Online Reputation Made Easy Your Guide to the Do's and Don'ts of Managing Your Reputation

Transcription

1 Online Reputation Made Easy Your Guide to the Do's and Don'ts of Managing Your Reputation By Jim Orr Reputation Management Made Easy Page 1

2 Why should you care about your online reputation? In today s internet savvy age, your company s online reputation is a very serious matter. In fact, your reputation can make or break your business. In fact, many businesses have become victims of false information, fake profiles, competitor attacks, and more; and they don t even realize it. If you don t protect yourself and do everything you can to build positivity surrounding your brand online, your business can suffer some serious financial implications pretty fast. What is Your Online Reputation? Your online image is NOT just your business website. There is much more to it. Google says this: Your online identity is determined not only by what you post, but also by what others post about you whether a mention in a blog post, a photo tag or a reply to a public status update, - Google In a nutshell, your online reputation is made up of everything about your business that exists online. The range of materials that could potentially impact your business online reputation is broader than you might realize at first. Here are just some components of your online image: 1) Comments made about your business on social media such as Twitter or Facebook that you or others publish 2) Images about your business online that you or others post Reputation Management Made Easy Page 2

3 3) Videos about your business (Good or Bad) on YouTube and elsewhere 4) Posts and articles published online about your business 5) Geo-location information broadcast through services like Foursquare Even what people say in an or through instant messaging could potentially be copied and made public. In fact, if you re beginning to feel like virtually anything that others do on the Internet could become part of your business online reputation, then you re starting to get the picture. Now throw in the mobile internet and smart phones, where people can read and write reviews from anywhere. You can see how a bad review about your business will hit harder and spread faster than ever before. Why Online Reputation Matters to Local Business Many local businesses have found themselves in the unenviable position of being lied about, falsely accused, slandered, and attacked online. It s a growing problem. The cost is immediate, staggering, and long term. Here are some common internet search facts you should know about: 95% of internet users make their buying decision by what they see on the first page of the search engine results. 80% of the United States population researches a product on the internet before purchasing. 72% of those that research will not buy if there s a negative comment 90% of consumers say online reviews impact their buying decisions Reputation Management Made Easy Page 3

4 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations 73% of consumers say positive customer reviews make them trust a business more Companies with positive reviews can convert 183% more new business than companies with negative or no reviews Businesses can see an increase in sales of up to 58% thanks to good reviews 80% of consumers change their minds about a purchase based only on negative on- line reviews 70% of consumers who read reviews share them with friends, family and colleagues On average, one negative review can cost a business owner as many as 30 customers (WOW!) As a business owner I want that last bullet point to really sink in. If you don't already know, now is the time to figure out what the lifetime value of a new customer is to your business. If you are not sure, just pick a number. Let s take a low, but easy number of $100. Now take that number and multiple it by 30 and then multiple it again by the number of bad reviews you have. Now sit there and stare at that number for a while. Really let it sink in as to how debilitating financially just one bad review can cost you. Now ask yourself if this is an issue you can ignore any longer. If those numbers are not shocking enough what business owners are doing about it is even more jaw dropping. Only 50% of small business owners think positive online reviews are important Only 13% of owners are approaching their customers about posting reviews 24% of small business owners don t even know if they receive online reviews Only 14% of small business owners post their customers reviews on their websites Is it any wonder why so many businesses are struggling? Sure you can blame it on the economy, but as a business owner no matter what the economy situation you want to make sure that you are doing everything to make sure you get your fair share of the business that is out there for you. I m sure you know that your competitor is doing everything they can to get a piece of the pie. So in this book I will start by showing you what is happening, and how it can affect your business both good and bad. Then I ll show you one of the easiest ways to insure you get a flood of positive reviews posted from REAL customers about you so you can protect your reputation and your profits. Reputation Management Made Easy Page 4

