Blog
Effective Strategies that Can Help Rebuild or Build an Online Reputation
We live in a world that is competitive and in which any tactic will be used to stop businesses from growing. The internet allows information of any kind, good and bad, to be spread at lightning speed and it is hugely important to be aware of this and of how it works. People may question why it really matters, because a good business should be able to cope with a little bad press and individuals have their circles of friends anyway, but sometimes a reputation really is absolutely vital.
An Example
Take, for instance, a business that has gone bankrupt. A different company then buys this business and wants to rebuild it. The last thing that people remember, however, is that it went bankrupt and that people lost their jobs, damaging their families and livelihoods. If a different company then restarts it, they will find it very difficult to maintain the business. This recently happened when a bankrupt ethanol plant was purchased by a different company. Tireless work by a reputation management company is now underway to rebuild the reputation of the plant in an effort to get the necessary staff to run the plant, and the necessary custom to keep the plant running. One way they are doing this is by asking people to review the business as an employer, thereby improving the overall reputation. This is a clear situation in which reputation matters.
How Do You Get a Good Online Reputation?
It has been said that building a reputation takes years of hard and consistent work. Destroying a reputation, however, takes just a single action. And, thanks to the internet, that single action can be completed in just a few minutes by anyone with a computer and an internet connection. Someone in China could be bored and find it amusing to troll a few businesses, commenting negatively on their social media pages. That could be enough to completely destroy a business.
All businesses, therefore, must do two important things:
1. Monitor the information that is out there about them.
2. Proactively push positive information to the foreground.
By monitoring the information that is out there, businesses can have a greater awareness of the public perception of their company. Not all negative comments are slanderous, so this is also an opportunity to learn from mistakes and to improve services and processes overall. By speaking to the people who are leaving these negative comments, they are also engaging in excellent customer service. It is not unheard of for someone to change their negative review if they feel they have been dealt with properly.
Being proactive means that businesses should also make every effort to collect more positive reviews and opinions. They should be active on social media, allowing people to interact with them. They should ask customers to leave a review whenever they make a purchase or use a service.
A reputation is everything, whether you are a business or an individual. Working towards creating a positive reputation may be hard work, but it is necessary work as well.
Comments