Online Reputation Management: Is Your Online Image Suffering from Inconsistencies?

Online reputation management is not just about removing bad information about your company from the web. Reputation management as a whole involves not only brand perception, but also brand understanding. This means consistency. If your brand is not consistent throughout sites, your online reputation will suffer.

Reputation management used to be a public relations term, but in an internet and social media world, the term has shifted into the realm of hybrid marketers. Constant online interactions have made proactive online reputation management an imperative part of any large company's marketing efforts. The focus has now morphed to incorporate review sites, social media interactions and search results listings involving brand. Proactive online reputation management involves frequent interactions with customers who have direct experience with your brand and its products. Content should be created across mediums (blogs, review sites, social media) that engages customers and draws them in to interact with your brand. If the interactions are frequent, it will be easy to address any damaging comments and gauge customer feedback.

Ninety-four percent of customers do research on the internet before purchasing a product or contacting a company about their service offerings. When researching online, the majority of potential customers start with the big search engines: Google, Yahoo or Bing. First page results on these search engines are the most imperative, as very few people ever make it to the second page of listings - many do not even take the time to scroll down past the top seven listings. Proactive online reputation management allows your company to "own" the search listings that people are seeing the most.

Social media posts feed into search engine listings. In today's internet age, it is very easy for any disgruntled customer to publish their grievances with your company. If you are not doing your part to establish your website as a leader in the listings, you will most likely lose customers due to lack of online reputation management.

Inconsistency in branding and listings will also become apparent in search. This happens frequently when multi-location stores are responsible for their own marketing and branding efforts, or in franchise situations. The addition of an "s" to the end of the company name, or hyphenating your brand name in some instances and omitting the hyphen in others, can be especially damaging. In this case, your company is working against itself in the search rankings, and causing confusion with customers who are unable to recognize your online brand image.

An online brand audit is an important, but often overlooked, step in online reputation management. Building consistency throughout your online mentions will help build your brand image and increase marketing messages. Proactive online reputation management can help safeguard your company in the age of the internet. Are you covered?

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