{"id":156,"date":"2012-05-15T15:24:17","date_gmt":"2012-05-15T15:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=156"},"modified":"2012-05-15T15:24:17","modified_gmt":"2012-05-15T15:24:17","slug":"manage-your-online-reputation-before-your-others-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/manage-your-online-reputation-before-your-others-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Manage your reputation online before others do"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unhappy customers don\u2019t just go away and take their business elsewhere these days.\u00a0 Many go online and vent on review sites like Yelp and Amazon. \u00a0Just how important are these reviews to other consumers; the answer is very.\u00a0 In fact, according to a Nielsen study of three years ago, \u201cconsumer opinions posted online\u201d came in second after \u201crecommendations from people known\u201d in terms of advertising.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In today\u2019s highly socially networked world, each of your customers plays a role in advancing your brand \u2013 positively or negatively. You\u2019ve indicated how much word of mouth marketing means (see: \u201cWord of mouth marketing rules in small business marketing<\/a>\u201d), so you want to be sure you know what people are saying about you online in order to protect and manage your reputation.<\/p>\n

Here are few other things you can do to get a handle on your online reputation and maintain it:<\/p>\n

Search Google: Do this once a week minimally. You can see what others are saying about you. Set Google Alerts<\/a>, too, so that you get updates on news, blogs and web pages that mention your company.<\/p>\n

Search Twitter: Twitter Search<\/a> is an easy way to see what others are saying and sharing about your company.\u00a0 You also can set advanced parameters to search by dates, links and even a particular person.<\/p>\n

Check top review sites: In addition to sites like Yelp and Yahoo Local, there are others with a specific vertical focus. \u00a0Search all that that are relevant to your business and make sure your information is up to date, accurate and complete<\/p>\n

Monitor your reviews: Respond to reviews positive and negative. Your responses show you are listening to your customers. However, don\u2019t get defensive when you see a bad review. This is the worst thing you can do. If the information is wrong, tactfully and respectfully set the person straight. If the review includes negative but accurate information, you have an opportunity to apologize and repair the situation. \u00a0Also encourage satisfied customers to post positive reviews online about you.<\/p>\n

Get involved: Be a part of the online conversation, including the personal sites like Facebook and Twitter, and professional sites like LinkedIn or in the IT world, Spiceworks. \u00a0Keep your customers and prospects informed about your company with the positive messages you want to convey but be sure to be authentic. Being active on social networking sites also shows that you are accessible. (Read more about social media as one of the Big Trends for Small Business<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Managing your managing online will take some time on a daily or weekly basis, but not doing it can cost you far more — loss of customer confidence not to mention business.<\/p>\n

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Unhappy customers don\u2019t just go away and take their business […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[510],"tags":[448,606,428,451,607],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}