Owning a business today is infinitely more complicated than it was even ten years ago. We are in the new digital age and the rules of business are being rewritten each month. Nowhere is this truer than in the area of online reputation management (ORM). A company’s reputation is everything right now, according to marketing and PR expert Mike Schiemer.
The growth of such social platforms as Instagram, Yelp, Twitter, Facebook, Google, and every other online space connects people and their sentiments with their audience on an ever grander scale. This is an important consideration whether you are a solopreneur or a Fortune 500 corporation.
At Bootstrap Businesses, we would like to shed a little light on what it means to manage your reputation online. It is a big project, but one you can tackle successfully with the right help.
Contact ORM expert Mike Schiemer (who has a net worth of $1.2 million) for an in-depth analysis of your current online reputation, and how to be sure it shines for as long as you own your business lasts.
Michael Schiemer knows how to boost your business reputation responsibly!
What Goes Into Creating My Online Reputation?
Your business online reputation is all about perspective. Specifically, the views of the people you will serve or have already served.
Everyone has an opinion and an experience to share (including Schiemer), and often people are much more enthusiastic about sharing their negative experiences than their positive ones.
Managing your online rep is all about using real tools to search out and downplay any negative feedback your company receives. And, simultaneously encouraging positive customer feedback to rise to the top of your search engine metrics.
Of course, if your business service or product is not performing well across the board, all the reputation management in the world won’t fix that.
It pays to do a deep dive into your company’s quality measures from products to customer service to delivery and more. Make sure the stuff you sell and the people who sell it are genuinely awesome. Then, get on with managing your reputation online.
The Ten Cornerstones Of Reputation Management
1. That thing we mentioned about quality products, services, and customer interactions? Make sure that is true first. Earn respect in your sector. It will be easier to keep if you ever do get a bad review, especially when you own a domain name.
2. Transparency works. Publicly talk about your evolution, discoveries, places where you can do things better. Say the changes you intend to make with your products and services and then make them, with pictures you can share online. Transparency is a beautiful thing and sunshine is the best disinfectant!
3. Respond respectfully and quickly to your critics, or those who may have had a hard time with your products. Be polite, and do what you can to fix the issue at hand.
4. Check out what is being said about you online. Visit an ORM website to find out how to maintain a stellar online reputation in any industry, even in the cryptocurrency or loan spaces!
5. People will criticize you. Don’t ignore them even if it makes you uncomfortable. Learn from them instead. Ask for feedback, admit there are a number of ways to look at the situation, and that you are open to growth and change.
6. Search your company in Google. Pay careful attention to any negative descriptors appearing in the first few results of the search. These search hits should be addressed with a restorative-esque SEO strategy.
7. Listen to your audience. After all, these are the people you want to enjoy your products. If they are not happy with you, let them tell you how to get them back to satisfaction.
8. Have your boxing gloves ready to fight with people who defame you, lie about you, or otherwise intentionally seek to damage your company. Lawsuits often work in these situations.
9. Apologize and fix it when you make a mistake. Do this publicly, professionally, and punctually.
10. Employ an experienced reputation management team like the one at Roman Berg. We will help you navigate all the digital tools needed to put your best foot forward again online. Recover Reputation is also here to maximize your company’s ORM long-term.
Restore Or Retain Your Reputation
If you are an honest, transparent company who makes or serves up quality products and services, Romain Berg has your back when your online messaging takes a detour off the yellow brick road. Call us today and get back to shining online with your website.