If you’re an individual who is working hard to build up a robust brand for yourself, then you should invest in online reputation management services for individuals. After attending countless networking events, trade shows and online webinars, you certainly know that building a brand for yourself from scratch is a far cry from a walk in the park. A strong brand reputation can harbour trust and loyalty in your customers, and of course spread that much desired word-of-mouth to potential clients. Recently, showcasing your brand through social responsibility programs and purposeful marketing promotions has been a trend in driving customer recognition. You’ll see renowned companies like P&G embark in such matters with campaigns dedicated to demonstrating how their products touch and improve human lives. Dedicating your programs to inspiring and motivating your greatest corporate assets—your employees—as they are your walking advertisements. Your brand purpose should be simple, meaningful and memorable. Don’t overcomplicate it. Any John Doe should understand what your purpose is within minutes of reading it. Only once your employees grasp onto your newfound vision for the company can you externally promote your brand purpose with honesty.
Imagine that one day, something devastating breaks your normal business routine. You wake up fresh-eyed (after a hot cup of coffee of course), only to realize that your business has been plagued with one of the most severe illnesses out there. You own a small online jewelry store that relies on customer reviews, and you see that a rotten blog post reviewing your company has made it’s way onto Google’s first search engine results page. How did it get there, and how come you didn’t catch it earlier? You notice that the blog post’s date stamp is from over a month ago. There are many corners of the web in which bad news that can be severely hurting your reputation without you even realizing it may be festering. That’s why online reputation management services for individuals should not simply be reserved as your last resort when you realize a bad review is hurting your reputation. It should be used as a pre-emptive strategy in order to avoid such damaging effects.
Not only can the few companies that exist in the market today, one of the prime being Reputation.Management, help you to identify bad results before they trudge their way to Google’s first page—but they can also help you increase sales long-term by populating your channels with positive news. Also, if your company’s website, blogs and social media accounts are consistently updated with new information, it will be easier for companies specialized in online reputation management services for individuals to erase your unwanted news. This is because Google rewards search results that have many clicks and have been live for a long period of time. Chances are that if a positive post has been published years ago and reverse SEO (also referred to as online reputation management) is conducted, then your lousy bad press release that was published a month ago will soon disappear. However, the opposite is also true. Online reputation management specialists dictate that the longer a bad review infects your reputation, it will take equally the amount of time to suppress it.
Now, back to our e-retailer story. When you take a closer look at the scandal hurting your business, you suddenly realize that most of the information is not even accurate. Sure, the customer should always be right, but in this case they are plain wrong. The customer has mistaken your company name for another e-retailer and proceeds to complain about the cheap materials used to fabricate the now tarnished bracelet that they have purchased. This is only the beginning to an even bigger mess, in which the blog’s comment section is flooded with other astonished and maddened customers. Remember, your small business relies heavily on good reviews to operate. In this case, you need to contact a credible company known for online reputation management services for individuals. Most Public Relations firms are traditional and don’t have the resources to heal your headache. Your best bet is to go directly to the source with a boutique agency that is committed to understanding your needs and protecting your reputation long-term. The company can ensure brand-focused social media campaigns and SEO tactics to move your wanted news higher up on Google’s Search Engine Results Page while detecting and suppressing bad reviews before it becomes more imminent for your company.
There are a plethora of other reasons as to why you may want to consider online reputation management services for individuals. In business, it’s a no brainer that everyone is obsessed with driving sales up. Based on a thorough study conducted by Vendasta, a few shocking yet relevant statistics pave the way to your ORM enlightenment. While 92% of customers read online reviews, over half of people aged between 18 and 34 years old trusted user reviews more than they trusted the recommendations of their family and friends. Almost half of online browsers only read one to three reviews before making a purchase decision. If your nasty review pops up first, potential clients may stray far from ever wanting to search about your company again. With the help of ORM agencies, you can ensure effective long-term returns as bad reviews will be kept under the water. An online positive reputation creates keen trust and credibility for your customers. If you have a trustworthy brand thanks to your positive trail of reviews, then you’ll see sales slowly but surely skyrocket.