to establish yourself and your business’s online presence. This can include doing the following:

• Making a professional and user-friendly website
• Creating social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram
• Establishing your business on review sites
• Optimizing your search engine results

Since more than half the global population uses social media, it’s essential to your business’s success to ensure that your online presence is accessible and represents your business well. You should ensure the following information is visible for potential customers:

• Company name
• Logo
• Email
• Phone Number
• Taglines
• Positive Reviews

You want everyone who visits any of your websites and associated pages to know:

• What your business is
• What kinds of services you offer
• How they can get in touch with you
• Where they can visit your business if you have a brick-and-mortar location

Once you have those profiles set up, use them to your advantage! You need to post regularly to build up your online reputation and generate interest in your business. 

Keep in mind that different social media platforms require different marketing and engagement strategies, so you’ll need to adapt your tactics depending on which platform you’re using.

Online reputation management takes a lot of work, but it doesn’t have to be exhausting when you have a professional reputation management company in your corner. Maintaining and monitoring social media pages is one of the many services offered by The Reputation Management Company, so if you’re worried you might not be able to keep track of all of your profiles, you always have the option of bringing in experts. 

2. Build Strong Online Relationships

Utilizing social media to enhance your online reputation involves building community connections and strengthening relationships with other companies, organizations, and individuals. Like networking in person, interacting with other business owners online can lead to mutually beneficial alliances to the online reputations of all parties.

To highlight other local businesses on your social media page, let your followers know to check out the discounts. Encourage them to swing by your shop afterward to recharge with an espresso. Using your social media to call attention to other businesses’ pages builds goodwill, enhances your online reputation, and makes other companies more likely to return the favor. 

You should also always respond to comments on your blogs and social media pages and return the favor by commenting on other people’s pages. Failing to respond to comments can damage your online reputation by making you look distant or disengaged. You wouldn’t leave someone hanging in a face-to-face conversation, so why do it online?

Of course, keeping track of all the notifications and correspondences you receive across the various social media platforms where your business is represented can quickly get overwhelming. Hiring The Reputation Management Company will ensure that you never miss a message, which will go a long way toward improving and maintaining your online reputation.

3. Present Your Brand with Clarity and Confidence

While creating regular social media posts is an important aspect of maintaining your online reputation, you also need to make sure your posts are relevant and interesting. 

Churning out generic posts by the dozen isn’t going to cut it. You want your customers to engage with your content, so you need to provide content that people will find helpful, inspiring, or meaningful.

A recent study on the psychology of sharing found that virtually everyone who shares content on social media carefully considers how that content will be useful to others. To ensure your content goes beyond your own page, you want to create posts that provide clear and specific value to your fellow social media users, such as education or entertainment. Your online reputation will be boosted every time someone new shares your content.

Additionally, your posts should feel like they come from real people who consumers can trust. Honesty is very important to consumers, and no one wants to feel like they are being lectured by a robot when they read a company’s social media posts. Your content should read like a conversation rather than an “about me” page. Make sure your posts give an honest and authentic reflection of your business.

Finally, your content should be consistent and have an overall tone that accurately reflects your brand. Consumers respond well to social media that has a specific focus. Engaging in topics and conversations relevant to your niche will help boost your visibility and enhance your online reputation by making you look focused and well-informed.

4. Don’t Get Hung Up on the Negatives

When someone leaves your business a bad review on social media, it can be very difficult not to take it personally. You may feel the urge to defend yourself and your business, and you may be tempted to engage with the reviewer by responding directly to their complaints.

However, replying to a negative comment about your business could easily harm your online reputation. Remember that other people who check out your business’s reviews will see this conversation, and how you represent yourself could affect how they perceive you. If you approach the reviewer with an angry or defensive attitude, you might come across as combative or bullying at worst. At best, people will see you as less professional.  

That being said, not saying anything at all will also have an undesirable effect. Customers are more likely to patronize a business that responds to all of its reviews. You don’t want to seem like a bully, but you also don’t want to be invisible or give potential customers the impression that you don’t care what they think or feel. 

When faced with a negative review, the best thing to do is apologize for the customer’s bad experience and ask them what you can change to prevent it. You can even offer a phone call or in-person meeting to discuss the issue and offer a long-lasting resolution. The person may appreciate a discount as an incentive to return for a better experience. 

No matter what, make it clear that you value that person’s input. Remember that you’re not just interacting with this one stranger; you’re showing everyone who reads your business’s reviews that you are a rational person focused on providing the best possible experience for their customers, even the unhappy ones.

Thanks to our professional connections and contacts, an agency like The Reputation Management Company can sometimes work with review websites to have negative reviews altered or taken down. Remember that it’s not always possible to remove something permanently from the internet. Learning to respond to those reviews gracefully will ultimately help you more than relying on the possibility of getting rid of them. Either way, having an online reputation management company in your corner is a great way to ensure your business navigates negative reviews with aplomb.

Bottom Line

While there are many things to keep track of concerning how you and your business are perceived online, managing your online reputation successfully will be highly beneficial to your company. Social media is one of the most important ways customers interact with their favorite brands and businesses in this digital age. Having a positive online reputation and a strong social media presence will generate interest in your brand and bring in business from customers you wouldn’t be able to reach in any other way.

Not sure how to establish and maintain a positive reputation on the internet? The Reputation Management Company can help you achieve your online reputation goals by creating social media pages, engaging with consumers and other businesses, generating content that customers will share and engage with, and navigating any negative feedback you may receive. 

Get in touch with our professionals and start your online reputation management journey today!