Online Reputation Management Tips For Your Business

By Gadook

Online Reputation Management, or ORM, is a relatively new term that refers to the practice of regularly monitoring your business’s or brand name’s standing in the online community. Why is it important to monitor your business’s online image? The answer should be fairly obvious. Almost every member of today’s consumer market uses the internet on a daily basis to find out how and where to purchase the products and services they need. Thus, your business’s online reputation has a huge effect on your business’s actual, real-life success.

The challenge of online reputation management comes from the fact that online social media sites as well as the popularity of user generated content (UGC) make it difficult to control one’s online business reputation. Bad reviews and negative articles posted by competitors about your business can have a huge effect on your online reputation. Here are a few tips to help you combat negative reviews and project the reputation you want.

1. Social Media Profiles

Setting up effective profiles of your business on social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter is one of the most important parts of good online reputation management. Include your company’s history and mission statement, as well as company bios, avatars and logos, and any information that you want your business to be known for. Make all content in your business’s social media profiles relevant and useful, so that search engine spiders are able to find it easily. Remember that ORM is about influencing what others say about you, so give people plenty of good things to say in your social media profiles.

2. Participate in the online community

Having a good social media profile, or even multiple ones, is not enough. You have to interact with your customers and business community. This means returning people’s emails and answering comments, and encouraging and participating in forum discussions. Being active in your online community is a great way to expand your network of influence, giving you increased control of your online reputation.

3. Write. A lot.

Posting articles and blogs regularly is a huge part of ORM as well. Successful blogs and articles that get a lot of hits help you spread your brand name and improve your search engine results page rankings.

4. Monitor

After you’ve set up profiles, blogs, and written articles about your industry for different sites, check up on your company’s online standing on a regular basis. Do a Google search on your business and see what people are saying in popular online forums and social media sites.

Published by Gadook in Online Reputation Management Tips, Reputation Management