Cormac Reynolds of VelSEOity Discusses Online Reputation Management for Brands
Online reputation is important for all businesses. A bad customer experience can easily go viral in a matter of hours and impact the bottom line of the business. It can be even worse when you don’t know what is happening and not on top of the situation.
Cormac Reynolds of VelSEOity spoke to us about how brands can improve their online reputation. So, below are some things you can do about improving your online reputation management:
1. Knowing What Is Going on With Your Brand
You need to understand what people are saying about your brand before you can start effective online reputation management. It is important to be in the know about what is happening with the brand, and what others are saying. There are tools you can use in monitoring what other people are saying about your brand. Mention is a good example of such tools. Google Alerts is another good idea to use when interested in knowing what others are saying about you.
You can move on to the next step once you know what is going on.
2. Keeping Your Site and Social Updated
If you want to show up higher in the search engine results, you need to remain relevant. You need to update your site and social media accounts if you want to remain relevant. This will involve paying close attention to your social media strategy and keeping your content fresh.
You can hire others to help you with content creation so you can focus on other areas of your business. You should focus on having fresh content that is relevant and entertaining so that you are not pushed down the search engine results page.
3. Avoid Responding Immediately to Bad Press
When you are faced with a potential PR disaster, the natural reaction is responding immediately. There are times when it is better to step back and wait. Your best response is “We are looking into this,” and you should never attack your detractors, or go into a meltdown, or any negative response. It is never a good idea to try and cover it up.
Before responding, try gathering more information about the issue. Do this quickly so that you can respond as soon as possible, but don’t respond immediately. The last thing you want is to go negative.
4. Admitting Mistakes and Committing to Fix Them
The next thing is admitting the mistakes and doing your best to fix them. People are usually ready to give out second chances, meaning you can redeem yourself. You need to be frank about what happened, even if you don’t go into detail about it. Apologize and lay out what you are doing to fix the mistakes. Trying to deny the problem is not going to do any good for your brand, it makes things worse. It is possible to overcome a poor online reputation, but you need to project openness and regret, which will help win back trust.
5. Continue Building Relationship with Your Audience
Keep building a relationship with your audience because it is going to help with your online reputation management efforts. You will weather the storm if you can create a brand loved by people. Let your fans fight for you. You will be surprised to find out how easy it is to manage your reputation when there is an army of supporters ready to defend you because they feel connected to you.
