Managing an Online Reputation

Your customers are talking about you — and the whole world is listening.Local review sites are reshaping the world of small business by becoming the new Yellow Pages, one-stop platforms where customers can find a business — and also see independent critiques of its performance.
How do you manage your reputation when everybody is a critic?

For some business owners, this is a terrifying prospect that seems more like mob rule than the wisdom of crowds. Negative reviews can hang an albatross around your neck if they appear prominently in search results. Happily, there is a big upside: referrals from happy clients are traditionally the best source of new business — and online forums are powerful word-of-mouth. The review process has been democratized.

But managing your online reputation requires a whole new skill set, including monitoring the online conversation and engaging with customers and the tech-savvy to promote yourself in the best channels. These skills are becoming essential for mainstream businesses. According to a survey by the Opinion Research Corporation, 84 percent of Americans say online reviews influence their purchasing decisions.

Read more By KERMIT PATTISON, New York Times

Quick Tips:

• Set up automatic alerts to notify you when your business is mentioned in a review or blog.
• Local search sites are the new Yellow Pages -- make sure your business is listed. The more complete your listing, the more likely you are to get good search results.
• Respond to reviews to show readers that you are listening and that you care about customer service.
• Online reviews are a gold mine of business intelligence. Analyze metrics to get a better sense of your customer demographics.
• Don’t write false reviews to puff your business or trash a competitor. You can severely damage your reputation...and look really silly.

Suggested Reading:

• Tips from Yelp on responding to positive or negative reviews.
• A guide to Web tools to track your online reputation.