Building a strong online reputation defense may seem unnecessary to many people. But the truth is that a positive online reputation can mean the difference between an Internet that is a useful resource or a nightmare for you – personally and professionally.
Here are our tips for protecting your online reputation.
Respond quickly to negative customer reviews
Try considering a complaint about your business on Twitter or Facebook as an opportunity to demonstrate your customer service excellence and commitment to customer satisfaction.
Not every customer can be satisfied, but many others just want to vent and know their voice is heard. Your response proves it to them and, what’s more, other people will observe how you handled the situation and take note. More often than not, you can protect your online reputation simply by acting quickly and with forethought.
Monitor what people are saying about you online
The next step is to monitor what people say about you. This means constantly searching the web, using search terms such as your full name or company name; scan user review sites for positive and negative reviews; and analyze social media and trends surrounding your name.
Google Alerts
Setting up a Google alert is a simple and effective first step that you can take now; Sign up for this free service and you will receive alerts when new Google search results appear for your name. You can also choose to receive Google alerts for your competitors, your industry, your product or any other keyword of your choice.
Determine what is a threat and what is not
Few of us appreciate the perfect press, but it’s worth examining the press itself before choosing a reaction. A semi-alphabetical comment on a blog post full of insults and incoherent ramblings is not going to hurt your business and is not worth reacting to. In fact, you risk making the problem worse if you react.
Fortunately, you don’t have to protect your reputation on the Internet against people your customers will reject.
Don’t waste time with deletion requests
In a perfect world, you could contact the person who posted a lie or nasty rumor about you online, ask them to take it down, and they would comply. The problem is solved. But unfortunately, this rarely works. You’re better off spending your time creating a positive online presence.
Protect your digital identity
It is your business or professional profile that should be highlighted online, not your personal information. Unfortunately, this information, such as your age, date of birth, address and a host of other details, is commonplace today. Companies gather this data, make some of it available online and sell it to advertisers. This is why it is a good idea to remove your information from people search sites.
This process can be lengthy and involve physical documents, but it can be worth it, especially if large amounts of information about your life is available online.
Take charge of customer reviews
The goal of this step is to grow your brand and the community around it by working closely with your friends and good customers to generate positive press for your business.
Unfortunately, you can’t always delete negative comments even if you want to. On the other hand, you can strive to obtain positive reviews and ensure that they are more taken into account.