How to Protect Your Business's Reputation Online

With the internet playing such a major role in the current marketing era, protecting your online reputation is more important than ever. Even if you don’t have a social presence, that doesn’t mean people aren’t talking. And if people are talking, rest assured, the word is spreading.

What’s the word about your business and who is hearing it?

It’s time to get serious about your online business reputation and take charge of the direction the conversation around your brand is going.

Don’t pretend people aren’t talking

Believe me—they are. If you put your head in the sand, you’re going to end up with thousands of unhappy customers and a pretty good reason to remove your public pages. Ignoring the problem just gives it permission to blow up. And after the explosion, it becomes significantly more difficult to maintain a good reputation, even among your biggest fans.

Instead of pretending that certain conversations aren’t taking place, respond to the negative and positive reviews and do your best to isolate the damage. Easier said than done on social media, but the sooner you take care of the problem, the less it will spread. Remember that.

Assess your online business reputation: What’s the news?

Social listening is an incredibly powerful way to find out what’s being said about and around your brand. There are tools you can use to help you out with this aspect of the brand reputation process, so don’t be too discouraged if you’re entirely unfamiliar with the idea of social listening.

Monitoring your own social media is a great way to keep an eye on both positive and negative conversations around your brand and gives you an opportunity to step in when someone has questions, concerns, or complaints.

If you haven’t done so recently, Google your brand name and see what comes up. It’s possible that you can diffuse any negative comments you see and it will also give you an insight of what people are seeing when they are Googling you after initial introductions.

You’ll also want to do this quite often—maybe once or twice a month—to keep up on the ever-changing search results. If the top results are negative feedback about your brand, you’re in trouble and will want to act fast.

The truth about bad publicity

By now, we probably all have heard the famous words of P.T. Barnum: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” But the truth is this is rarely the case—especially with the introduction of social media into our everyday lives.

Let me introduce you to the concept of a reputation bomb. These can be things like negative reviews, hate sites, and even negative media coverage. These types of things aren’t easily dealt with and can cause huge issues because they’re the type of things that show up in Google results over the more positive information.

And the worst part? There’s no way to get rid of it. Why? Just read Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

Social listening can be hugely beneficial. And if you’re not putting a little time and money into it, you’re going to pay the price later because even the best companies may rub people the wrong way sometimes, and it’s much better to have a system and plan in place for disasters rather than panic at the first sign of chaos.

Take control of your online presence

If you want to stay in control of the conversation, you have to take control of your online presence. As we have already explained, social listening allows you to know what’s being said. But what can you do to really take control of the conversation?

• Make people respect you. This is one of the most important things you can do because trust is 1) not easily earned; and 2) it gives your audience something to relate to when it comes to how they can expect to be treated and cared for.
• Be transparent. Transparency plays into the respect and trust area. When you make a mistake, be open and honest about it, perhaps offering a way to make amends. This can include things like discounts, coupons, and free items or services.
• Be a first (and fast) responder. When it comes to criticism, comments, questions, anything, make sure you’re ready with answers. Also be polite. You’d be surprised at how far a simple “I’m sorry” can go online when it comes to negative interaction.
• Address criticism directly. Free speech doesn’t mean its okay to make false accusations. Legal action is sometimes necessary, and in the cases when it isn’t, address the criticism directly. Shying away from it only makes you look guilty and won’t earn you any sort of brownie points with your audience.
• Run a business you’re proud to be part of. If you aren't proud of your business, there isn’t a chance your reputation is going to reflect anything else.
• Speak in your brand’s voice. This is an excellent way to keep your audience on the same page, too. That way, impersonations are easier to spot and you can hold onto the trust of your audience through clear and specific communication.

Protecting your online business reputation is vital

Protecting your online business reputation is not only important, it’s also vital if you plan on growing and thriving as a business. If you and your employees are serious about being the best, start by creating a business that is worth investing in, and then invest your time and effort to give your audience an experience they can’t help but share about.

Protecting your online reputation is about more than just addressing the criticism of your company. It’s standing up for what’s right and shaping your company values into things people outside of your company can get behind.