1)
Immediately respond to unhappy customers on
social media and directory sites such as Yelp. Try, if you can, to respond
publicly. Don't go on the defensive. Try to understand why the client had a bad
experience. Respond to the review to address not only the upset client, but
also to reassure other readers that the client's experience isn't routine.
2)
If someone mentions something positive about you
on a site such as Yelp, reward him or her with a coupon, freebie or a simple
thank you. "People will remember and they'll become brand evangelists.
3)
Get as many positive online reviews as possible.
Not only do consumers usually trust online reviews, but Google usually gives
higher search result placement to listings with a higher number of positive
reviews.
4)
If your customers are active on Twitter, make
sure you have someone on your team dedicated to responding to them.
5)
Optimize brand video with your company name on
YouTube, which is widely considered to be the second largest search engine. In
some cases, Google ranks YouTube videos higher than actual websites. Posting
video and image content related to your business or personal name can help push
the negative content further down in search results.
6)
Quality
content is a key. "The more awesome blog content you publish and
promote, the more authority your brand name will carry. It will also serve to
help push down in search results any negative reviews you may have accumulated.
7)
Connect with the media. Developing relationships
with journalists locally and in your field should be part of your overall
marketing and reputation management plan. You should also use trusted resources
such as Help a Reporter Out, which
can help you get positive media exposure.
8)
You should claim your entire online directory
and review site listings right away. If someone else, such as a disgruntled
employee, claims or has access to those accounts, "it could cause major
(reputation) issues down the road."
9) Focus is essential. As a result, focus
on monitoring "the biggest portals" such as Facebook, Twitter and
Yelp.
v ORM Tools:
1)
The no. 1 tool for online reputation management,
according to the digital marketers we consulted, is Google Alerts. The free
service lets you set up automated email alerts for your business name, product
name and high-level executives' names, so you'll know as soon as a new mention
is posted online.
2)
You should use platforms that help you monitor
your online reviews, such as ReviewPush, Sendible and Trackur, as well as any
other sites specific to your industry.
3)
The Google
My Business tool set is impressive and it includes great visualizations of
your reviews. Gaining favorable reviews on your Google My Business page will
increase your chances of making it into the local search results.
4)
Expert suggests using services such as NameChk
or Know Em to create online profiles across social networks for your business to
help outrank negative content.
v Here are few off page activities that we can do on priority basis:
Ø Community Creation in Social Networking
Sites:
·
Try to become a member of the most popular social
networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, Linked In, Academy, etc. By doing this
you can extend your network online, get connect with your friends, share things
with each other, and promote your company/website to build an online
reputation. This is most likely the same as Web 2.0 (Participatory Web), which
means you have to show your active participation on a regular basis.
Ø Blogging:
·
Write a blog of your own for your
company/website and include lots of unique content. Be precise in what you're
trying to convey for the users in your blog entry and promote your blog in blog
directories and blog search engines. You can also promote your blog/website by
posting comments in other service-related blogs which allow links in the
comments section that are crawl able by the search engines (these blogs are
commonly identified as Do-Follow Blogs).
Ø Forum Postings:
·
Create a forum/online discussion board of your
own and start a discussion or share topics with your friends. You can also
post/reply to a thread in other service-related pre-existing forums that allow
links in your signature which can be crawled by the search engines ("Do-Follow
Forums").
Ø Search Engine Submission:
·
Submit your website to the most popular search
engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Alta vista, Alexa, All the web, Lycos, Excite,
etc., to get listed for free.
Ø Directory Submission:
·
Submit your websites to the topmost quality
directories like DMOZ, Yahoo Directory, ZoomInfo, One Mission, Pegasus, etc.
Nowadays many web directories may offer paid listings but don't go for it.
Ø Social Bookmarking:
·
Do some social bookmarking in popular
bookmarking sites like Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Propeller, etc. You should
be very careful while doing this and you must properly handle the tags which
are very essential to broadcast your news on a wide area network.
Ø Link Baiting:
·
Suppose you have copied/published another
website's news or content in your blog/website. Don't forget to place their
website link as a reference. Do it for others and, if your content is
trustworthy, let others do it for you. This is another way to increase your
link popularity.
Ø Photo Sharing:
·
Publish/share your website product pictures and
make them public. Let your friends see them and comment on them too, which will
help drive traffic towards your website. Do this in major photo sharing
websites like Flickr, Picassa, Photo Bucket, Picli, etc.
Ø Video Promotions:
·
Like with photo sharing, we can publish/share
our product videos, expert opinions, and reviews of our product and make them
public in YouTube, Metacafe, Dailymotion, etc.
Ø Business Reviews:
·
Write reviews about others businesses or ask
your friends/clients to write a review of your business in major business
review sites like RateitAll, Shvoong, Kaboodle, Style feeder, etc.
Ø Local Listings & Yellow Pages:
·
This will help you to reach a targeted audience.
Submit your website to Google Local, Maps, Yahoo Local, Yellow Pages,
Superpages, Hotfrog, etc.
Ø Article Submission:
·
This will help you to attain some deep links for
your website (though it's usually a slower process).
Ø Press Release Promotion:
·
Go for PR submission in popular PR websites like
1888pressrelease, Open PR, PR Leap, etc. This will help you to publish your
site in Google News.
Ø Classifieds Submission:
·
Try Craigslist and other major classifieds sites
like Kugli, Myspace, iMadespace, Vivastreet, etc.
Ø Social Shopping Network:
·
Submit your products to Google Product Search,
Yahoo Online Shopping, MSN Online Shopping, and other major social shopping
network sites like Kaboodle, Style Feeder, Wists, Five Limes, Buzz Shout,
Ohmybuzz, etc.
Ø Answers:
·
If you don't spam, this is another great way to
increase your link popularity (Yahoo Answers, Cha-Cha, Answer Bag, etc.)
Ø Document Sharing:
·
Share your website documents like business
documents, information brochures, and slides in Google Docs, Slide Share, etc.
This will help you brand your website.
Ø RSS Directories Submission:
Also
submit your website to RSS feed directories which, again, will help you attain
more traffic.
