Online reputation management services boil down to two key directives: highlighting the “positives” of your business and protecting your name from “negatives.” The positives are easy enough to figure out – your products, promotions, achievements, and ongoing public relations efforts. The negatives often come from competitors, critics, dissatisfied customers, disgruntled ex-employees, or trolls who make it a hobby to, well, troll you. With this many potential enemies, how do you protect your business and, more importantly, your name?
Here are three basic steps that you could do on your own or with the help of professionals:
Build Your Online Identity
The prevalence of social media affords you many benefits. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, YouTube, and Google Plus are just some of the platforms that you could use to build your online identity. By creating and regularly updating your own page on these sites, you’re giving yourself a face and voice that could have a reach far wider than any traditional methods you may currently employ. Use these sites to promote products, launch ads, engage customers in conversation, and post relevant, compelling content that drives readers to your site and invites them to do business with you.
Fortify Your Website
No matter how sleek your website’s design is, if it’s not structurally optimized to rank for your search term on Google, it’s not really working. Have your website SEO’d, make sure it’s connected to all of your social media assets, and have professionals do some back-linking to it. Invest in security to repel negative SEO from bringing down your site. The goal is to make sure your website gets ranked high on the first page of Google search results whenever people look up your name.
Keep it Fresh
Regularly updating your website and social media assets is key to maintaining a positive online reputation. Your detractors are many, and they do not rest – so neither should you. Keeping your website and other online assets alive with fresh content – whether it is text, images, videos, music, or a combination of these – helps maintain relevance and traffic. Whatever industry you are in, you have an opportunity to be creative. It is also worth noting that people respond to incentives, so publicly rewarding your loyal customers couldn’t hurt; it also invites casual visitors to your site to participate in the exchange.
Remember, your name is your business. You can’t stop all the detractors from trying to damage it, but you can take action to protect it. Seek out professionals who can provide you with the technical expertise and creativity to execute an effective online reputation management campaign.