5 Let s start by just looking at these search results for Spas Who would you click on and choose to research based on these results? The business with the most stars and reviews, of course! And if you picked a spa with more stars you now know why everyone else does the same thing. It s a basic primal behavior. So you can start to see just from this one graphic how your business s online reputation can directly impact your bottom line. Lesser number of stars means your potential clients will bypass you and go to your competitor. Now the question is: How to grow, improve, and protect your reputation so people are more likely see more stars! We ve put together a list of a few of the most critical things every small business should be doing to protect their online reputation. The most important thing to remember is that when it comes to managing your business online reputation, you must be proactive. Think of it like a football game, it s better to be on offense. Reputation Management Made Easy Page 5

6 You want to be in control of your own results. What are people saying about your business? The first step is to find out what people are saying about your business online. The best way to do this is to simply Google your business name. Are there any reviews about your company on the first page? How many spots does your business own on the first page? Look at these results for Rainbow Pharmacy: Reputation Management Made Easy Page 6

7 Do you have positive content and reviews past the first page? If so, moving these items to the first page of Google would help your online reputation. Get as many as you can on the FIRST PAGE. The second page is rarely looked at. Heck, many people don t even scroll down. Online Reviews are the new SEO If you are a paying hundreds of dollars each month for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which will get your website to page one on Google you may want to consider this What is the point of doing all of this if you are not also managing your online reviews? You have a pretty website that is at the top of the search engine but then if you don't have dozens of positive reviews to reinforce that standing you have a massive leak in your ship that you are sailing in. You may be doing well now, with no reputation problems, but it is not something you can ignore. You must keep your eye on your online reputation. If you are not paying attention to your online reviews and doing something about getting more then you are leaving a lot of business and money on the table. You see not only do online customer reviews help your potential customers form an opinion about your business, but they also impact your search engine placement. That s because Google strives to give users the best results possible. For instance, when someone types in Chiropractor in San Diego, they pull data from review sites to give users a wider range of choices. This is one reason why more times than not those with the most reviews will show up high on the list. Review site listings can help the search engines verify that a business is real. While no one can nail down the exact algorithms that Google and other search engines use to display results and they are constantly being tweaked, however studies have suggested that these are the top factors that are likely to impact how you will rank: Quantity: The more customer reviews you have, the more relevance placed on your business, which results in higher search engine rankings. Ratings: A review is a just review to the search engines. Good or Bad makes no difference to it. Although some have suggested that the strong opinionated either good or bad carry more weight. So you better make sure you get as many positives as you can. Consistency: Businesses that get reviews on a regular basis tend to receive higher rankings than those with an occasional review here and there or in large bunches. Freshness: Recent reviews are weighed more heavily than old ones. Customer reviews let the search engines know that your business is relevant, popular, active, and alive; therefore, you should be ranked higher than your competitors that are showing no signs of life. Google is constantly changing the look and format of how it displays its results but as of the Reputation Management Made Easy Page 7

8 time this report is being written the current format has never given a stronger case for the importance and impact of online reviews. Open up Google and start searching for various local businesses. Do both your business niche as well as others if you like. Search something like this [a city name] [business type]. Here is what you will typically see Some paid ads, followed by some links to Yelp, followed by Google places for specific businesses. Now let's take a closer look at the Google + Listings (also called Google Local) Reputation Management Made Easy Page 8

9 Now as mentioned earlier there are several factors involved in how Google decides the position of businesses, but as you do more and more searches you will start seeing a pattern that more times than not the business with the most Google reviews on a consistent bases, if not number one is in the top three. You want SEO? BAM! There you go. Getting Google Love for Your Small Business Besides the Review Sites to get other positive content to the first page of Google, focus on search engine optimization (SEO). Good SEO strategies, by default, combat negative mentions. SEO typically takes at least three months before your business will see an impact, but the long-term value is unlike any other online marketing effort. Your goal is to own the first page of Google for your business name with all positive content. Remember, 95% of all searchers will never go past the first page. If you look at the search results below, you ll see the Grand Wailea has positive content all over the first page. Reputation Management Made Easy Page 9

