In the year 2024, your business’s online reputation is more important than any other reputation. How you come across online and how people speak about you is important since new customers start their contacts with businesses almost entirely online. Although you may not be able to influence the opinions of others, you can control your reputation management for small businesses to influence the storyline and protect your image after a public relations disaster.
A business’s efforts to shape and enhance its online narrative, or public impression, are collectively known as reputation management or online reputation management (ORM). Creating and sustaining a robust online presence for your business and preparing to address unfavorable press are the major components of online reputation management for small business strategy. Among these things are building a business website and social media accounts, developing a content strategy, looking for opportunities to be featured in earned media, keeping an eye on what people say about your business and industry online, and being prepared to respond to bad press.
This article aims to define reputation management, outline the components of a good reputation management plan, discuss its significance for organizations, and provide advice on how to improve your business’s online image.
ORM vs. SEO
Online reputation management for small business and search engine optimization work together, even if their respective long-term objectives can diverge. Strict search engine optimization (SEO) aims to rank a single property, often a business’s website, for a wide phrase or set of keywords that potential clients would use to locate your business’s services (for example, you might want to rank a coffee brand’s website for the term “best coffee”). SEO can be competitive since many businesses want to rank for the same keywords.
One branded keyword can rank several properties using an ORM technique. The trade-off is that you’re targeting multiple online assets rather than just one, which means that positive and owned properties will rank higher than negative or unrelated ones. For example, these results would be for a coffee brand’s name instead of more general terms, but the keywords are usually less competitive because of their specificity.
Optimizing your site on search engines and handling your online standing are two sides of the same coin. A lot of SEO tactics can be used in an ORM campaign, even though the purpose of ORM is often seen as the antithesis of SEO.
Why Consider Reputation Management For Small Businesses?
In 2024, your business’s online reputation can greatly influence your capacity to draw and keep customers, build connections with investors, get finance, seize development opportunities, and achieve overall success.
According to research by TrustPilot, reputation management for small businesses is more important than product quality, price, and good customer service when determining whether or not a client would return to that firm. How your business appears online greatly impacts how consumers perceive it, as 97%of people use the internet to research businesses.
On the other hand, how can one have a poor reputation? Bad reputations are one of those things that, while difficult to pin down, are immediately noticeable. And customers agree; 90% say they won’t patronize a business with a poor image. Businesses that rank even one unfavorable feedback online jeopardize losing as many as 22 percent of potential consumers.This is just one example of how a single article can have a real and devastating effect.
Things are going to get far worse. Businesses with four or more unfavorable articles appearing in search results run the danger of losing as many as 70% of potential clients. A poor reputation affects more than just potential clients. According to research, 87% of customers will change their minds about purchasing after seeing unfavorable reviews or news about a business online.
Some parts are good. You can’t escape the consequences of having a poor online reputation, but building a favorable one can do wonders for your business. Nearly 90%of customers say they would remain loyal to a business that matches their beliefs, and 95%say they trust a business with a good online reputation. Plus, when people are acquainted with your firm, bad news about you will have less impact. So, maintaining a good reputation is important for protecting your business.
Given the high stakes and potential rewards, managing your business’s reputation should be the core of your corporate strategy.
Online Reputation Management for Small Businesses
Everything about one’s online reputation is bad news when it is mentioned in conversation. Every business eventually needs better online feedback, whether from a review by an unhappy customer or employee, an unfavorable article about the business, or a public relations nightmare. The question is not if but when your reputation will take a hit; the difference between success and failure is how you position your business and react.
This is why businesses must control their reputations. With the help of reputation management for small business plans, your business can shape the story people tell about it. Our intention is not to silence dissenting viewpoints but to provide you with a platform to lead discussions about your business online. To establish, maintain, and safeguard your online reputation, you might use a variety of tactics:
Find Out What People Think About You Online
Determining the nature of your business’s online reputation is the first stage in controlling it. To get the most precise results, search for your business while incognito and with the cache removed from your browser. Pay attention to what you see. Is your business visible? If Googling your firm’s name doesn’t provide any results, you need to figure out why your firm isn’t ranking.
If these findings pertain to your business, take note of them. Does your website have a ranking? Is everything okay with your social media accounts? How do other businesses perform? In what ways do third-party findings rate your business? Has your business been featured in any news stories? Is it upbeat, downbeat, or neutral?
Auditing your business’s rankings can help you better understand the present online narrative, the profiles you should develop, and the subjects you should cover. Always remember that location is equally as important as ranking; more than three-quarters of all clicks go to the first three results, and recent changes, such as continuous scroll, have made results on page two more accessible to visitors.
Establish a Clear Online Presence
You should start constructing a strong web presence as a part of reputation management for small businesses after you have a good idea of where you are beginning. Your online presence, particularly your website and social media accounts, are your most valuable assets.
If you want your website to portray your business properly, you need to optimize it for both consumers and search engines. Consider the more technical parts of search engine optimization, including page speed, page structure, etc., for search engines. Also, consider what your target market is searching for when they visit your site regarding business, personnel, and product information.
Protect your social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and more. Even if you are still getting ready to use your profile and username, saving them can save you trouble in the long run.
Be Consistent with Maintenance
Making a website is just the first step. People trying to interact with your organization could be turned off by outdated or seldom updated online assets. Until you establish a posting schedule, you can privately make any profiles you don’t often use. Always remember that quality, not quantity, matters most when it comes to blog posts, and be sure to create a content schedule before you start publishing.
Consistency in presentation across your owned assets can enhance income by about 25%, so if you’re using social media to promote your business, keep your branding consistent across platforms.
