Did you know that people are attacking your online reputation talking bad
about your product, company or service right now, as we speak? If you
have any type of market, it's almost guaranteed that there is some form
of negative comment floating around out there on the Internet about you.
And while social media listening tools and the like can help you find it,
the big question is what to do about it when you do.
How to Deal with Bad Publicity and Reviews Online
Unfortunately, the most common thing that marketers do-or think to do-is
to either ignore the negative feedback or figure out some way to
eliminate it right away. Sad to say, both of these actions are the
exact wrong reactions. Many marketers will go out of their way to cover
their eyes, thinking if they see and hear no evil, there will be no
evil.
In fact, ignoring and not responding to bad or negative feedback is the
worst thing that you can do. Plus, if you try to pull some sort of
tricky spam campaign containing good reviews and feedback, some might
see right through that and your reputation-and business-will be shot for
good. The best thing you can do in this situation is put your big boy
pants on, grin and face it head on.
Facing Down the Problem and Coming Out on Top
Just the same way you would confront someone that was going around town
talking ill about your reputation, you must react the same way on the
Internet. Whether the feedback is on your page, on a "scam
whistle-blower" type page, on your social media pages, in blog comments,
on forums, on Yelp, on Google+, on Amazon-wherever it is, you have to be
there doing damage control.
And while the reviews or negative comments might not even be real-yes,
some of your competition is probably out there writing bad stuff about
you as well-you have the ultimate weapon to combat it at your disposal:
your mind.
As long as you keep your cool, you can always come out looking like a
million bucks during an online rep smear campaign-or even actual
feedback from a disgruntled client.
Check out my blog post on a subject close to this same subject...
5 Ways To Kill Your Online Reputation
Here's how:
1. Don't turn a deaf ear.
The first thing you need to do is catch up to
what people are saying about you online. Use social media listening
tools, check review sites, look at feedback, etc. And once you know
where your reviews are, monitor those sites continuously. Never get to
the point where you have to go looking around the Internet again-stay on
top of reviews and commentary and take care of each one as they pop up.
2. Don't ignore negativity.
Respond to any and all negative remarks
immediately and publicly. This lets potential and existing clients know
that your customer service is impeccable and that you care about your
product or service. This also gives you a great chance to correct the
misinformation out there about you. If you cannot respond publicly, do
so privately. But no matter how you respond, be sure to do it
professionally.
3. Engage with your customers to leave positive reviews.
Do your customers even know that you want positive feedback? Unless
they are blown away by your services, they are just going to go on with
their lives. But if they are disgruntled, they'll find a way to tell
the world about it to disrupt your campaigns. Get the good reviews on
your side by proactively asking people to leave a comment where you'd
like them to.
You Take the Good You Take the Bad-The Facts of Marketing
The bottom line here is reacting quickly and in the best way possible.
You don't have to have all positive reviews and commentary-not even
George Washington has 100% approval ratings. But what you do need to do
is pay attention and manage your online reputation before it manages you
right out of revenue. and manage your online reputation before it manages you
right out of revenue.
I hope this helps maintain a good online reputation!
I Look Forward To Your Success!
IMKBrown
ListBuildingScience.Com
IMKBrown.Com