10 What if there are negative reviews and comments on the first page? There are ways to reduce their effect, but be careful! How you respond to these negative items is critical to your business. What you say and how you say it can make all the difference in the effect of a negative review. We ll go into more detail later in this report, but for now just know a negative review can be mitigated. The biggest thing you can be proactive about when it comes to your business online reputation is to actively encourage customers to leave reviews on online review sites. This is called leveraging What is an Online Review Site? An online review site is a website on which reviews can be posted about people, businesses, products, or services. As you started searching you probably noticed there are a lot of review sites on the web. Here is a list of some of the more well known ones: Google Local Yelp Angie s List Bing Local Yahoo Local Citysearch There are also review sites that are very specific to particular types of business such as TripAdvisor.com or Restaurant.com. Also some are just for specific cities. You need to dig these out and get on those as well if they pertain to your business. Reputation Management Made Easy Page 10

11 How many do you need to get on? All of them. Yes, that will take a little bit of upfront work to get this done but once it is then the task is not time consuming at all. Maybe 10 to 15 minutes a day. I will get into this in more detail later. Look most of the sites I mention above you are already on if you like it or not. When I say you need to get on these sites what I really should be saying is you need to get on these sites and claim the listing that is already there about your business and fill in the profile with information that you know is correct rather then what was filled out by an automated 'bot' that thinks the information is correct. I cannot emphasize enough how important this step is. You might not know that Google has an online business directory called Google Places. These listings are free and compiled by Google from various online directories like the online Yellow Pages. Here is what a place page looks like: Reputation Management Made Easy Page 11

12 Here is how a place page shows up in Google search results: How to Get (Leverage) Reviews One way to get or leverage reviews is simply to ask. Seek out your most loyal customers and ask them to leave a review on Google, Yelp, and other review sites. Later on in this report I will tell you about a way to put this strategy on automated steroids. So keep reading. Video Reviews Another way to get reviews is to keep a small video camera or just use your smart phone to record video reviews. Then, just upload them to YouTube. Do a little SEO on these videos and they ll show up on the first page of Google. This is a very effective tactic for generating more leads and sales for your business. Handling Negative Reviews When you see negative content or reviews about your business online, it s important that you act quickly. There is a saying, Silence is consent. Reputation Management Made Easy Page 12

13 I touched upon this earlier but this is important so let me revisit it again and get a little more specific. Many sites such as Yelp let the business owner respond to the reviews. The longer you wait to respond, the more potential customers see the negative review and believe it s a true representation of your business. Your end goal in handling an upset customer should be threefold: 1. They turn from upset to satisfied 2. They post positive things about you and rebut or remove their negative remarks 3. You learn something about your business that will improve it and help to avoid future negative reviews But first, is the Criticism Legitimate or Fake? Unfortunately, there is a small subset of people online who think it s fun to leave bad reviews about businesses. If you find this to be the case, resist the urge to respond in anger. Instead, by demonstrating concern and showing a desire to discuss the specifics of their encounter will go a long way towards showing other potential customers that you are interested in their feedback and want to improve the situation. Empathy is a powerful tool, and being sincerely concerned with their bad experience is a trait that every business owner should have. In the case where you re dealing with someone who simply wants to hurt you, be very selective with your response. If the insult is small, a simple apology will do. As the insults Reputation Management Made Easy Page 13

14 escalate, you must be careful with your reply. Sometimes, the customer is clearly wrong because they expect too much for too little. Fight the urge to call them unreasonable. Instead, say something like this: We are very sorry you feel that way and will do everything within reason to resolve this. If you will contact us, we would like to work together to find a solution. If the complaint was legitimate, they may contact you. If they are simply being obnoxious, you will likely never hear from them again, but at least you were professional in your reply and those who read the review will hopefully see that you were trying to be helpful and address the situation directly. Be Transparent and Honest Under no circumstances write fake reviews or ask your family, or worse, employees to write reviews for you. These tactics are almost always found out by the review sites and will do your online reputation more harm than good. In some cases a profile has been banned for these type of reviews. If the Negative Comment is true Don t ignore or hide Participate in the discussion and be honest Add response to your website Issue statement addressing what has been done If it s serious, get help. Seek out an online reputation management expert If the Negative Comment is False Post a professional response Politely ask for the comment or review to be removed If it is serious enough you may want to consider consulting a lawyer Use Social Media Social Media is all the rage these days. Facebook and Twitter have given anyone a voice to express their opinion. Good for people, but this can be a challenge for a local business. Especially since Google shows some Facebook updates in its search results. This is what Tech Crunch had to say several years ago and still hold true today: The only problem with the new addition is that Facebook is only granting Google access to Reputation Management Made Easy Page 14

