The process of reputation management is about looking at the information that exists online and in the printed press on a specific company. It is also about responding to any negative comments, and pushing positive things up in the search engine rankings. Reputation management is a complex process, and a very important one as well.
Why Reputation Management Is Necessary
Through reputation management, the narrative about a business, product, or person remains positive. Furthermore, it attracts traffic and increases brand awareness. Much of this is now done online, and the goal is to make sure that the brand becomes visible online, in a positive way, ensuring visitors are happy with what they see. This links into various online technologies, including review websites and social media. At the same time, it is about finding the appropriate strategies to address any negative reviews, thereby turning a negative into a positive.
How it Is Done
You need to see reputation management as a form of technology used to ensure individuals and companies regain and maintain their positive image. It helps businesses to identify any problems that are out there, and to resolve them so that they get positive results. In some cases, it is possible to completely eliminate negative comments, but pushing things back is a more popular tool. To do this, search engine optimization (SEO) techniques are used. The difference is that traditional SEO is only about raising the online profile of a certain website, whereas reputation management both raises positive profiles, and pushes back negative profiles. This is known as reverse SEO.
Through these tools and techniques, existing negative comments are pushed back and addressed, but it also prevents further negative comments from appearing. You need the help of professional consultants to achieve this, as reputation management is incredibly complex. While this does mean you have to pay for a service, you should see a tremendous return on investment. Considering that 70% of people now look up a business online before they decide to shop there, and that 87% of those believe online reviews, it quickly becomes clear just how damaging a negative content could be.
Reputation management is not a onetime only project, but rather a continuous thing. This is why you must also learn how to positive communicate with your clients and prospective clients, even if they do not have nice things to say. Interaction is a vital tool in reputation management. People who have a negative experience are far more likely to want to vent about it than people who have a positive experience, so it is impossible to completely avoid bad comments. What matters is that you show people who come across those negative comments that you care about what is being said, and that you respectfully try to find a solution to their problems.
You need to see reputation management as an integral part of your overall business operations, as it will help to drive people to your store and give you an edge over your competition.