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Creating a positive brand impression on the Internet

You may have a fantastic product or service, and a good brand name with your existing customers. But when prospective customers, clients or employees search for you on the Internet, what do they see? Thumbs-up reviews, hate sites, or no mention of you at all? Or is there a news report telling the story of your incredible growth in the industry? That is your online reputation! Online Reputation Management involves managing search engine results to protect and enhance your company’s brand reputation online.

Important for Businesses in Today’s Environment

When people review your online presence, they don’t just find your website. They find customer review sites, blogs, discussion groups, social media comments and rankings. Does everything they see throw a positive light on your business? Here are some hard facts about online reputation:

• Consumers, business partners, stock holders, marketers, journalists, prospective employers, co-workers, personal contacts and others care about your online reputation. So should you!

• People from all walks of life use search engines to research and gather information, so that they can make informed decisions. Negative information about your brand can ultimately lead to problems in many areas including sales, investor relations, recruitment, financials, image and reputation. In other words – damage to your brand reputation.

• The online world is inter-linked by search engines, social media networks and blogs. What is said by one can be heard by millions (a good word, or a negative one). Positive buzz carries more weight with consumers. A positive reputation brings trust, confidence and sales.

• Personal reputation matters. Here’s an example: A search for the International Monetary Federation (IMF) on May 15, 2011 showed among the top few search results, “IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn charged with attempted rape of a housekeeper at a Manhattan hotel”. Your personal reputation affects your brand too!

• Managing your online reputation isn’t promotion; it’s a means of defence. If you don’t control your brand online, someone else will. You can’t control perceptions….but you can certainly influence them.

Online Reputation Management increases your positive web presence by affecting the outcome of search engine results. It involves monitoring, analysis and influencing.

• Assess Your Online Reputation
Start with simple searches on popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and MSN for your name, company, brand(s), product(s) etc. Tally the results. If you have more negative results, you need to fix the problem fast! Even if you have mostly indifferent results, you need to do something about it. Users need to find something relevant and positive about you to win them over.

• Monitor Your Online Reputation
Monitor what’s being said online. Track negative publicity before it can seriously affect search rankings. Use Internet monitoring systems like Google and Yahoo Alerts to track the news, Feedster and Technorati to monitor blogs and other free online tools to inform you of information about your brand.

• Analyse What’s Being Said About You
Positive and negative feedback are both important! Where did your communication fail? Did you respond positively to consumer feedback? Are you pro-active about the positive steps you took? Are you taking criticism silently or are you making an attempt to improve? You can’t please everyone, but you need to satisfy a whole lot of people who matter.

• Influencing Online Reputation
Influence your online reputation with a combination of marketing, Public Relations and Search Engine Optimisation. Enhance your online reputation by building a positive reputation. Prevent any potential reputation problems by responding constructively to negative feedback.

Online Reputation Management maintains high rankings on search engines, gives effective and positive exposure to your brand, drives negative information down the search engine rankings, increases transparency and communication between the consumer and you; and helps you improve on your customer service levels.

Online Reputation Management looks simple, but requires expertise to implement and stay up-to-date.

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WSI is an Eastbourne based internet marketing company providing website design, search engine optimisation, social media optimisation and email marketing services. Our aim is to enhance your online credibility, drive business to your website and enable you to communicate better with your prospects and clients.

Tel: 01323 724159
graham@wsileadingwebdevelopment.co.uk
www.wsileadingwebdevelopment.co.uk