15 updates from its 3 million Pages, which are generally for celebrities, politicians, brands, and local businesses not your average Facebook user. (Tech Crunch 2010) How can local businesses take advantage of this new technology to generate more business and help their online reputation? Here is a few ideas. You don't have to do all of them but of course the more you do the better the results will be. Establish a presence on at least these 3 major social media sites Create a Facebook business page Create a Twitter account for your business Create a Linked In profile for your business Be a part of the conversation Participate in social media. Check your Facebook business page daily and update content regularly. Actively seek out local followers for your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Most importantly, when you re commenting on these sites, be yourself. Let your customers know you re a real person and truly interested in helping them to have a great experience with your business. Creating Positive Content for Your Business Sticking to our number one tenant of being proactive in managing our business online reputation, we can t just wait for others to post positive things about our business. We have to go on offense. Here are some of the best ways to do that. Press Releases Writing compelling press releases and distributing them across the internet is a great way to get positive content out there. Google thinks highly of most of these sites and will more than likely show the press release in its search results. Articles Creating positive articles and distributing them across various directories or getting them posted on blogs relevant to your business is another great way to get positive content out about your business. YouTube Videos Did you know YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world? Creating either informative or funny videos about your business on YouTube can generate great press and if one goes viral, it could put your local business on the map. Also, Google owns YouTube, so they like showing videos in their search results. Reputation Management Made Easy Page 15

16 Other Web Properties Creating a blog or other websites about your business is another great way to own more of that first page of Google. Sites like Tumblr, Wordpress.com and others allow you to create blogs on their sites. Make sure you read the terms of service on these sites, some of them don t like anything that looks commercial. Good Old-Fashioned Customer Service Never underestimate the power of great customer service and doing everything you can to make sure your customers are happy. A great product combined with great service is the first critical step in your quest for more positive online feedback. Also make sure your staff is on the same page when it comes to your service expectations. They are on the frontline representing your company; and in many cases, it s the actions of employees that lead to some of the negative reviews posted by consumers. In addition, create a well-defined plan to deal with unhappy customers to put out any potential fires before they start. If someone expresses that they re disappointed, frustrated, or angered by your product or service, make an attempt to solve it on the spot before they leave a nasty online review. More on this later. Here is some things NOT to do: Reward people for giving your business reviews. Regardless if the reviews are true and from your actual customers does not matter. This falls under the category of a violation of the terms of service with some of the review sites. Most particular Yelp. YOU CANNOT REWARD PEOPLE FOR GIVING A REVIEW (although there is a way around this keep reading!) The review is considered tainted and as you may get away with it for a while you are leaving yourself open for some real trouble from the review site and possibly even the FTC. Advertising for reviews. Oh this is so very bad. Advertising in places like Craigslist that you will pay people to leave you false reviews. You don't think Yelp patrols sites like this looking for these type of ads? How do you know that the person responding to the ad is not a Yelp employee? So what if it is you say? Ever hear of a sting operation? Well, once the money changes hands this is what you would see in your Yelp business listing now. Reputation Management Made Easy Page 16

17 That is going to be a huge dent in your business and it will take a lot of time and money to recover from. This is so much worse than just a negative review. Imagine how seeing that by your customers is going to affect your business? The next sale you have at your place of Business may be a Going Out of Business Sale. Hiring an Agency to post false reviews. Even worse than advertising for reviews is hiring a marketing firm that will get people to leave false reviews. This is by any other name "False Advertising" and last time I checked that is against the law, FEDERAL law. Don't think the authorities or the FTC will care? Think again... This headline says it all. CLICK HERE to see the full article. Here is what Yelp suggests doing but... Now I don't want this coming off like you have to follow the marching orders exactly like what Yelp and others want you to do and I don't want it to sound like I am picking on Yelp, but they have one of the more stringent polices when it comes to soliciting reviews. Reputation Management Made Easy Page 17

