Today’s social media platforms represent enormous opportunity as well as enormous risk, as users increasingly share their opinions about businesses they frequent. If you aren’t paying attention to what your customers are saying about you online, then you’re leaving yourself open to their negative comments, while also potentially losing opportunities to react to positive reviews.
To help manage your online reputation proactively, it’s imperative that you reach out to customers and ask for their testimonials. You can then use these positive reviews to implement reputation management strategies that attract positive attention for your brand.
For instance, incorporate user review features on your Website that allow your customers to review products they purchase from your company. When a customer makes a purchase, send a follow-up email, allowing enough time for the item to ship and the customer to receive it, and ask for a review. You can then post the reviews on Facebook and Twitter as well as incorporate social features on your site that let users share their reviews, “like” your products and so on.
If you fail to nab these opportunities, then you’re leaving it to your customers to post their opinions in their own social pages, where you likely won’t have an opportunity to respond to their comments. You also risk having these comments dominate in search engine results, as opposed to having the positive outweigh the negative.
With proactive reputation management, you’ll create a positive impression with your customers. You’ll also have a better chance of getting more customers, as prospects read the good reviews and make their buying decisions.