Put Your Content to Work for Your Audience
Determining who you’re talking to and answering their queries is crucial to establishing a solid online presence. Content is key in SEO, as we repeat it all the time. However, it also significantly affects reputation management for small businesses; providing people with helpful, informative material can increase your credibility and authority, which can attract more readers and buyers.
Write high-quality, well-organized, original material that answers your audience’s queries. This applies to whatever kind of content you’re creating, whether it’s blog posts, website copy, product pages, etc. Some possible sources of inquiries are industry knowledge gaps, frequently asked questions (FAQs), consumer surveys, and search engine phrases. More exposure, visibility, and diversity in search results can be achieved with the aid of content for your business.
Use Reviews
In 2024, online reviews will be among the most crucial aspects of your business’s online reputation. 87% of customerssay they check reviews before buying from a business. And over 80% state they trust online reviews just as much as word-of-mouth recommendations.
Google has even verified that responding to reviews can improve your business’s search engine optimization (SEO). Additionally, 96% of consumerssay they read a business’s response to reviews when researching the company, and 89% say they are “highly” or “fairly” likely to use a business that does so. If you’re like most people, you sometimes get bad reviews. Having a reputation management for small businesses plan for responding might help you turn such reviews around.
Be Aware of Online Trends and Your Mentions
You should be informed of all discussions mentioning your business, not just reviews. It is best to keep up with any news affecting your business or industry. This might help you decide what to mention and exclude from your social media postings after controversial occurrences.
To make sure you get all the things happening online, use tools like Google Alerts and social media listening. Be sure to keep up with the news about your rivals as well. By analyzing their outcomes, you can learn about content ideas, profiles, earned media chances you have missed, and what might result in unfavorable press.
Get Professional Help When Needed
Expert help might be necessary occasionally during reputation management for small businesses. Before hiring a reputation management business, consider the following questions:
- Can my business devise a plan to manage its reputation and implement it?
- Does my business have a reputation problem or bad press?
An online reputation management (ORM) agency can assist your business if it is facing a reputation crisis, receiving a lot of online criticism, or just needs help figuring out how to handle its reputation. With the assistance of Status Labs, you can evaluate your business’s online reputation, identify areas needing improvement, and create and implement a personalized online reputation management for small businesses strategy.
Do You Need Reputation Management?
A reputation management plan might seem unnecessary for smaller, less visible businesses. This is just not true. Any business may face criticism, whether it is from customers, rivals, or just plain old misconceptions. Neither a highly litigious industry nor contentious employees are prerequisites.
The goal of managing your business’s online image should be to give it as much control over the conversation around it as possible. With it, you can direct how people talk about your brand. You can also detect and resolve any impending problems.
Customers, Competitors, and Team
If you have clients, regardless of whether they are B2B or B2C, you can expect to be reviewed. So, to handle any unfavorable news or reviews, you must have a reputation management for small businesses.
Negative comments and reviews could be a problem if your rivals are combative. Even if you’re having no problems with your competition now, it doesn’t imply you won’t in the future. A strategy to handle unpleasant assaults when they occur can avoid future headaches.
Even if you do your best to treat your staff with respect and dignity, strained relationships at work are inevitable. Brands might take a serious hit when workers aren’t happy.
When Is the Right Time to Get ORM Help for Your Small Business?
Your strategy to proactively safeguard and enhance your brand’s reputation must be set into motion immediately. If you can impact how people talk about your firm right now. It will be much simpler to portray a favorable image later on. If you want to keep tabs on when people are talking about your business online. You need to do more than install a social media tag and hope for the best. Instead, do a thorough audit right now and keep an eye on mentions from here on out.
Assign someone to your business reputation management company team who can do routine checks and give them the authority to automate tasks when they can. Using Google Alerts, businesses can choose which phrases they want to get online alerts for, and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune. You should at least have these for your business’s name and any prominent employees’ names.
Hire For Better Reputation Management for Small Businesses
To fix a negative reputation, you can consider working with an agency. They can use their knowledge to boost your business’s image in ways that internal teams just can’t. Although working with agencies can be rather expensive, this is a good choice for organizations that want regular crisis management assistance.
Businesses that handle reputation management for small businesses often work toward securing good press coverage. Spreading positive consumer comments across various media platforms, and arranging charitable activities. These redirect Google search results that include consumer complaints, in general.
For example, when results of customers got food poisoning from stalled vegetables at Chipotlein 2015, the restaurant received outrage. Media attention and sales plummeted as a result of this catastrophe. Chipotle’s public relations team quickly took action. New food safety procedures were implemented, and all impacted outlets were promptly shuttered.
In an effort to regain customers’ confidence, the business distributed complimentary meal tickets around the country. Chipotle was able to regain its reputation as a leading provider of burrito bowls in the United States because of its well-executed public relations campaign (who can say no to free burritos?).
Another example is of Patagonia. Outdoor apparel manufacturer Patagonia is one of the few businesses that does what it says it will accomplish. Using 100% recycled materials by 2025, donating 1% of sales to environmental groups. And actively supporting initiatives to safeguard public land demonstrate that the business’s ecological emphasis is more than just lip service.
Their clients who share their values have come to trust them because of this devotion. The Ironclad Guarantee is another way that Patagonia makes sure its customers are happy. No matter when you bought it, you can return any Patagonia product for a refund, repair, or replacement according to this brand guarantee.
NetGaurdcan help you obtain additional leads by preserving your online reputation. Successful companies have used NetGaurd’s reputation management service to control their online image and increase customer happiness. Thanks to our in-house analysis and management, a client’s customer reach increased by 80%. Fill out the form and we’ll get back to you in less than 12 hours!
So, what are you waiting for? Get your reputation aligned with NetGuardtoday!