Using social media channels and digital tools are great leads to building a better quality website by linking content.
By creating informative content on these channels, you can build your trustworthiness and credibility with your customers and improve your business profitability overall.
As you build your online presence, you need to make sure you have a good reputation management strategy in place. Below are tips to follow to manage your representation online.
Monitor Your Google Search Results
Search your business name in quotation marks, and examine the results that appear from the first three pages.
As you review your search results, you will need to create a baseline of terms that matter to your business, such as your name, your businesses names, and any extending category names.
Do many relevant results come up? Are there any troublesome results that appear? You want to recreate the experience that any potential customers might have while searching your company’s name, so keep these items in mind when you are reviewing your google search:
- Use more than one browser and search engine, such as Google, and Bing
- Google search personalized results to be more relevant to your search patterns
- Change search location
- Search with Google instant turned on and off
Develop Digital Profiles
You want to have as many first page results as possible for your business with the content you are creating.
Having detailed and completed social profiles will help in getting more of the top pages on searches. Use your social media channels as an addition to your website.
Popular social profiles to consider are LinkedIn Company Pages, YouTube, Facebook, Google Profile, and Twitter.
To help your social channels influence your search location, create consistent keywords that link back to your website, update profiles, and create engaging content.
Listen Carefully
Listen when your online to what matters to your customers and potential customers, through:
- Creating Google Alerts for your business name, your name, your URL, your terms of interest, and your competitors.
- Try Google ADS to get a feeling for which terms are generating the most significant number of searches each month.
- Review your websites analytics to see what your customers are searching for
When you have collected your information to explore the results, some of the results may reflect precise occasions to address issues and ideas with customers. This can help you make improvements and communicate solutions to your customers.
Your online presence is a big part of your business, so you need to make sure you are carefully managing your representation online, by always listening.
Set Expectations
As you are listening online, you need to respond to any customer comments you might come across by developing policies and guidelines that can be used throughout your business to ensure consistent engagement with your customers.
Also, these policies and procedures provide that you are respectful with potential customers through social media channels, such as:
- What content will you share with your audience?
- At what frequency will you respond to customers’ questions or comments?
- What are off-limits to your customers?
- What can potential customers expect to gain from your business?
Anyone who represents your business, also represents your presence online and offline when interacting with customers, so be sure that they are following proper strategies and engaging respectfully and consistently with your customers.
When making a guideline to be followed, you should consider acknowledging comments, encouraging interactions, asking questions, listening intensely, and saying thank you.
Final Thoughts
Having your employees actively involved in monitoring and managing your company’s representation online can lead to a better awareness of the value the company offers customers, and potential customers, not to mention faster responses to issues and opportunities.