Reputation management is essential when you run a business. Not only do you need to get the word out about your company, but you also need to monitor what your competitors and customers say about you, both the good and the negative.
The very first thing you should do is create a Google Alert for your name and/or business name. Google will send you an email every day listing the sites in which your name appears.
Next, check the statistics of your website daily. You are probably using Google Analytics or similar software to track where your traffic is coming from. When you receive hits from other websites, click on those links and see what was said about your company. If it was positive, you can use it as a testimonial (get permission first). If it's negative, you can nip the problem in the bud and respond.
For example, if you sell a NASCAR board game and see a link in your statistics from a racing forum, you go and take a look at that forum. If the forum post makes a favorable mention of your game it's worthwhile to create a profile and respond to that post by thanking them for the plug and giving additional information (but without using sales lingo). If the forum post said something unfavorable, then you could write a post apologizing and offer a refund or replacement. In this way you can position yourself as a business with superior customer service.
The bottom line is that you don't want to just sit around and wait for feedback to appear in your email inbox or on your website. People will often talk about your business in the social media sites instead without bothering to contact you. It's critical that you monitor these conversations. Subscribing to the RSS feeds of the most important blogs in your niche "and reading the comments" will also help.
Consider adding a forum to your website. This is another way to listen to your customers. Not only can you find out potential problems with your product, but you can get new product ideas as well. A blog where people can leave comments can serve the same purpose.
Reputation management can be time-consuming, however. Please visit our website DirectHorizon. We are an internet branding agency and can give you a free consultation so that you can find out how we can do this work for you.
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