18 Just so I represent their side fairly I have simply copied and pasted their view point from their website on how to get more reviews. How...can I get more reviews on Yelp? There are ways to let your customers know you're on Yelp without being overly solicitous. There is an important distinction between "Hey, write a review about me on Yelp," [BAD] and "Hey, check us out on Yelp!" [GOOD]. It's the difference between actively pursuing testimonials and simply creating awareness of your business through social media outlets. The latter allows consumers to review your online reputation without feeling like they're being forced to write a review. To an established Yelp community member, a reminder of your Yelp presence can act like a dog-whistle prompting them to share their feedback about your business with fellow Yelpers. Here are some ways to remind customers that you're on Yelp without being pushy: 1. Put a badge and link to your Yelp listing on your website using Yelp's review badges - we provide the code, you just paste it into your website. The review averages and counts even update automatically as new reviews come in! 2. Put a "Find us on Yelp" sign in your place of business, on the front counter or window. These have even been spotted on businessbranded vehicles. You can find some images on our Flickr page. (Don't alter these images or imply sponsorship, endorsement, or false association with Yelp, Inc.) 3. Include a link to your Yelp business listing in your signature with the words, "Check us out on Yelp!" Okay, they make a couple valid points but reading this it becomes very obvious that Yelp is all about helping and promoting Yelp and not your business. Yes, focusing on great customer service is the cornerstone of preventing bad reviews, but the advice they give you is a little self-serving for Yelp. They simply want you to tell anyone and everyone to find you on Yelp. That is great advice ONLY if you already have a ton of great reviews posted there. If you have very few or possibly some unfavorably ones then why on earth would you do that? You as a business owner need to look after the best interest of your company and not Yelp s, which once you read between the lines, is precisely what they are asking you to do. What are the best options in combating this problem? Reputation Management Made Easy Page 18

19 Well, there are a few options and here are the Top 3 most effective ways to combat this problem and protect your online reputation that is also legal. Reverse SEO *Good solution This is a defensive strategy used when the damage has already been done. It is used if you or your company has very derogatory statements made online that is showing up on page one of Google or one of the other search engines. The basic strategy here is you or an SEO company that you hire create a bunch of different content of a positive nature and use SEO to place it above the negative content until you eventually drive it off page one. If you know how expensive it is to get listed one time on page one you can imagine how expensive it is to get eight or nine pieces of content on page one. The price tag for this service is not for the faint of heart. If you decide you want to try doing the work yourself, understand it is very time consuming and usually takes several months to take effect (assuming you do it correctly). Reputation Marketing *Better solution This is more of a proactive approach. You would need to hire a marketing agency to handle this. There are just far too many moving parts and time involved for you to do this and run your business at the same time. It can involve creating customized review sites and survey engines. Constant monitoring and reporting. Video reviews and expert interviews. Social Media integration. On and on. It is very effective, but is also a very expensive endeavor. Conduct your own Customer Survey *BEST solution Do not despair. There is a strategy that can be both economical and effective, while at the same time stays well within the guidelines of all the review sites including Yelp. Now they may not like it because it does not exactly follow their marching orders and it puts you, the business owner more in control of the situation instead of leaving it to chance, but if you are okay with being more in control of your business then keep reading. The strategy can be summed up in one word... "SURVEY" That is right. Conduct your own survey by simply asking some basic questions that finds out how your customers feel about their experience with your business. If they answer the questions in a manner that strongly indicates that they were happy with the services they received then these are the people to encourage to leave you a review. If their answers seem to indicate that they were not all that happy, you give them the option to be contacted or contact you but you never mention anything about going to a review site. This allows you as the business owner the ability to find out what the problem is, if you do not already know it, and resolve it quickly and efficiently. Reputation Management Made Easy Page 19

