Managing Your Business’s Online Reputation

More and more, people are turning online for information. A recent survey from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that the percentage of Americans who say they get news online at least three days a week has increased from 31 percent to 37 percent since 2006. Customers routinely check out a company online before choosing to do business with it. And the rise of social networks, blogs and other Web tools makes it easy for customers to praise or criticize a company in a few keystrokes.

This shift in how customers get their information and choose the companies with which they want to do business means that you need to watch your online reputation more closely than ever. Fortunately, there are some best practices and tools to help you do exactly that.

1. Look professional
   One of the fundamentals that any company needs is a good Web site. The site should be updated with current information about products and services. Check your site periodically for broken links, which may occur if external content is moved or if there is a problem with one of your pages. Fresh content is a sign of a dynamic company, so if you have a press room, it should have recent news releases. If your last release is from 2004, people may wonder why you have nothing new to say. Be sure that any content you issue includes keywords relevant to your company so that it will be recognized by search engines.
2. Provide excellent customer service
   It’s not online, and it’s not particularly sexy, but with people connecting through social networks and bloggers who can attract significant audiences, poor customer service can result in angry customers who blast negative comments about your company to hundreds or thousands of their contacts or readers. It’s important that your company has proper channels, including telephone contact information on your Web site, for customers who need answers or help.
3. Monitor online media
   It’s important to keep abreast of what’s being said about your company in industry news. Of course, reading all of those Web sites, zines, blogs and other media can be a daunting task. However, there are some shortcuts. Google Alerts are free email notices that send you links to mentions of the name or subject you choose when they appear in media that Google monitors. Community-ranked news sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and del.icio.us can help you find the sites that people interested in your industry are reading–and find out if your company is being mentioned there. Sites like Complaints.com let you see actual customer complaints, while using the blog search function on your favorite Web site can help you locate bloggers who may be discussing your company, products or services.
4. Hire some help
   Negative information about your company should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, and may sometimes require help in correcting. If managing your online reputation proves to be too much to handle yourself, you may want to turn to an online reputation monitoring service for help. ReputationDefender.com helps you monitor your online reputation and works with you to clean it up through search engine optimization, if necessary. Some other services that offer similar monitoring and reputation management services include Market Sentinel, Nielsen BuzzMetrics and Reputica.

Keeping on top of your online reputation includes monitoring what’s being said about you and continually informing and serving your customers properly. With the importance that many customers place on getting information online, it’s essential that companies watch what is being said about them both to improve their operations and understand why customers buy from them.