Online Reputation Management: Leveraging Content & Social Media 

According to a recent study,

• 86% said negative reviews had an effect on their buying decisions
• 90% said positive reviews had an effect on their buying decisions

Clearly, in today’s world, you cannot ignore reviews about your business on the internet. Equally, you shouldn’t leave things to chance, just hoping that your satisfied customers would post great reviews while the disgruntled ones keep away. Your potential customers are looking for you online and need only a single reason to convince them not to seek your services.

Much more than just customer reviews…

Yes, customer reviews are very important in shaping people’s decision to buy from you or not, but there is much more to online reputation management in Atlanta. You shouldn’t get fake reviews written about your business either – the review sites are cracking down on fake reviews and you wouldn’t want to be talked about in the media for the wrong reasons.

What is online reputation management then, really?

Up with the Positive, Down with the Negative…

Online reputation management uses the power of content marketing and social media to enhance or restore a business’s or a person’s reputation. This involves a strategic publication of great content and ensuring this completely dominates the negative material written online or the negative conversations on social media.

This isn’t unethical, unlike paying for fake reviews. ORM is legitimate and ensures that potential customers don’t get misled by one or two negative reviews. This ensures that positive coverage of your business stays dominant on the internet and social media.

Online reputation management at no stage involves publishing fake reviews, but emphasizing real and legitimate customer reviews. This way, your potential customers become aware of the great things about your business rather than get bombarded by the negativity.

What’s Trustworthy Content?

Trustworthy content can be both owner and user-generated. Atlanta Online reputation management requires both to be effective. Owner generated content means blog posts, articles, press releases, videos, and social media posts written by you – the owner.  58% of consumers trust owner content.

User-generated or independent content means positive reviews, comments, and testimonials written by customers or reviewers who are not hired by you in any way.

How Online Reputation Management works…

ORM involves the following:

Research >> Content Setup >> Social Set-up >> Publication >> Engagement >> Maintenance

Research – This means keyword research and online presence analysis. This involves finding out what your customers look for while searching for your products or services online as well as where you stand compared to the competition.

Content Setup – This involves setting of websites, blogs, and so on where your content will be published and where you may interact with customers.

Social Setup – This is basically getting started with accounts on various social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest.

Publication – This stage involves uploading of blog posts or articles on your online properties – websites and blogs.  Then publishing testimonials, user reviews, sharing content on social media channels, joining online forums, and commenting on blogs.

What’s really important? Engagement and Maintenance.

So far, the steps involved in Online Reputation Management were easy to perform. The hard part involves the last 2 steps – Engagement and Maintenance.  They separate the reputable businesses from those suffering from bad reputation management.

Engagement – Engagement involves following the earlier steps and a greater interaction or engagement with the audience on social media. This involves posting engaging and attractive social media content on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, acquiring friends and followers, joining groups, and extending your influence on the social media.

Maintenance – Online reputation never ends, whether online or offline. Hiring a professional online reputation management service can help you run your campaigns more effectively and for a longer time.  

Search Your Business Right Now On Google…

Are you really happy with what you see? Do you feel the reviews could have been better and that the positive reviews should have been emphasized? Do you think there are too many negative reviews about your business? Are many websites belonging to your competitors in your search results? If the answer to these questions is not what you want then you really need to change things around. Hire a proper online reputation management firm today to get your company back on track.

Let me know if you have had success with Online Reputation Management and the steps you took?

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