by samIncreasing competition has made online reputation management (ORM) more important now than ever. With a growing number of ways web-savvy individuals can track down reviews for a product or company before parting with their money, they are finding it ever easier to pick and choose which they go for to make the wisest decision.
So you agree right, it’s time you take control of managing your online reputation before someone else does it for you. Whether you are an individual seeking a job or a business selling products or services and looking for potential clients or investors, someone at some point will type your name into a search engine.
If your company’s online reputation is short of sterling, this might cause considerable problems. It could just mean something as small as a consumer clicking on a competitor instead of your company or a regular customer switching to another service. However, the more visible and the more concerning this reputation is, the more financial implications it might present as more and more customers begin to flock elsewhere (likely to your biggest rival).
So how do you begin to take charge of your reputation? One of the many ways to improve and monitor this is through the use of social networking websites. With thousands and thousands of businesses creating pages and over half the Fortune 100 companies owning a Twitter account, social networking is becoming a big part of how businesses communicate with their customers. It allows companies an opportunity to influence the conversations that take place about your brand.
If you can positively communicate with customers, they are not only more likely to repeatedly purchase from your company, but they are also more likely to become social ambassadors for your brand, telling others about their good experiences online.
Another advantage of social media is that it allows companies to demonstrate their prowess for good customer service online by turning any negative feedback into a positive outcome by engaging with customers who are less than satisfied with the company. BT is a good example of this; customer service representatives have been known to respond within minutes to users who post negative comments on Twitter, apologising for their bad experience and offering to try and resolve the problem.
Presuming these customers have their problems solved without an issue, they are then likely to have restored faith in the brand and may even go so far as to report this on their social network, further improving the brand’s reputation. Although this may seem like it would only make a small impact, when multiplied over time with many customers, it proves to be an effective form of ORM.
Like what you read? Then make sure to register your company’s name on social networking websites before they are taken by another user, and make the first step to managing your online reputation.