Four Positive Ways to Monitor and Influence Online Reputation
In short, well trained and highly qualified PPC Managers, like those who are employed by Webrageous Studios, are like little fairy godmothers from your favorite fairy tale who are always around when you need them and who can turn pumpkins into the most impressive online business you have ever seen.
However, if your online reputation is getting in the way of all their hard work and magic, then there is very little that they can do.
A bad online reputation that is not monitored, influenced and changed into something positive is just the same as the wicked witch in a children’s bedtime story; the relentless villain who will stop at nothing until everything that you own is destroyed and they are the most powerful force on the Google SERP.
A wicked witch might come in the form of a competitor, but could also come in the form of a past customer who was not happy and is now holding a grudge.
You MUST be active in your approach to the monitoring and development of your online reputation. If you are not active in this field, your PPC Advertising, no matter how good your PPC fairy godmother manager is, will slowly drain away at your funds and supply you with some very poor ROI numbers at the end of every month.
So… Webrageous Studios suggests that you follow the four points of advice below in order to pave the way clear for your PPC Manager and to make your online reputation work for you instead of against you. Take a good look.
Local Business Listings Websites
In the days of yore, The Yellow Pages dominated the world of the business listing. Not any more. If you are serious about marketing your business and developing a strong online reputation for yourself, you need to ensure that your company is registered in all the major online business listing websites.
The description and the information that you provide also needs to be well thought out and if the option exists for a map and for pictures and for extra clickable links about your business, opt for them. Internet users will choose the companies that reveal more information about themselves over those that give away very little detail every single time.
Your Company’s Website
If you don’t have a website in the 21st Century, then you really are behind. However, to have a website, but to own a website of poor quality, both in terms of navigation and design, is an even bigger sin in terms of online reputation.
We have all done it… clicked on a link to go to a company’s home page, taken one look at the design and decided that we don’t trust them. They don’t look professional enough, they don’t look as though they have the manpower nor the expertise to do what we want them to do and we certainly don’t think that they are the best in the business.
If your website does not say that you are the best in the trade, both through design and usability, then expect to lose out and to develop an online reputation that reeks of inexperience and the kind of company that people go to when they are looking for a real quick, and most importantly cheap, fix.
Is that what you want your company to be seen as?
Be careful with Social Networking. A while back, there was a huge social networking boom with almost every company and every business wanting to create its own business page on Facebook and tweet the latest business news via its Twitter account.
Social Networking is an excellent way to get people talking about your business or project and to get people aware of its existence. This is true. However, you have to be highly skilled in achieving these results because competition is very high and you have to have the hours to dedicate to it because Social Networking is the king of real time.
Also, be prepared to consider the fact that Facebook, although one of the social networking giants, might not perhaps be the social networking giant that your company needs. Maybe your audience would be better found through network forums such as LinkedIn?
In any case, once you have found the social networking portal of your company’s dreams, start being pro-active and publishing cool stuff about your business. Don’t wait for people to offer up negative information about you on the Internet that you then have to repair. Take charge and start writing positive stuff about yourself and post it all over the Internet in as many different social networking ways as you can think of.
Online Chat About Your Business
This is another opportunity for you to be pro-active in the management of your online reputation. You could do one of, or a number of, the following things in combination:
* Start a blog
* Employ someone to write reviews about your company
* Place articles about yourself on free online article sites, like Ezine.com
* Reply to comments made about your business on other sites, on your site and on forums
* Ask happy and long-serving customers to write a short testimonial that speaks highly of your business
* Provide images and videos of your business in action or of clients praising your work that you can use on your site and other sites that are relevant
The above ideas are just a few to get you started, but the key to online reputation is all about being active. Don’t sit around waiting for someone to write something about you that doesn’t paint your business in the best of lights. Be your own fairy godmother.
Take out your writing wand, or employ someone else you use your writing wand, write some positive copy about your business and then start posting it on sites that you feel are going to be successful for you.
