Gaining a reputation in this industry takes a great deal of your time. Destroying it only requires a couple of minutes. Preserving your digital authority is a challenging task even for a seasoned marketer. Regardless of how well-designed your website is, your brand’s reputation will decay the moment you fail to meet the expectation of your audience. Moreover, if your prospects searched for your service and were disappointed with what they saw, you can turn away hundreds or thousands of potential clients. Common digital reputation management mistakes might seem rational, but a significant number of web managers will still commit them.
Common Digital Reputation Management Mistakes That You Should Avoid
By now, it would be clear to you how important digital reputation management is, especially for small businesses. Sadly, it is pretty common for them to commit the simplest mistakes in the book. In this article, we will help you be aware of those mistakes and avoid them.
Ignoring Complaints
We get it that some of the customers can be too unreasonable sometimes. Perhaps these defamatory reviews are traps set by your competitors to damage your credibility. Some people will do this as an attempt to enjoy a free service from you. Therefore, some business owners will ignore this kind of message or review since they fear that the post might gain interest if they pay attention to complaints. The customer will be persistent on their nasty trick, and getting hostile with them will make you look bad. Remind yourself that no business is perfect, and your customers are aware of that.
Gaining bad reviews will not mean the end of your business. In fact, most customers will be wary of doing business with a company with a perfect 5 rating. We’ve discussed the benefits of responding to all types of reviews before and should be included in your digital reputation management strategy. As long as you appropriately respond to complaints and show your prospects how you respond, it will be enough for the customers to ignore the negative review and consider doing business with you.
Unaware of Digital Reputation Management
Not all of us will be aware of ‘online reputation.’ Some business owners will manage their business without realizing that it exists. They will not employ any digital reputation management techniques; they will not craft it and monitor it. Some managers choose the traditional side of marketing, believing that going online or on social media gives nasty people an opportunity to say slanderous statements about them. Understand that people will talk about your business online or offline, and you have to make sure that you will be present in this conversation. You need to give the people an opportunity to connect to you and talk about their problems and complaints. In addition, you could also have an unclaimed Yelp profile where people are posting reviews without your knowledge. If you continue to ignore the online platform, you will not be able to respond to these reviews.
Not Enough Content
Sometimes, it would be difficult for you to get away from the shadow of these trolls who have nothing better to do than make unjust claims about your business. So, how do you defend against them? Well, you should create high-quality content. Be sure that your website and the internet will be filled with materials that promote the good side of your business. Join organizations and win awards. Produce high-quality articles and capture the interest of different news sites.
Reach out to influencers and journalists and get an article published on their web pages or social media accounts. The materials posted here will serve as evidence that will counter the claims of these trolls. It will encourage your prospects to see the two sides of the coin. It serves as third-party content that is extremely important to customers. If you are overwhelmed responding to harmful content, you can curate high-quality online content as a part of your digital reputation management campaign.
Using Fake Reviews
We’ve tackled the importance of online customer reviews before, and it is essential to have a decent number of testimonials. It helps in solidifying your online credibility and helps in advancing your SEO. Unfortunately, most business owners resort to using fake reviews to lure unsuspecting customers to their business. However, it is one of the most common digital reputation management mistakes that you want to avoid since it will hurt your business in the long run. Eventually, you will get caught, and this is against the policy of online listing sites. Moreover, customers are becoming more intelligent, and they can now determine which is fake and which is authentic. Google My Business and Yelp have now developed a more sophisticated system to fight against fake reviews. They have a system that detects similar IP addresses, so you should forget about creating phony email addresses.
Choosing Someone Unqualified to Handle Online Reputation Management
A lot of business owners will depend on unskilled people to manage their marketing campaigns. They will hire someone younger since they believe they can post content that young people will find relatable. Hiring people who lack qualifications will help you save cash, but it comes with a very high risk. Never put the fate of your brand in the hand of someone that is still wet behind the ears.
Several technical skills are required, and someone without the necessary expertise and experience can easily be overwhelmed. At the very least, the person who will handle your digital reputation management strategy should understand the market trends, competitors, target markets, demographics, etc. Never underestimate the importance of your online credibility. If you plan to delegate this responsibility to a junior marketing executive, be sure that you have trained them properly. They should understand your brand voice since they need to pay attention to this when responding to messages and reviews.
Acting Defensive
We know that it will be challenging not to take things personally when someone is criticizing your product or service or attacking one of your employees. However, engaging in a battle of words with these people will make you look cheap and petty. You always need to take the high road, admit your mistakes, and give them a way to contact you. Try to move the conversation to a private channel. You should reassure them that you are willing to do whatever is possible and reasonable to address their concerns. This practice should be added to your digital reputation management strategy.
Not Being an Active Listener
Not actively listening is one of the common digital reputation management mistakes that business managers will commit. You don’t want the customers to think that you are acting passively on their complaints; you want to assure them that you are on top of everything. The customers should feel confident and that you are present to address their concerns effectively. Therefore, you should be present on different business listing pages. You should also monitor reviews and social media pages constantly.
Using Boring and Automated Response on your Digital Reputation
Another mistake that you want to avoid in your Digital reputation management strategy is using canned responses. It could be tempting to use an automated response on your social media messages and emails. You could also develop a script that the customer reps will use when answering the messages. However, we advise you to avoid taking this road. People are now quite good at identifying an inauthentic response. It will hurt your brand since people will think that you are not taking their issues seriously. If you are using a script, remind your people that it is essential to follow the script’s core message, but they need to compose a response uniquely. Remind them not to be too aggressive and promise unrealistic things. You want the message to be personalized depending on the mood and the behavior of your customer.
Encouraging Inconsistency in Your Digital Reputation
Inconsistency is another primary concern of businesses that can harm your digital reputation management. Suppose you delegate this responsibility in the hand of several people or without a strict guideline. In that case, it will not be surprising to receive different voices and tones on the response on the customer reviews. It could be an issue if one of your employees has a sarcastic tone while someone has a friendly tone since it creates inconsistency. Consistency should be the key to making your company more endearing to your customers. You should develop a comprehensive brand guideline that will be used across all the platforms. Hiring an ORM agency can also ensure this.
Using Blackhat Techniques
You should never use any illegal and unethical methods, especially when you are improving your digital reputation. We’ve already mentioned the use of fake reviews. You should also avoid stealing content from another website. If you will use pictures, be sure to add the proper credit. Avoid keyword stuffing or using invisible text. Link farming and click-baiting must also be avoided since all of these will reflect poorly on your brand. We understand how it can take time before you will notice the result of the Whitehat methods. However, you should treat this as an investment.
Understand that digital reputation management is crucial for your business. Avoiding these mistakes will ensure that you are taking the right direction in fortifying your online credibility and authority. Partnering with the right people to help you with this tricky subject is another way to guarantee that you are dealing with it properly.