Bizsuccess

The Importance of Online Reputation Management for Your Small Business

You never know when you’re going to die on the Internet. Never! Someone could come from behind and – bam! – your reputation is ruined!

Mark Twain said, “Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. “ Nowhere is this more likely to be true than on today’s Internet.

If web 1.0 was all about collecting information, web 2.0 is all about sharing it and it doesn’t have to be true to be shared.

Something one of our clients recently experienced illustrates this well. As a successful construction contractor, our client hires many people to work in his company. Unfortunately, one of them was stealing from him, so our client fried him.

The employee is an avid blogger and uses social media sites frequently as well. The employee began blogging negatively about our client and sharing slanderous stories about him in social media sites online. The result was when you Googled our client’s name all this negative information appeared in the search results (even though it’s untrue). Nowadays if it’s on Google, it’s gospel!

So how can you prevent something like this from happening to you? More »

On-line reputation management has become the most important aspect of on-line marketing. You should incorporate this into your Internet marketing strategy today by doing the things that I will suggest in this article. If you are already doing these things, let this serve as a gentle reminder.

The fact is, anyone can go online and post anything about you or your company on any forum, blog, or user-generated website. They can even do this anonymously and you’ll never know who is trying to ruin your reputation. The statements these anonymous posters make about you or your small business do not even need to be true. A lot of times, one comment can do more damage than you could ever do yourself through lousy customer service. More »

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

This post is a special Make a Referral Week guest post featuring education on the subject of referrals and word of mouth marketing and making 1000 referrals to 1000 small businesses – check it out at Make a Referral Week 2010

As part of John Jantsch’s Referral Week, I’d like to focus on personal branding, as a way to become someone that people want to refer to others. I agree with John that the best way to grow a business is to get referrals because of how powerful word-of-mouth is. These days, it’s become more and more obvious that referrals can help you substantially build your brand presence, your web properties and your cash flow. The reason is because of the viral nature of the web, and how one video review of your service can morph into seven blog posts, six hundred tweets and a front page story on BusinessWeek.com within twenty-four hours. Five years ago, this line of events was impossible, but today it happens all of the time.

Here are some ways to become a brand that people want to refer:

Be interesting: People, who are interested in you, as a person, are more inclined to connect with you, do business with you and refer you to their own personal network. Your personal brand is not only defined by your job or company, but also by the activities you participate outside of the office and your hobbies. It might be hard to connect with someone on a professional level, but you might be able to bridge the relationship by talking about your golf game or the last season of Lost. More »

If your small business has recently established its online presence, building credibility is a vital part of your online marketing and advertising plan. A proactive online reputation management strategy is more important than ever; with the growth of blogs, discussion forum activity, and other small websites that can go unmonitored, many small businesses can become the victim of online attacks through negative postings and commentary. This was once only a problem for large corporations; however, small companies are particularly at risk when they have not established a strong online presence and are beginning to branch out online.

Every small business needs to work on their online branding strategy, ensuring that their image is not affected by consumers and clients. A few spam comments, flaming posts on social networks, or negative reviews can all affect your business and turn off potential customers. If your small business website runs a blog along with the basic product and services site, a successful online reputation management strategy can help you improve your brand image and encourage more visitors to your site. Blogs, social networking, and link building are just a few ways to boost credibility. More »

There are a lot of companies that will happily relieve you of your dollars, in exchange for buzz monitoring services. While many large companies will enjoy the peace of mind that comes from having a company track their reputation for them, the rest of us need something a little less expensive–or better yet, free!

We’ve compiled a list of twenty six buzz monitoring tools that are free of charge. Use these tools to keep track of your company reputation or even spy on your competition! Take a look at Trackur.com if you need an all-in-one buzz monitoring tool.

1. Your Industry

If you simply don’t have time to track everything that specifically relates to your company–or your competition–you can still track news that relates to your industry. Moreover and Yahoo are just a couple of resources that offer RSS feeds for aggregated industry news. More »

Google is no longer just a search engine. With your potential customers, future employers, and members of the media turning to Google for information about your business, Google has become a reputation engine.

In helping clients with their online reputation, I’m consistently asked how they can push out negative content that appears on the first page of Google for a search for their name. Whether they were fined by the SEC, ridiculed by an ex-employee, or investigated by their local newspaper, they share one common goal: get that negative result off of the first page! More »

Not sure of the best way to ask your customers for reviews?  Here are some tips from other Kudzu.com merchants.

• Print a request for a customer review on invoices or bill stuffers.
• Send a follow-up email after servicing a customer about their experience with your company and inviting them to post a review on Kudzu.com.
• Offer an incentive to customers if they post a review, such as 10% off next service from your company.
• Add a “rate and review me” logo to your web site with a link to your Kudzu profile. More »

Every single day, someone, somewhere is discussing something important to your business; your brand, your executives, your competitors, your industry. Are they hyping-up your company, building buzz for your products? Or, are they criticizing your service, complaining to others about your new product launch?

A great brand can take months, if not years, and millions of dollars to build. It should be the thing you hold most precious.

It can be destroyed in hours by a blogger upset with your company.

A new product launch could take hundreds of TV commercials, dozens of newspaper ads, and an expensive ad agency. More »

In today’s word of push button publishing, any company can become the victim of an online attack from disgruntled customers or competitors with a computer and an internet connection. Because of the nature of online search, negative blog posts, comments, and press can quickly tarnish a company’s reputation if potential customers find harsh criticisms when conducting a search for your company’s name.

These types of attacks can be extremely damaging to your reputation and profitability – especially when they appear on the first page of search results. However, there are ways to counter them using the same techniques applied by top Internet reputation management experts.

#1 Monitor Your Online Presence More »

Don’t underestimate the online impact – take control and save your reputation with these tips.

1. Know your achilles heel

Do you know your weaknesses? No, seriously! I don’t mean the “we try too hard to please our customers” bunk. Do you know the flaws in your products, the areas of your service that suck, or the member of your management team most likely to stick his foot firmly in his mouth? More »