7 Steps to a Stellar Online Reputation Presented by Andy Beal
Who is this guy? Internet marketing consultant: Online reputation management Search engine marketing Business blog development and promotion Social media marketing Editor/Founder MarketingPilgrim.com Coauthor of reputation management book Radically Transparent Trackur.com for reputation monitoring
What You ll Learn What is Online Reputation Management? The Seven Step Action Plan 1. Identify your stakeholders 2. Conduct a reputation audit 3. Evaluate your online assets 4. Determine your goals 5. Craft your strategy 6. Implement your plan 7. Monitor and repair
What is ORM?
People Are Talking 52% of individuals put their trust in what others have to say about your reputation 87% of consumers look at the reputation of your CEO, when judging your company's reputation 59% of hiring managers are influenced by your online reputation
What s Changed? Marketing and PR are no longer a one way monologue Your customers are discussing your reputation using the Web Identify, listen, and engage your stakeholders A single negative blog post can spark a reputation crisis
7 Step Action Plan
1 Identify your stakeholders
Look Who s Talking Identify all of your stakeholders Customers First time customers - what are their expectations and how do you retain them? Repeat customers - how do you keep them happy? The Press Traditional journalists Citizen journalists and bloggers Industry opinion leaders
Centers of influence Communities such as LinkedIn, epinions, and TripAdvisor Detractors Disgruntled employees Competitors Legitimate complaints
2 Conduct a reputation audit
Surveys Ask your customers to evaluate your reputation A complex survey A single question: Would you recommend us to a friend or colleague?
Online Audit Company channels such as e-mails, comment forms, and customers service Online ratings Retailer ratings on BizRate.com Customer reviews on CitySearch.com Where your customers hang out
Your Google reputation Search for your company name, brands, and executives Vertical search channels such as news, blogs, and video Sentiment analysis
Google Sentiment google.com
Multimedia content How many views and the number and sentiment of comments YouTube and Flickr Social relevance Links on Technorati, votes on Digg, and friends on MySpace Number of social bookmarks on del.icio.us and Reddit
Technorati Links technorati.com
Web site popularity Visitors and referral data Number of external links siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com Individual profiles CEO, executives, and spokespersons Zoominfo.com, HealthGrades.com, and RateMyProfessors.com
3 Improve your online assets
Spring Cleaning Your own web site Up to date? Bios, corporate info, and stock images White papers, testimonials, and multimedia Your online press room Social media optimized press releases
Social Press Links to multimedia content Social bookmarking links RSS feed for company press room Releases shiftcomm.com/downloads/smprtemplate.pdf
A company blog Executive, team, updates, or crisis only blog Build your thought leadership, engage customers, and reach journalists Search engine optimization (SEO) Optimize web content for your reputation-building keywords
4 Determine your goals
Goals? What is your desired outcome? Improve a tarnished reputation? Raise the profile of your CEO? Increase awareness of new products? Attract new clients? Find a better job???
5 Craft your strategy
Your Objectives? Create a company blog Develop social networking profiles Set up online monitoring system Compile reputation crisis plan Improve your search engine sentiment
Example Strategy: Build a highly differentiated thought leadership niche online. Objectives for the next 12 months: 1. Add 3 white papers to the company site for visitor download. 2. Answer 5 questions a month at Yahoo!Answers. 3. Review 2 books a month in my field on Amazon.com. 4. Identify 20 important blogs in my industry and subscribe to the RSS feeds. Read them daily. 5. Display my expertise and add value to the social media by commenting on at least 5 blogs a month and editing a Wikipedia article.
6 Implement your plan
How? What tools will you need? Google Reader for RSS WordPress for company blog Google Analytics for Web stats Trackur.com for reputation monitoring
What policies and procedures will you use? Who will collect and act on data? Who will monitor social media? Who will manage blog and social networking content? Who has authority to respond?
Radically Transparent Blogging Guidelines 1. Always be honest and tell the truth 2. Clearly explain your intentions, who you work for, and who you are 3. Make sure your writing is accurate, high quality, and spell checked 4. Be honest about any mistakes you make and correct them promptly 5. Never delete a blog post
6. Don t delete comments left by readers 7. Respond to emails and blog comments 8. Respect the opinions of others, even when disagreeing 9. Link to original sources of information 10. Always disclose conflicts of interests or business relationships
7 Monitor and repair
Monitor Early awareness is crucial Use freely available tools to monitor 80% Email? Google Alerts RSS? Technorati, Google News, BoardTracker
Email Alerts google.com/alerts
Mainstream Media news.google.com/
Forums boardtracker.com
Outsource Monitoring? Trackur.com Converseon.com buzzm.worldbank.org
Prepare Plan now for a reputation crisis Who is on your crisis team? List their names, titles, and all contact numbers Who is your online media spokesperson? Who will be your advisors, for seeking counsel before reacting to a crisis? Who are your key offline/online stakeholders needing information during a crisis? Do you have a crisis-blog ready for deployment?
Repair 1. Check the facts 2. Determine the impact 3. Bring together trusted counsel 4. Understand your detractor 5. Decide on the appropriate response 6. Host the conversation 7. Continue to monitor
Three Little Words Sincerity Transparency Consistency
Thank You Andy@MarketingPilgrim.com 919-816-2106 Twitter.com/andybeal