20 The secret to this is to incentivize them to take your survey rather than go directly to the review sites. You can do this by offering a reward of some type. It should be something of high perceived value for taking the survey. Maybe a Starbucks gift card, a Kindle Card, perhaps to enter into a raffle of some sort. Other things that may work well is offering something from your business for free on their next visit. For example, if you are a restaurant owner then consider offering a free appetizer or dessert. If you do not really have anything like that then consider striking a deal with another business owner that does. Get some coupons from them that are exclusive to your customers. There is a plethora of ideas depending on your business, your location, and your type of customers you have. So, if you read this report carefully the next logical question you may be asking yourself is why I said earlier that you could not reward people for leaving you reviews? It is absolutely true. You cannot reward people for reviews and we are not. You are rewarding people for taking your survey. Since it is your own survey you are not bound by the rules of the review sites and you have not violated anything! You also have the luxury of deciding on the questions asked They should be clear and concise and cut straight to the heart of the matter. Exactly what to ask will very much depend on what type of business you have. However, things like, "How was our service?", or "How likely are you to refer us to your friends?" are excellent questions for any business. I would recommend keeping it to at least three question, but no more than five. Just keep in mind that the fewer and easier your questions are to answer, and the higher the perceived value of your reward is, the higher the participation rate will be of the survey by your customers. Getting the Word Out Now it is just a matter of publicizing your survey and its reward to each and every customer that you serve. Make sure you train your staff to get the word out about your survey. Possibly have it printed out on your receipts. It is also good to just have a simple, easy to read sign by your check out register. The psychological strategy to this method is to show your customers that you are interested in hearing their suggestions and feedback and therefore catering to their wants and needs by offering a way to do that with a survey BEFORE they decide to leave a review. You do this by offering them something the review sites can't and won't, and that is some type of a prize or reward. But there is a catch. Reputation Management Made Easy Page 20

21 The Problem... The one problem with this particular strategy is it can be somewhat cumbersome and time consuming to manage and stay on top of if you do not have the right tools because unfortunately, most survey software ONLY does a survey. Nothing more. There is really not any "off the shelf" software that is specifically designed to separate the happy customers from the not so happy ones in any kind of automated fashion. That is until now... The Solution... As somewhat self proclaimed authority on this subject, I want to bring to your attention a software application that I myself designed and created for my clients and have even sold many copies to other fellow marketers around the world. It is specially designed to automate much of the process we just talked about. It will allow you to legally and ethically encourage your happy customers to leave positive reviews and intercept any customers ready to leave negative ones so you can attempt to resolve the problem BEFORE they spill their guts out on Yelp or other review sites. Let me show you how it works This special application is hooked to your website or its own standalone site. The survey page would have your logo or header and will look something like this... It uses a five star system much like the review sites do so it easily translates on how they will respond should they go to a review site. Reputation Management Made Easy Page 21

22 Here is where the magic happens. If they answer the questions in a manner that strongly indicates that they were happy with the services they received and they hit the submit button to claim their reward it takes them to a page which gives them the reward but also highly encourages them to now go to the review site of your choice and leave their review. If the application detects that they are not real happy with the service they received then it takes them to a different page that makes no mention of leaving a review, but still rewards them for taking the survey and gives you (the owner or manager) the option to encourage the customer to contact you directly or tell them that you would like to contact them to resolve the situation. Either way they go you will be given alerts of the results of the survey and it even has a way of automating an reply back to your customer. Bottom line is turning these bad experiences into an opportunity to make it right can sometimes pay off better than any positive review. It just takes being pro-active about it. If you would be interested in finding out more about this software and how to set up a customized strategy that fits your business, please contact me for a free consultation and I will be more than happy to go over all this with you including a demonstration as to how it works. Let me show you how I can help you protect your valuable online reputation, grab the attention of your most loyal customers, while minimizing damage by potential negative reviewers and prompt them to leave great reviews online! Online Reputation Management is becoming more and more imperative as a part of doing daily business. It s unfortunate, but true. You need to be proactive in protecting your good reputation and the first step in that direction is to take action here today and acquire this software. Reputation Management Made Easy Page 22

23 If what you read here in this report makes sense to you and you think my software is something that will help your business feel free to call or me to set up an appointment to talk. Sincerely, Jim Orr O'House Online Reputation Management Made Easy Page 23