In the world of Twitter where one is allowed only 140 characters to promote his or her work, lists are incredibly popular. Raymund Flandez often writes “three best ways” articles for the Wall Street Journal, usually dealing with the business world. Recent articles included “three best ways to reduce tech costs” and “three best ways to win a government contract”. In an October 2009 piece, Flandez weighed in on the topic of online reputation management.
We want to give credit, where credit is due; Raymund Flandez did a great job with his list. The reason we wanted to discuss the list is that we feel that it is valuable and that we can contribute to it. After all, online reputation management or ORM is a topic that is new and therefore evolving on a daily basis. Methodology is often based on trial and error as many businesses online learn from the mistakes of others.
Tip # 1:” Reach out immediately to dissatisfied Customers“
We feel that providing a way for the customer to express his or her opinion is step one in communicating and solving any problems that might rise. A business that is available for comments and actually responds to criticism is less likely to be targeted online by its customers. Consumers who feel that there is no one listening on the other side are the ones that start blogging negatively about a business or using a social media tool such as Twitter to tell their side of the story. United Airlines is paying the price of not responding to a customer to this day, Google the term “United breaks guitars “to find out more.
Tip # 2 “ Flood search engines with content you control“
This is an important piece of advice. What we would add is that search engines are looking for diverse content. This means that uploading a Power Point presentation, a Youtube video and starting a twitter account will more than likely yield a better Google Resume than simply creating four similar online profiles in which you share the same content.
Tip # 3 “Appeal to bloggers to review your company or your product”
This is a great piece of advice but it is also incredibly important for a business small or large to create content for themselves and blog. Fresh content “forces“search engines to index a site on a regular basis and by doing so it improves the ranking of the website. A blog can also give potential customers a peak into the business and help in explaining why that business is great at what it does.
Comments