Reputation is incredibly important. In fact, it can literally make or break you. This is why it is important that you focus on building and maintaining a positive reputation. A good reputation management firm can help you achieve that. They will probably also give you some hints and tips on how you should portray yourself through your own actions as well. Let’s take a look at what you should do to learn how to manage your business’ reputation.
Tips to Have an Excellent Reputation
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You have to be honest and transparent. If you try to hide or cover up something negative, it will look like you don’t care about issues that people have. Be upfront, respectful, and professional towards anyone who leaves a negative opinion.
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Hold a contest among customers, as this will make people like you a whole lot more. Plus, it means you will become more popular online for fun things, rather than for negative reviews.
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Respond properly to all concerns. If the concern is genuine, resolve it. If, however, it is fake, you need to make sure that you respond professionally, but without making any promises.
How to Avoid a Negative Reputation
While the above tells you how to respond in case of something negative happening, you also have to be proactive and stop negative content from appearing in the first place. You can do this by:
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Writing articles on other people’s websites. This improves your search engine rankings and sets you apart as a trusted authority. Make sure your content is relevant.
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Have a solid mailing list through which you can share positive information directly with your customers. Use it to offer incentives and coupons, including for referrals for instance.
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Contact the creators of negative content immediately. Speak to them and ask whether there is something you can do to make them feel better or, at the very least, if they would be willing to allow you to share your side of the story.
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Always be professional in your social media posts. Don’t use internet jargon like TY, KK, LOL, or LMAO, for instance. Instead, you need to speak to people as if you were seeing them face to face. Netspeak, as it is also known, is understood mainly by the younger generation, and you cannot assume your customers are part of that. Furthermore, many of the abbreviations have swearwords in it, which is not something that you would say in person. But even the non-offensive ones should be avoided. If you were to speak to a customer face to face, you wouldn’t say TY, you would say thank you.
Remember that your reputation is one of your most valuable assets in business and life. Unfortunately, it is also very fragile. If you don’t look after it properly, you could damage it beyond repair. Any damaged reputation is hard to repair, so try to avoid damage from happening in the first place. By working together with a professional company, you will make sure that you are made aware of any negative items appearing, but also that you are working to avoid that from happening in the first place.