words Al Woods
Do you want to know what it takes to build a good reputation for yourself and also for your business online? These tips from Cormac Reynolds of VelSEOity will teach you how to do just this. So, take a look at these 7 pieces of advice and learn how to improve your online personal and business reputation.
Create A Presence Everywhere it will Be Relevant
Your company should already have a strong presence on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter at the very least. But don’t stop there, those in a highly competitive or vertical market will need to look for additional social media sites. There are plenty to know about and many are specific to your industry.
For B2B and businesses in a hi-tech industry you should also consider having employees and executives integrate with LinkedIn. For businesses with a visually oriented product, it will be essential to post on Flickr, Pinterest and Instagram and don’t forget the value of YouTube and Vimeo to maximize the benefits of video content as well.
Don’t Neglect Your Social Media Accounts
But, simply setting up the account is not enough. You will need to work hard to build your social media accounts and cultivate a strong audience as well. This is central to personal reputation management going into 2021. This can be done with ongoing development effort. Be sure you are building your social media presence by interacting with your customers and increasing your engagement and influence.
Neglecting this can be detrimental to your overall efforts. Your accounts will not be able to weather the debilitating negative posts that are sure to come. At present, we are not completely sure how search engines like Google or Bing assess the strength of a social media presence. Still there are other ways to accomplish this. You can use independent scoring utilities to ascertain the strength of your presence and measure growth. Some of the best options to consider are Kred and Klout.
Consider Your Brands And Products
It may be a good idea to consider more than just your company name when setting up social media accounts and web pages. If you are working with brands and products that have names of their own, apart from your company name, you should consider creating content for ranking those names as well. This may call for the development of web pages, social media accounts and entire websites dedicated to these names as well.
Protect Individuals Associated With your Business
Another important aspect will be to invest in promoting and protecting the good names of your founders, CEOs, owners and chief executives, especially if they are distinctive. It is important to remember that keeping a low-key profile is not a good way to preserve privacy and only leaves you wide open for the imminent defamers.
Most companies in operation today feature a company identity that is closely linked to their executives and this is why a solid reputation management for these people is essential as well. Many consumers will search for a business by using the names of lawyers, doctors or dentists. So be sure to take all necessary measures to rank for these individuals as well, especially if you haven’t already.
Blog
No joke! I have mentioned that blogging is a tool of great potential for local SEO because it improves ranking with your keywords and offers some good content for your social media sites.
It is also good for reputation purposes, not only does it provide rankings for your name, but provides that essential “home court” advantage where you can respond to comments —both negative and positive— made about your company.
Listen
When you are facing a rash of bad reviews, take this as a positive thing. There may actually be some holes in your process and this is a great time to address them. This is even more important if the negative feedback is not an isolated case. Remember the old saying, “the customer is always right.” do not allow yourself to become inflexible, consider every way you can provide your audience with what they want.
Just because you can continue your process as it is, doesn’t mean you should. Your incapacity to adjust your direction could be driving your audience into the arms of your competitors. That small amount of money you are gaining from keeping things as they are may not account for the business you are losing from potential customers frightened away by negative posts.
