Have You Checked Your Online Reputation Recently?
According to a poll published this month, 78% of people look up information about a person or business before choosing if they wish to interact with them.
NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND, December 22, 2010
According to a poll published this month, 78% of people look up information about a person or business before choosing if they wish to interact with them. Shockingly 74% of people admitted they would refuse to do business with someone or a business if they found any negative web pages mentioning them.So one tiny negative comment could be losing a firm up to 74% of their business. That drunken photo uploaded to Facebook or that email sent to someone could be made public at any time!
This exact situation has happened to the US restaurant chain called Chipotle. Their facebook account was allegedly hacked and someone posted a message saying they ran over a cat on they way home from work. People went crazy about it and it could have easily led to a sudden drop in their sales or their share price.
James Winsoar, owner of Nottingham based search engine optimisation firm JW Enterprises said, "What would you find if you searched for your company name?|If you searched for your business name online what results would you see?|What would you feel if you looked through the search results that appear when people search for your company name?} Many people would find bad reviews linked to their business written by unhappy customers or aggreived employees on internet review sites like Google Places, Yelp and Tipped".
"The good news is that businesses can do something about it. There is the legal route which can be taken if there are untrue comments but it can be dear to hire a lawyer. A more sensible way is to launch blogs, social media profiles, and wiki's where people can get their questions answered. Share articles, videos and press releases that describe you or your company in a good way".
Many customer complaints can be resolved by encouraging communication. Most complaints escalate as a result of poor communication. Thankfully this can be resolved in exactly the same way that the negative comments can be pushed further down the search results and onto page two or three where people will be less likely to read them.
By the use of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter communication with customers becomes easier and can be done in as few as an hour a day. Many tasks can even be automated making it easy to spot potential prospects to interact with based on key phrases they mention - your company name is one example. Twitter is a great way to conduct customer service in an open and honest manner.
There are some techniques you should steer clear of - for example reposting multiple testimonials onto review sites. Anti-spam measures are written into all the top ranking review sites. Review sites expect genuine customers to write reviews from different computers and at different locations. Having people share good reviews about you is a sure-fire route to achieving higher rankings and a better reputation online.
JW Enterprises specialise in one to one SEO help for business owners in regards to reputation management online. For a free consultation contact James on +44 115 9400 899, email james@jw-enterprises.co.uk or visit http://www.jw-enterprises.co.uk
JW Enterprises
http://www.jw-enterprises.co.uk/