Reputation Monitoring

What determines your online reputation?

A company’s online reputation is made up of the perception and attitudes held about the company by its customers, clients, and the general public, as reflected on the internet.

1. Social Media: Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are often the first places people go to check out a company’s reputation. Companies with active, engaging and customer-friendly social media accounts tend to have a better reputation than those that don’t.
2. Review Websites: Websites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google Reviews are widely used by customers to share their experiences with a business. Positive reviews on these sites can help boost a company’s reputation, while negative reviews can harm it.
3. News articles and press coverage: A company’s reputation can be affected by the type of news and press coverage it receives. Positive coverage in reputable news outlets can boost a company’s reputation, while negative coverage can harm it.
4. Search engine results: Search engine results, particularly the first page, can influence how people perceive a company. If a company’s website and other relevant online properties appear at the top of search engine results, it can help to establish a positive reputation, while poor search engine results can harm it.
5. Employee-generated content: Employee reviews and testimonials on sites like Glassdoor can provide an inside look at a company’s culture, management, and work environment. Positive employee reviews can help to establish a good reputation, while negative reviews can harm it.
6. Blogs, forums, and communities: Blogs, forums, and communities can serve as a source of information and opinion about a company. Positive discussion on these platforms can help to establish a good reputation, while negative discussion can harm it.

It’s worth noting that a company’s reputation is not only built by what the company itself communicates, but also by what customers, clients, employees, the media, and other stakeholders say about the company. Therefore, it’s important for companies to monitor their online reputation and be proactive in addressing any issues that may arise.

Google Reviews

In most cases your online reputation is mainly driven by Google Reviews. That is not to say other sources such as Yelp, Angie’s List, TripAdvisor or the Better Business Bureau won’t have meaningful feedback on you. But so far, Google Reviews seems to be the leader in an objective system to offer the most accurate picture of a business created by customers.

Google only allows you to leave one review per business listing per Google account. This means they are not anonymous and through Google at least, there is accountability if you abuse this feedback system.

Why is it important?

This becomes most important in the top three positions in the local map pack return. It doesn’t matter so much the position of the return because at this point Google delivers to users the star rating of a business. Studies have shown users now are making choices based on the star rating on who to click. Therefore, getting in the top three positions in the map EQUALS position #1, but now the reputation kicks in. If the first position has 30 reviews and a 4.8 average star rating, and the third position has 560 reviews at a 5 average star rating, who are you going to call?

How to best manage your online reputation.

The best tool you have to amplify the good things said about you and defend against negative things said about you is to use the response feature through Google Reviews. This allows you to respond to the reviews left, good or bad. As a rule, you want to RESPOND TO EVERY REVIEW LEFT IN A TIMELY MANNER. And, you want whoever is leaving the response to NOT BE EMOTIONALLY INVOLVED IN YOUR BUSINESS.