So by now you have determined how important reviews and ratings are to a successful business plan. You have even read the who, what and when of the review system and are ready to start pushing your customers for reviews, but where should you push them to leave their message? With so many options out there, this is yet another step in the process that takes some thought. We think of ‘where’ in two categories and Google+.

Are you localized?

The answer to this question is based purely on your company logistics and goals. The best examples are restuarants. Obviously they serve the people in their community. A restaurant needs to make sure the people in their neighborhood can see their good ratings and spread the word. The same applies to any business that sells products or services out of brick-and-mortar store or localized services such plumbers, CPA, etc.. Being localized and relevant to your geographical searches is the most important thing. If this is you, we suggest sites like Yelp, FourSquare, Yellow Pages, even something like Angie’s List and the Better Business Bureau. These are great places to start. These sites frequently show up in the search results for localized product and services search, ie Denver plumber’. Claim or create your profile on sites like these and let your customers know you are ready for feedback.

Do you want to take over the world?

The answer to this question is comes straight from your business model. If you sell online then you can conquer the world. Whether you are booking motivational speeches, selling eBooks or shipping t-shirts the world is your pancake to devour, you just need to get your name out there. Wide spreading word of mouth sites such as FaceBook, Pinterest, LinkedIn are the best place to start. Getting ‘likes’ as well as ratings on FaceBook are good ways to get your business in front of lots of people. Good things spread like wildfire on social media sites, and they can all feed off of one another so start promoting.

Either way you must Google+

Regardless of your business structure you must Google+. Setting up your Google+ business page, personal pages, contributor and authorship are critical. While Google+ can be very confusing when you first get started, its importance cannot be overstated. Google+ pages show up in the local search results and on Google maps. The stars in your search results listing are derived from your Google+ page and, whether documented or not, there is enough speculation that these things will effect your search rankings to take it seriously.

Take a look at your business and start taking control of your online reputation. If you have any questions about handling your digital PR, contact us right away.

An author once said “The right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing.” This sentiment holds true for romance and reviews. Getting a review or testimonial at the wrong time can have no effect, or worse, it can have a negative effect on your online reputation campaign.  Deciding when to start your your online reputation campaign is all a matter of planning.

Are you starting with a blank reputation slate?

If you are just starting out or are fortunate enough not to have any negative reviews out there yet, then your time is now. You have it easy. Simply create your social pages and/or claim your business listings and start advocating for yourself. Perhaps you put a link to your Yelp, FaceBook, Google+ or other pages on your website or your store window. This lets people know that you interested in their feedback and also abides by the guidelines most reviews sites suggest. Let all of your customers know that you would like to hear from them through email blasts or on your receipts, packing slips or other company correspondence. Remember that just making your social profiles known is only part of the battle. You need to monitor them closely. No one is perfect and you can’t make everyone happy. You should expect to get some negative feedback. We will address how to handle negative feedback in another post, but don’t despair, it’s not the end of the world.  If you are ready to monitor, respond and repeat then there is no time like the present to begin your PR push.

Are you starting in the online reputation hole?

Chances are if you are reading this you are having problems with online reviews and ratings. So when do you start your digital PR campaign? This one is not so easy. You need to take a measured look at your current online reputation before making the big push.

First, you need to look at the negative comments already out there. Determine which ones are likely fake or flagrant lies and which ones contain legitimate issues that need to be addressed within your business. If there are issues that can be fixed, you need to do that first. Eliminate those issues that may cause additional bad reviews.

Second, look at the dates of the negative reviews. If they have been out there for some time, months or even years, let them be. However, if there are some that are more recent, like within a few days or weeks, you need to decide if you want to respond. We have found that a simple response of

“I am sorry your visit didn’t meet your expectations. Please private message me so that we can work to fix the situation and earn your business back.”

A generic statement that acknowledges the issue, takes responsibility for the problem, requests an action to remedy it and a goal of earning their trust or business is a far better solution than ignoring it. While it’s hard to take the fall, especially for claims you know are false, taking this approach shows other prospective customers that you are proactive and you care about what your clientele has to say. In these situations it is wiser to look at the big picture.

Once the first two actions are completed you can start pushing your customers for feedback. If you have a mailing list or email list you can request recent clients to leave feedback. You can also make your social profiles available to customers at your place of business or your website.

Are you already rocking five stars?

If you are here because you have already received some good feedback but have never really pushed for it, then you are on easy street. Start using that good mojo today to push your other customers to do the same. Acknowledge your stars and Likes by prominently displaying them wherever you can. After all your reputation is yours, you have worked hard to earn it, so why not use it to make money. Remember that not all reviews will always be spectacular. You need to continue to monitor and manage your online reputation frequently.

