A recent study by BrightLocal found that 
88% of consumers rate online reviews as highly as personal recommendations. This means that online reviews are powerful selling tools, which help your business grow. With increasing numbers of people looking on the Internet for information about businesses, managing your business’s online reputation should be at the top of your priority list. Protect your company’s online reputation from negative reviews by using the reputation management tips below.
1. Prioritise Positive Reviews
When customers search for your business online, you want them to see your positive reviews first. You also want the positive information to outweigh any negative feedback.
Highlight positive comments about your business by integrating them into your web content. Regularly publishing reviews on your website will not only improve your business’s reputation, but it also helps improve your SEO. You should also share positive reviews on your social media platforms.
2. Encourage Reviews Across Multiple Platforms
Encourage your happy customers to leave reviews on public forums, Google Places and your own Social Media. Using multiple review sites helps to increase the positive content about your business. Responding to your audience’s feedback demonstrates your appreciation for them.
3. Respond to Negative Reviews
Negative reviews aren’t necessarily bad for business – they can often be used to your advantage. Responding to negative reviews is an opportunity to highlight your customer service by showing your customers and prospects that you care about their input and take feedback seriously. This also demonstrates how you resolve issues; according to PeopleClaim, 95% of unhappy customers will return to your business if an issue is resolved quickly and efficiently.
It’s particularly important to respond when you’ve made a mistake or when there was a clear misunderstanding that is outlined in the review. Forbes has a great article about how to respond to negative reviews.
4. Monitor Social Media
Check your social media often to track what prospects and customers are saying about your business. You can simplify this by using free tools like Hootsuite to streamline social media monitoring and make it easier to track what your customers are saying about you. .
5. Set up Google Alerts.
Think about setting up Google Alerts to keep track on who’s mentioning your business. Google alerts notifies you when comments about your business are made, which will help you stay up to date on your business’s reputation.
Managing your online reputation is critical to the success of your business. We can help with your online reputation management, just email us or complete the contact us form.