{"id":1952,"date":"2012-10-10T08:13:54","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T12:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/?p=1952"},"modified":"2012-10-10T08:13:54","modified_gmt":"2012-10-10T12:13:54","slug":"6-best-practices-for-online-reputation-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/2012-10\/6-best-practices-for-online-reputation-management\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Best Practices for Online Reputation Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether or not you want to believe it, the fact of the matter is your potential customers are using the Internet to perform research on your business and your local competitors. Why are they using the Internet? For one, it\u2019s readily available to most people 24\/7 \u2013 you can review a company on your phone while driving to work (not recommended), on your tablet while waiting in line for a cup of coffee, or on your computer at the office. Not reason enough to start paying attention to the Internet? What if I told you that consumers trust online reviews<\/a> more than everything except recommendations from their friends and family? What if 80% of shoppers change purchasing decisions based on negative reviews<\/a>? If you still don\u2019t think online reviews are important for businesses then you\u2019re either 80+ years old, or a darn fool.<\/p>\n

Online reviews are important to the success of your business, and you need to know how to properly manage your online business reputation and make sure that when it comes down to you and a competitor for a piece of business you look more credible than they do. Here are the top ways to maintain an excellent online reputation:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Understand your Online Review Environment<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Perform a search on your company. For example, I would type in searches like \u201cLocal Search Masters<\/a>\u201d and \u201cLocal Search Masters Nashville TN\u201d into Google to see what results come up. Look over the top 5 pages to see where reviews about your business are being posted. Some examples include Google+ (it was Google Local \/ Google Maps until recently), Yelp, Facebook, CitySearch, Superpages. This will give you an idea of where your customers are talking about your business. Look at the picture to your right \u2013 would you trust this dentist to work on your teeth?<\/p>\n

2. Respond to Negative Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n

People are more likely to give out negative reviews than positive reviews: it\u2019s human nature to complain about the things that upset you. Negative reviews are not the end of the world. No business is perfect and no business can completely get away from dumb customers who complain for no reason at all (e.g. they put too much ice in my drink so I now hate their business!!). What can you do to mitigate their harmful effects? Simple: respond to their reviews. If you screwed up, apologize and work to make it right. If it\u2019s a spam review, respond and say that this transaction never happened. Responding to these reviews shows that you care about your customers\u2019 satisfaction, and people will see that each and every time they research your business. Heck, they may even delete their negative review and post a positive one<\/a>!<\/p>\n

3. Don\u2019t just Delete Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s understandable that you want to delete a few of those more scathing reviews before hundreds of people find it online. Be careful when deleting reviews. If the person responsible for the review finds out that you deleted their opinion from public view, they\u2019ll be even more upset. If one angry customer is likely to complain to 5-10 people about their terrible experience, think about how many people a FURIOUS customer will complain to about their experience! The takeaway: delete reviews if they are spammy or untrue, but think twice before deleting a negative review that may have been deserved. Instead, respond to it and work to satisfy that customer.<\/p>\n

4. Promote Positive Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Positive reviews are excellent for your business: they illustrate your ability to satisfy customers. Don\u2019t let these gems just sit there untouched \u2013 take advantage of them! You could first respond to the review and thank the customer for their business and their kinds words. Do you have social media channels like Facebook set up? Copy and paste that review onto your Facebook page to show it off to more people. Seeing these positive reviews and testimonials will make potential customers trust you more, and thus be more inclined to do business with you.<\/p>\n

5. Get People to post Positive Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The typical person is more likely to post a negative review than a positive review \u2013 maybe they want to warn people about their negative experience, get a little revenge on the person that wronged them, or it could be that people just like to complain. The point is your business satisfies a lot of customers (hopefully) and you need to get those people to spread the good word. Figure out different ways to incentivize people to share their experience. You could offer a onetime discount to anyone that writes a review or enter the names of everyone who posts a review into a drawing for a free month of membership. Could you take pictures of satisfied customers and post them on your Facebook wall? Could you take a quick video testimonial of your customer before they leave and post it on your YouTube Channel. Get your happy customers to share their experience online and you will almost certainly see improved sales.<\/p>\n

