1. Ideas that engage, inform and inspire.
Online Repuation
Management
Post Com

2. Why Do I Need Online
Reputation Management?
Customers today are twelve times more likely to listen to other
customer reviews than to your company’s messaging. So it’s
no surprise that your reputation is being increasingly shaped
by customer perceptions, especially online and in social media.
As a result, it’s becoming more important for companies and
organizations to take a proactive role in managing their online
reputation—or risk seeing their overall brand threatened and the
potential loss of sales.

3. It’s all about positioning yourself the way you want to be
perceived. Here are five ways to be proactive about your
online and social media reputation and appropriately reactive
when dealing with negative customer comments.
1) Write original content.
Blogging for your company with meaningful, compelling content will not only
optimize your search engine results (SEO) but also help position your company as a
leader in its field. Don’t forget to include a call to action and cite your sources if any
are used.
2) Google yourself.
Do this regularly. Google your business name, company URL, the name of your
best-selling product or service, your closest competitors, your senior employees,
and even your company address. Then do the same with Bing andYahoo. This will
help keep you informed of reviews of your products or services and what customers
are saying about your business, employees, etc. It will help you formulate a plan of
action when you spot a trend and develop a better understanding of what factors
are contributing to positive or negative situations.
3) Keep your strategy up-to-date.
Your plan of action should continually be adjusted to follow the latest trends and
communication tools in the social media world. Technology is always changing and
new social sites and apps are popping up left and right. How your customer base
views you and talks about you will be constantly changing and evolving. Depending
on your business, you may even find at one point that you need to engage a new
generation within your audience. You will need to be knowledgeable about the
communication tools that this new customer segment uses to talk about you, and
be able to apply these tools and tailor your responses accordingly.
Search

4. 4) Accept negative comments.
No one is perfect. Acknowledge negative or unkind comments as quickly as
possible. Responding to these can make a world of difference—other customers will
see that you are earnest in trying to fix a problem for an unhappy customer and gain
confidence in knowing that they will receive the same assistance if something goes
awry with their situation. It would be almost unbelievable to anyone if there were
only outstanding reviews on your Facebook page, so don’t worry about addressing
every single negative comment. In fact, deleting negative comments could get
angry customers more even more fired up and motivate them to re-post to other
sites. Unless a comment is obviously fake (and make sure that it is), do not delete it.
5) Investigate issues.
When should you delete a comment, handle it publicly, or addess it privately?
If a customer is doing nothing other than unfairly criticizing your company online
without any basis, then you should probably delete his or her comments.
Knowing when to respond publicly to negative comments is specific to every
company. If you feel that the customer is open to reasonable options for resolving
his or her situation, you can probably proceed with a public dialogue.
Generally, contacting a customer directly is the best course of action. But first
respond publicly to a bad review by letting the unhappy customer know that he or
she will be contacted by your company to help resolve the problem. Then contact
the customer privately or provide a way for him or her to contact you, and have a
plan or solution in place to address the situation.
A bad review is not the end of the world for a business. People will be more
interested in how you respond to a situation than in the actual problem. Keep
“the customer is always right” mentality when responding to comments online.
Remember: be fair, be brief, and be pleasant.

5. To learn more about Channel Communications and how we can help with your online
reputation management, please email cfarrugia@channel-com.com or visit our website
at www.channel-com.com.
Branding, Integrated Direct Marketing Communications
Channel Communications, Inc.
401 Washington Avenue, Suite 205
Towson, MD 21204
p 410.296.069
f 410.296.0963
www.channel-com.com
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