BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

How to Manage Your Reputation Online

This article is more than 4 years old.

“Well, you know what they say: if you don’t have anything nice to say about anybody, come sit by me!” was a line from the play and movie Steel Magnolias. Sounds like the Internet.

Have you Googled what people are saying about you lately? Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly about your reputation online.

The good: Word of mouth has always been one of the most powerful marketing tools for businesses. A praise-filled online testimonial can generate referrals and drive sales.

The bad: But the other side of the coin is that a negative online review can severely hurt your business. (One restaurant I knew that got a negative review saw business drop 25%).

The ugly: With the Internet, word of mouth has become even more impactful. Instead of a dissatisfied customer telling a few (or a few dozen) of their friends and associates, now they can tell thousands of potential customers via social media.

I posed to PR expert Michelle Stansbury the following question: How should a business manage their online reputation in order to utilize positive feedback and diminish the effect of slanderous reviews?

Stansbury, founder of Little Penguin PR in San Diego, offered the following strategies for managing your online reputation:

Monitor Your Reputation. You should be watching several online forums for testimonials and reviews. Set up Google Alerts for your company name, watch your Yelp (and other relevant review sites) pages, and monitor social media by searching for associated #hashtags. Malicious reviews will stay visible unless you do something to get them removed. But you can’t take steps to remove malicious reviews unless you know they are out there! I recommend weekly checks for smaller companies, daily checks for larger companies, and continual monitoring for global brands.

Stay Professional“Business owners are understandably upset when someone maligns their company. However, lashing out at critics does far more harm for your company image. If you do need to publicly respond to a negative review, do so in a constructive way. Similarly, posting personal photos, updates, and information on your business profiles opens you up to personal as well as professional criticism.”

Maintain Integrity“Posting fake reviews, or ‘astroturfing,’ will diminish your company’s credibility. Resist the urge to have friends or family write inflated reviews, as these are flagged as well. Instead, increase positive reviews by encouraging more customers to write reviews (many don’t think to do so unless there is a problem). Mention to satisfied customers that you value their feedback and would appreciate them reviewing your business – you will be surprised how often they are happy to take a few minutes to do so.”

Listen! “It is much harder to get a reputation blunder off of the Internet then it is to keep it from being posted in the first place. Set up customer service initiatives so that dissatisfied customers feel that they can come to you with complaints, instead of going straight for the Internet.”

A final piece of PR advice from Stansbury: “While customers are more likely to post reviews if they are dissatisfied, going out of your way to provide exceptional and noteworthy customer service will get people talking as well.”