7 Mistakes Businesses Make When Handling Their Online Reputation

• Updated on: 2019-01-26
• Read original article here

An active online standing will help boost your brand’s legitimacy and credibility. Unfortunately, many businesses make serious mistakes when handling their internet reputation

Simply put, consumers will not patronize a business that they don’t trust. The fastest way to lose credibility among your potential clients and customers is to mishandle your online reputation. Unfortunately, this is an all too common occurrence among business owners. To ensure that your company is benefiting from a current online standing, avoid the following mistakes below.

No matter how much time, effort, and energy you put into your company, you are likely to have a disgruntled customer or a spammer attack your brand online. Responding with anger, however, will only detract from your credibility and add to the unnecessary fuss. Instead, encourage these individuals to contact you personally to discuss any potential issues.

Ignoring your online and offline reputation is one major mistake many business owners make. They assume there’s no time for worrying about their online reputation especially if their business involves a lot of in-person interaction. If the person to person relationships are healthy and those customers continue to come back, you may think that you're doing everything necessary to run your business. But by ignoring your online reputation, you are leaving yourself wide open to something going wrong and negatively affecting your business without you realizing it.

Many of the review websites, aggregators, and business directories work hard to collect information about local businesses to flesh out their database, and you could have several profiles out there that you didn't set up yourself. If you don't pay attention to your online reputation that doesn’t mean other people aren't. Someone could leave a bad review that can paint a negative picture of your business. On the flip side, someone could leave a positive review that you won’t be using to your benefit.

It's important to get an ORM, SEO, PPC, Digital Marketing audit because when it comes to your businesses online reputation, not having one can be more detrimental than having a bad one. If someone attempts to do research about your business and doesn't find any information, it can lead your website, landing page visitors to believe that your business your business doesn't have customers. At least if you have bad reviews out there, it shows that the clients are patronizing your business even if they do not have great experiences. It's not a good idea to have no online reputation so you can't just ignore it.

Some businesses become aware of the importance of keeping an eye on their online reputation, and they begin to monitor it religiously. While it's important to know what's going on with your business online, that's not a strategy. Watching what's going on and occasionally responding to negative responses isn't an actual plan. You have to take the time to map out how you will address your online reputation and use it to grow your business. Your online reputation needs to be consistently managed and should be viewed as a strategic and valuable marketing tool. It's not something you can tackle only when it becomes an issue or when someone tells you it should be managed.You need to create a complete online reputation strategy. Not having a strategy is just as bad as ignoring it. Here is an example of a business that obviously has no strategy:

Not having a strategy is just as bad as ignoring it. Here is an example of a company that obviously has no strategy:

Failing to Keep Track of Your Reputation

Monitoring your online reputation is not a one-time thing; businesses must continually be aware of what is being said about them online. Be sure to check your brand’s standing frequently and thoroughly.

One way to get your name out there in a meaningful way is to engage with customers on social media. With such a vast audience, it is essential that you reach out and connect through these widely used platforms.

Nothing adds legitimacy to your brand like high quality, unique, and informative content. Ensure that your blogs and articles show off your knowledge and leadership in your field.

Not Encouraging Good Customers to Review Your Brand  If you have developed a trusting relationship with a client, feel free to ask them to write you a positive review. Do not, however, post fake reviews or have friends and family members falsely attest to the benefits of your brand.

If your company is struggling with its online reputation or if you simply want to maintain your positive image, please feel free to contact us at Online Reputation Management Services today.

Just like how most SEOs can't deliver top 10 results, most repair campaigns will never completely erase the first page of all negative results.   Just make sure that expectation is set up front. So if your ORM repair services campaign results in only moving an adverse suspect, prospect or existing client from #2 to #5 don't beat yourself up. Remember, it is also hard to build your brand doing reputation repair because you can't generate testimonials or put their company logo on your website.

Getting Fake reviews from Friends or Employees

When you begin to see the value of online reviews, you may be tempted to ask friends or employees to post fake positive reviews to encourage other people to follow suit. Don’t do that Yes, you may get away with it, and this damaging content will eventually be pushed down by the real reviews that you should be working to get.But it’s a risky situation. If anyone ever finds out that you posted fake reviews, it could go from good to bad quickly. The thing about online reviews is that they’re often anonymous and it can be tough to verify whether the person posting them is an actual customer or a plant. All it takes is an accusation of fake reviews for people to begin to doubt you.

One quick way to check is to click on the profile name of those who left the review. If you see that they only have that one review, then it looks suspicious.Plus, posting fake reviews is akin to false advertising which can be considered fraud. If someone decides to they can bring charges against your business for fraud; the harmful exposure can cause problems for your business down the line even if the lawsuit doesn't result in you having to pay a judgment. Once it's been demonstrated that you post fake reviews, people will be much less likely to believe the legitimate ones. It's not a risk worth taking. Put together a strategy for generating consistent positive reviews and do it the right way. Don't try to rush the process at the risk of your business reputation.

When you realize just how beneficial it can be to have a positive online reputation, it may make you focused on doing what it takes to make sure your reputation is and stays positive. This desire for success may cause you to make choices that can have long-term adverse effects on your business especially if you are building a small business and everything is a make or break situation.

Now that you have learned more about online reputation management, mistakes to avoid and now have some basics to start your strategy, remember these four tips:

 If you are a high net worth individuals, medium sized business and have some negative reviews, fraud or scam reports, etc. on the internet, let's take action and get it or them suppressed or some rare cases it is removed.  Leaving it unattended is detrimental to your reputation and online branding.  Let's have a  complimentary discussion and get cleaned up once and for all. That is hurting your need some help, and or guidance signs up for a complimentary ORM review.

Check out the Charlotte Social 360 LLC blog on our website, How To Get Rid of Bad or Damaging OnLine Reviews, Scam Reports, etc.  and improve your On-Line Reputation with our On-Line Reputation Management and Repair services (ORM) Sign Up @ http://bit.ly/2sUcIqU  for a Complimentary Consultation.