6. Set up Google Alerts<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Google Alerts<\/a>\u00a0are emails sent to you when Google finds new results \u2013 things like web pages, newspaper articles, blogs, etc. \u2013 that match your search term, which you\u2019d want to be your company\u2019s name (example: we have a Google Alerts setup for \u201cLocal Search Masters\u201d). This can be a great way to keep up to date with what\u2019s being said about your company online without having to scan every possible place people may talk about you.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The Internet is where people perform research about you and your competitors. You need to make sure that your business looks excellent at the places where your customers are most likely going to check you out. It doesn\u2019t take a huge amount of work on your end and the potential return on investment – happy customers and a trusted brand name \u2013 are worth it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whether or not you want to believe it, the fact of the matter is your potential customers are using the Internet to perform research on your business and your local competitors. Why are they using the Internet? For one, it\u2019s readily available to most people 24\/7 \u2013 you can review a company on your phone… Read More »<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2187,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,20,31,32],"tags":[673,674,672],"class_list":["post-1952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-franchise-growth","category-franchising","category-internet-business","category-marketing-franchise-industries","tag-google-alerts","tag-local-search-masters","tag-online-reputation-management"],"yoast_head":"\nOnline Reputation Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Whether or not you want to believe it, the fact of the matter is your potential customers are using the Internet to perform research on your business and your local competitors. Why are they using the Internet? For one, it\u2019s readily available to most people 24\/7 \u2013 you can review a company on your ph\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/2012-10\/6-best-practices-for-online-reputation-management\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Online Reputation Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whether or not you want to believe it, the fact of the matter is your potential customers are using the Internet to perform research on your business and your local competitors. Why are they using the Internet? For one, it\u2019s readily available to most people 24\/7 \u2013 you can review a company on your ph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/2012-10\/6-best-practices-for-online-reputation-management\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Franchise Solutions Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-10T12:13:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Job\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew Job\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Online Reputation Management","description":"Whether or not you want to believe it, the fact of the matter is your potential customers are using the Internet to perform research on your business and your local competitors. Why are they using the Internet? For one, it\u2019s readily available to most people 24\/7 \u2013 you can review a company on your ph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/2012-10\/6-best-practices-for-online-reputation-management\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Online Reputation Management","og_description":"Whether or not you want to believe it, the fact of the matter is your potential customers are using the Internet to perform research on your business and your local competitors. Why are they using the Internet? For one, it\u2019s readily available to most people 24\/7 \u2013 you can review a company on your ph","og_url":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/2012-10\/6-best-practices-for-online-reputation-management\/","og_site_name":"The Franchise Solutions Blog","article_published_time":"2012-10-10T12:13:54+00:00","author":"Matthew Job","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matthew Job","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/2012-10\/6-best-practices-for-online-reputation-management\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/2012-10\/6-best-practices-for-online-reputation-management\/"},"author":{"name":"Matthew Job","@id":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/368fbc3233d0fbee5bb126ac4d8936f7"},"headline":"6 Best Practices for Online Reputation Management","datePublished":"2012-10-10T12:13:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/2012-10\/6-best-practices-for-online-reputation-management\/"},"wordCount":986,"commentCount":8,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Google Alerts","Local Search Masters","online reputation management"],"articleSection":["franchise growth","franchising","internet business","marketing"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/2012-10\/6-best-practices-for-online-reputation-management\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/2012-10\/6-best-practices-for-online-reputation-management\/","url":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/2012-10\/6-best-practices-for-online-reputation-management\/","name":"Online Reputation Management","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-10-10T12:13:54+00:00","description":"Whether or not you want to believe it, the fact of the matter is your potential customers are using the Internet to perform research on your business and your local competitors. Why are they using the Internet? For one, it\u2019s readily available to most people 24\/7 \u2013 you can review a company on your ph","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/2012-10\/6-best-practices-for-online-reputation-management\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/","name":"The Franchise Solutions Blog","description":"Connecting Franchisees & Franchisors","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Franchise Solutions Blog","url":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/og-site-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/og-site-logo.png","width":700,"height":427,"caption":"The Franchise Solutions Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/368fbc3233d0fbee5bb126ac4d8936f7","name":"Matthew Job","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9236a85cec113defc46a49dc772769c71f9d2a6877813d3b4abf18ae76c58b27?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9236a85cec113defc46a49dc772769c71f9d2a6877813d3b4abf18ae76c58b27?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","caption":"Matthew Job"},"description":"Vice President of Sales - Local Search Masters. Experienced in search engine optimization and social media marketing. Climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and lives in Nashville, TN.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.localsearchmasters.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/author\/matthewjob\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2187"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1952"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1955,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions\/1955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchisesolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}