With most modern companies now running their businesses and marketing campaigns online, it has become more important than ever for them to protect their reputation.
With third-party reviews to contend with, the rise of social media platforms, and access to multiple articles in one quick search, brands must take the time to monitor and nurture their online image or their profit margin could pay the price.
To build a brand that evokes trust and professionalism, read the following nine ways to preserve your company’s positive reputation.
Steer Away from Sensitive Subjects
Never involve your business in sensitive topics, such as religion or politics, or you could risk alienating a section of your target audience. While you might believe commenting on a political party or religious news story could lead to comments and shares across social media, the tactic could potentially hurt your brand’s reputation. So, keep your personal opinions and affiliations to yourself to protect your organization and ensure your demographic are more than happy to buy from your business.
Track Conversations
While it might seem almost impossible to review every conversation about your brand, there are tracking software solutions available to monitor mentions of your organization. They can provide an insight into any positive or negative conversations about your company online, so you can quickly shutdown myths and respond to harmful comments, which could minimize damage to your brand.
You also could monitor your brand reputation by utilizing many free online tools, such as:
- Google Alert
- Bing Alert
- Twitter Alert
All you will need to do is set keywords for your brand, products or services, and you will receive an email directly into your inbox each time a word or phrase is mentioned online. You can then act swiftly on a negative article or comment that could potentially destroy your reputation and prevent customers from buying from your business.
Improve Cybersecurity Awareness
The loss or theft of your data could lead to serious reputational, financial and legal issues for your organization. However, even if you have introduced the most powerful firewalls and cybersecurity defense systems, your employees could still pose a serious threat to your operations and, in turn, your sensitive files. After all, they could download a malicious file or store important business data on their personal devices.
As your staff should serve as the first line of defense against cybercrime, you must provide your team with in-depth cybersecurity awareness training, which should focus on potential threats, defensive techniques, red flags and threat reaction tactics.
Introduce a Strict Online Policy
Your employees cannot only threaten your company’s cybersecurity, but they might also publish a social media or blog post that could damage your brand’s image. To prevent them from publishing a controversial story or using incorrect terms, you must introduce a strict online policy for them to adhere to, which also should include what they can or cannot post about your brand on their own social profiles or blogs.
Create a Crisis Management Plan
Unfortunately, powerful online security tools, cybersecurity training and strict employee policies might not be enough to protect your reputation. To ensure your business can quickly bounce back from a disaster, you must develop a crisis management plan to prevent a problem from damaging your image.
To do so, you will need to identify the potential risks to your organization and the appropriate solutions and steps to take control of any damage sustained. For example, routine online backups in external storage locations could help your business to recover sensitive data following a malicious malware attack.
Get Involved with Your Community
You don’t need to directly embark on online marketing tactics to boost your reputation. For example, you could become involved with various community events and activities to project that you run a socially-conscious and caring organization. Doing so could increase word of mouth across your neighborhood, lead to greater brand engagement and could generate much positive press in the local and national news.
Encourage Positive Reviews
While brands should never directly ask their customers or clients to write positive reviews, there are various tactics to employ to welcome many glowing recommendations for your brand, products and services.
For example, you could direct them to review platforms via your website, feature the third-party URLs in your email signature, or feature the site logos on your flyers, brochures and more.
It is also imperative to respond to any negative reviews you might have received on the likes of TripAdvisor and Yelp. For example, you should apologize for a customer’s poor experience and ask them to contact your business to help rectify the problem. Once you have fixed an issue, you should ask if they would be willing to update their review to reflect their higher quality service.
Turn to Influencers to Enhance Your Reputation
Working with popular online influencers could potentially enhance your reputation. By affiliating your brand with a popular Instagrammer or blogger, you could convince your target audience to invest in your products or services.
As many people place great trust in their favorite influencers and want to embody their lifestyle, your target demographic might be more likely to engage with your brand and buy from your business.
Regularly Say Thank You to Your Customers
Taking the time to thank your customers or clients could change the way they feel about your brand. To improve your reputation with your existing customer base, you should find ways to express your company’s gratitude for their custom.
For instance, you could:
- Provide them with a welcome gift
- Offer a discount on their second purchase
- Send a promotional code on their one-year anniversary with your business
Little acts of kindness could improve your brand’s image, secure a customer’s loyalty, and could increase the likelihood of them referring your business to others.
So, if you want to build a glowing reputation online, you should follow the above tips to create a positive image that will encourage people to trust and buy your products and services.
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