Most business owners are tempted to just jump right into a digital PR campaign. However, it is very important to understand the timing issues built into most of the online review site algorithms. If you make one huge push to get reviews and a whole bunch of your clients start posting five star reviews on the same day, chances are most of them will get discounted. If you only push once and then wait several months to push again, chances are they will get discounted. If you only ask one or two people, once in a blue moon, chances are those will get discounted too. Timing is just as important in the algorithm as it is to human nature. If you wait for months to ask for feedback, your customers may have already forgotten the details of their experience, or worse, their perceptions may have changed. Your online reputation can literally make or break your business. Be patient, make sure you read all of our posts about handling your digital PR and contact us right away if you have any additional questions.

The Owner, The Marketer & The Website Design Guy

Have you ever had a disgruntled employee, a dirty business competitor or a client you simply couldn’t make happy?  If so, then chances are you could have something negative about you or your business on the internet.  All it takes is one post, one bad review, one star to turn your business south.

Any person with a business should be paying attention to their digital PR.  Whether you have an ecommerce website, a brick and mortar store, or you provide professional services, you should take your online reputation seriously.  Even if you don’t have any other internet presence or website out there – you should be aware of what people are saying about you online.  Online reviews and ratings are changing business as we know it.

If you want to expand your existing business you need good digital PR.  If you are trying to broaden your market share, open additional offices, or even go international you need good digital PR.  What people think of you and your company is critical to business development today more than ever.  So I think it is safe to say that the short answer to the question “who should be worried about ORM?” is simple – every business owner.

The Marketer

If your job is to market and sell your products or services, then your company’s online reputation should be in the top three things you are paying attention to.  There are over 60 common internet listing sites, most of which allow for reviews and ratings.  Many of them share reviews across sites, meaning one bad review can be in multiple places.  For example, if you don’t have many reviews on Google+ they will pull listings from Kudzu.com, YellowBot.com and SwitchBoard.com.  Then there are social media sites like FaceBook, Instagram, LinkedIn and many, many more.  You need to be monitoring and nurturing your online reputation to make sure one bad apple doesn’t ruin the bunch.

There is a bright, shiny spot to all of this.  Once you know what’s out there and you have your marketing plan in place, you can actually make money off of your good reputation.  You can add your stars and ratings to your advertising pieces and you can drive people to your listings so they can read your reviews.  By taking control you can drive traffic to your website and physical locations by utilizing the listings that are out there for free right now.  So don’t be afraid of online reputation management, grab it and let it make money instead of take money.

The Website Design Guy

While reputation management seems like the responsibility of the owner and sales people at a company, it is just as important to your website designer.  Setting up your social profiles and business listings correctly can help drive traffic to your site and get you listed in the local search results.  Profiles that are set up right can put stars next to your name and exponentially increase the number of places on the web that prospective clients can find you.  As a website designer, it’s important to make your content shareable on social media sites because it can affect your search rankings.  Integrating social media, online reviews, and other business listings to your own website can help fight any negative impressions that might be out there and, done correctly, can turn into cash.

So who should be worried about ORM – you should.  Whether you are the owner, marketer or website designer ORM is important.  Because of the many faces and tentacles of digital PR it can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.  With a good game plan and awareness you can and should take control of your online reputation today.  For more information or help getting started contact us today.

 

In my first post I briefly described what Online Reputation Management or ORM is.  However, understanding why it is important to your company will give you further insight as to the depths that your online reputation can affect your business.

There are 5 main reasons that you should be paying attention to your online reputation:

1. Your customers or clients are looking for it.
2. Your competition will use it against you.
3. Google hints that, while social signals do not impact search results today, they could in the future.  However, some folks already see a correlation between Google’s social site and higher rankings.
4. Several studies have shown how positive and negative reviews are changing consumer perspective.  This means the data is real and business owners need to embrace it.
5. In most cases this digital publicity is FREE!

Your customers are looking at reviews, ratings and social media

As shown in several studies people are relying on other people’s opinions of a business before making a decision.  Whether they are going to Yelp or Angie’s List or they are asking their friends about it on FaceBook or Twitter, people are doing their research.  Back in the day traditional advertising and word-of-mouth referrals were the only ways to get business.  You ran a commercial or posted an ad in the yellow pages and if your ad was interesting enough you prospective customer would call and you could give them the spiel.  You were the salesman and, in most cases, their first form of contact with your company.  This is not so any more.  Now they will Google your name, your company name, your slogan, your phone number, etc.  From those searches they can gather an enormous amount of information about you and most of that information is from other people – good or bad.  Your future clients are looking, what does your online reputation say about you?

