Reputation Repair. Help Guide For Small Businesses. For more information, please visit RickFulton.com or call

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1 Reputation Repair Help Guide For Small Businesses

2 Reputation Repair Help Guide For Small Businesses Reputation is the New Economy Asset... Online reputation management has become an absolute necessity for businesses in the US and all around the globe. No matter how big or small your company is, no matter the service or product you offer, the world completely changed the moment any consumer with Internet access acquired the ability to voice their opinion online with a few clicks of a mouse. The ease with which customers can post reviews on the Internet has caused one of the greatest power shifts in business history. Did you know that around 80% of the U.S. population uses the Internet to research a product or service before making a buying decision? More importantly, the recent polls have shown that over 70% of those who research online will be unlikely to buy from you if they find a even single negative review about your business! With the increasing popularity of online social networks like Facebook, public review sites like Yelp and video sharing sites like Youtube, everybody has a voice these days. Even if they are full of it! The result is that even the slightest dissatisfaction of your client can become public in a matter of seconds. The impact of a neglected online reputation... Any negative mentions that appear on Google when someone searches

3 your business name or information related to your business niche, can be extremely detrimental to your brand's public perception. And to your pocketbook! Online reviews have become the main criterion for people when they make a purchasing decision. If your company appears to have a number of negative reviews posted on various social platforms, these potential consumers will always choose to deal with another business that has a better reputation. That's why, it should be your everyday job to stay informed about your online image and manage your reputation accordingly. What can happen? The "Dell Hell" case... This story was coined as "Dell Hell" and it represents a vivid example of how even a big company's reputation can be compromised because of an ugly review gone viral. It all started when frustrated customer and blogger Jeff Jarvis published a series of rants about his frustrations with the recently purchased PC and more importantly, with Dell's customer service. He literally said this: "I just got a new Dell laptop and paid a fortune for the four-year, in-home service. The machine is a lemon and the service is a lie. I'm having all kinds of trouble with the hardware: overheats, network doesn't work, maxes out on CPU usage. It's a complete lemon." What happened next was that Jeff's complaints caught the attention of other customers who went on to share their own poor experiences with Dell's customer support. The online commentary spread like wildfire, overloading Google with negative search results concerning Dell. As a result of the online complaints explosion and the lack of immediate action from Dell, the computer industry giant experienced a serious reputation problem which resulted in a devastating loss of sales. Millions of dollars!

4 Get Your Reputation Under Control! Luckily, it is possible to get your online reputation under control. This can be achieved by implementing a dedicated, persistent monitoring of the Internet and taking timely measures to suppress any negative mentions. Complaints and even slanderous mentions about your brand can be smothered, and positive reviews can boosted. Step 1. Monitor and take action The first thing you should do is identify what web sites are the main influencers for your brand. What websites/blogs/forums currently have mentions of your brand, both positive and negative? These should be your main focus. Continual online monitoring will allow you to determine which negative mentions require your immediate response. Likewise, the positive mentions will allow you to see what raises the most appraisal from your customers, allowing you to use it for generating more positive online feedback in the future. It's a good idea to have someone on your staff keep a record of all online mentions about your business and plan adequate actions. Negative reviews should be addressed with a positive response in a timely manner. If you're able to catch negative mentions soon, you have a good chance to soften and sometimes even smother their harmful impact.

5 Step 2: Address negative reviews Once you have identified bad mentions that have the most negative effect on your reputation, you should address these as quickly as possible. While you can't make the existing negative review go away, it's a good idea to stand up and acknowledge the mention. Let the existing and potential customers know that you re aware of the issue and would like to address it as soon as possible. This will present you as a caring business owner and an excellent professional. Remember, Dell's major mistake that lead to a reputation disaster was not acting swiftly on the initial customer complaint. In case you feel that a published complaint isn't a valid one, you can try to have that negative comment removed by contacting the owner of the online platform which published it. You should make sure though that your request doesn't sound too demanding, so that the owner of the site doesn't feel pressured. Oftentimes, a genuine explanation of what really happened and how it has had a negative effect on your business can be enough to gain understanding and receive help on the other end. Step 3: Use proper SEO to feed the search engines with positive content Your goal is to get as much positive information about you as possible ranked on the first pages in the major search engines. This is done through using proper search engine optimization (SEO). SEO involves creating, keyword-optimizing and publishing content online in a specific way. This step is a long-term strategy that will help you push the negative mentions down in search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

6 So that, when your potential customers perform online searches, they should predominantly be exposed to positive information about your business. Among the things you can do is create a keyword-optimized Google Places business listing. Also, it's a good idea to have keyword-optimized listings on popular review sites like Yelp, CitySearch, SuperPages and MerchantCircle. If you do a good job, your listings will show up high in the search engines. One important thing I need to mention though is that you have to have a solid amount of glowing reviews on these web sites in order to get any positive results. Step 4: Encourage online reviews from your satisfied customers. Once you have created business listings on Google and various public review sites, you will have multiple online platforms that you can encourage your customers to visit and leave positive reviews on. You should remember though that people are generally lazy and forgetful about these things. So, one way of getting them actually leave a review is by offering incentives such as discounts and bonuses. Everybody loves getting a good deal - so much for the fact that daily deal sites like Groupon of LivingSocial are very popular nowadays. When offering a discount, you can emphasize that with the discount, you want to reward them for the time they're going to spend posting an online review, and therefore it's not a positive review incentive. This will ensure transparency while still getting the result you need. Step 5: Take the in-house measures to minimize negative reviews While all the above online activities are vital for repairing and improving your online reputation, there are some measures you can implement in-house that will minimize the risks of future negative reviews.

7 One of the most effective ways to prevent negativity being posted on to the Internet is by requesting your customers to fill out customer satisfaction surveys. While it sounds rather old-fashion and simplistic, it works very well for 2 major reasons. First of all, people like it when asked for their opinion. Secondly, a survey is a nice quick way to have a dissatisfied customer vent right there on the spot, about what makes him/her unhappy. This will make a customer feel relieved, less emotional and thus will be much less likely to go online afterwards to offload his/her negativity about your business. Treating Your Online Reputation as an Asset Your company's online reputation may become your greatest asset, driving hundreds of new customers your way. Likewise, if not managed properly, it may quickly backfire with bad reviews spreading on discussion boards all over the internet and deterring people away from your business forever. A common mistake a lot of companies make is neglecting their online reputation management which results in clients passing by your doors and your revenues plummeting. We hope that this report has given you a useful perspective on the steps you can take in order to restore and improve your online reputation while attracting new business your way. "Because When They Trust You, They Buy From You!"

8 Done-For-You Online Reputation Repair Campaign: Most business owners understand how a poor reputation can result in lost sales. That s bad enough. But as Business Brokers we also see on a daily basis how a poor reputation can also absolutely wreck the value of your business. Don t let it happen to you! Being business owners ourselves, we realize that as a business owner you have dozens of things, big and small, to take care of on a daily basis. So, it is just normal that you may not have the time or expertise it takes to prepare and implement an effective online reputation repair campaign. Let us do the hard work for you while letting yourself focus on growing your business! All our "Reputation Repair Campaigns" come with a 100% Results Guarantee. So, it's absolutely Risk-Free for you. In case of an interest, please contact me at to schedule a call. Looking forward to helping restore and elevate your online image. Rick Fulton RickFulton.com rick@rickfulton.com