Your competition is using it against you

Have you searched for your company name on the internet recently?  Even if you haven’t you can be sure your competition has, and they are using it against you.  In some cases you may have some negative comments, maybe even some bogus ones posted by your competition.  Now they are telling shoppers in a not-so-discreet way “Yeah, but have you seen their reviews on Yelp?”  What if you don’t have any reviews?  Then it’s safe to assume their speech is “Yeah, well they must not be doing so hot if they can’t even get their customers to post a review!”  Regardless of your situation, you can bet your competition is using your online reputation, or lack there of, to their advantage.  The time to take control is now.

Social Signals and Search Results

While the people over at Google say that currently reviews, ratings and other social signals are not altering their search results algorithm, they have left the door open that it could in the future.  That is reason enough right there to get on the ORM band wagon.  To be honest though, you can see these social interactions affecting searches right now as Yelp listings are almost always at or near the top.  Does this mean that Google is giving ranking love to Yelp, probably not.  But what it does show is that Yelp and other review sites are providing what Google considers to be real and relevant content to the searcher.  Not to mention those bright yellow stars Google puts next to businesses who have set up their Google + pages.   Businesses who have FaceBook or other social media are driving traffic to their sites and are getting an advantage from that traffic.  Then there is link building,  image sharing and the benefits go on and on.  So there may not be a direct link between a good online reputation and search engine results, but there are more than enough ancillary reasons to make ORM a big part of your internet focus.

For better or for worse, reviews are changing the game

Study after study shows the same results – reviews are changing the way people make buying decisions.  A few years ago it was just speculation as to whether people actually purchased or hired based on online opinions.  Now the numbers are real and each year consumers appear to be getting more savvy.  One business we dealt with recently was struggling over a decrease in telephone calls.  After talking to many prospective customers it was finally determined that people weren’t calling because they already had the information they needed to make their purchasing decision, all from the internet.   They didn’t need to hear the ‘pitch’,  they had already made up their minds.  In this case, the online publicity and information available took the sales job away from the salesman, so it was imperative that they were in control of their online reputation.

IT’S FREE!

What better reason is there than online publicity is free in most cases.  Aside from just a few specialized listings, your online reputation is free for the taking.  Whether you are getting likes on FaceBook, pins on Pinterest, +1 on Google+ or reviews on Yelp these are free.  It is just a matter of providing good service or products, letting your customers know you are there and then turning that into more and more business.  There is no better kind of advertising than a happy customer, unless that ad is FREE.

The Digital PR game is vital to every business, especially small business.  Now that you understand why it is so important, contact us today and let’s see if we can help you turn your online reputation into cash.

The topic of Online Reputation Management is too lengthy for one post. So this is the first of a multi-post detailing of the Who, What, When, Where, Why, & How of ORM. I will try to answer all of the major questions and address the biggest issues, but if you would like detailed information on ORM or to see how we can help your business, contact us today.

They used to say that any publicity is good publicity. For Hollywood that might be true, but for your business – it is not. Think about the last time you shopped for a birthday gift or tried to decide on a restaurant to eat at. You probably went online and did some research. You checked out the reviews of the various vendors, looked at the number of stars on Yelp, asked your friends on FaceBook or compared products on Amazon. In each of these situations you relied on other people’s online opinions of the product or place. Millions of people all over the world leave their ratings and comments of places, products and businesses, creating free publicity all over the internet. This is exactly where the term ‘Online Reputation Management’ or ORM comes from.

Online Reputation Management is the process of handling all of that online information about your business and it is never, ever complete. ORM requires a well thought out plan based on your business model, goals and current situation. It starts with laying out what your current online publicity looks like. Is it good, bad or nonexistent? Then you must determine how your current situation is affecting your business. Is it helping and you want to expand or is it bad and running customers away? After a full assessment of your current details is complete, then you must look at how your clients or customers are using online reviews, ratings and social media to learn or talk about you. Finally, you create a game plan and determine the exact sites and conduits you want to use to get your message out – and these are just the planning steps. Beyond planning, there is the actual implementation and constant monitoring of your ever changing online appearance.

Online Reputation Management is the new Public Relations or Digital PR, and digital PR can be a nightmare if not handled or addressed correctly and timely. There are tricks, tips, shortcuts and must-dos that can save time and headaches. In the posts to follow I will try to outline as much as possible to help you understand and implement your own ORM road map. For more detailed information, feel free to contact us to see if we can help.