When businesses destroy their reputations, the costs can be brutal and take years or even decades to recover from. Companies like Exxon, BP, and United Airlines are still reeling from PR disasters.

Building and maintaining a good company reputation takes time and skill. By following these rules, you’ll be well on your way to solidifying your company in the market.

Treat Your Employees Well

Companies that go above and beyond for their employees reap enormous benefits.

First, their employees will be happy at work which translates into excellent customer service.

Excellent customer service then translates into positive customer experience, which in many instances can turn into positive online reviews which will bolster your company’s reputation.

Second, employees who love their jobs and believe they are treated well will become brand ambassadors for you. Just like the customers who they do a great job of serving, your employees will tell others about their positive experiences.

Be Unique

Too many companies take themselves too seriously. Instead of improving their company reputation, this actually hurts them.

Companies like Apple, Ikea, and Vans have cult-like followings because of their unique business approaches. Think of who you want to attract and incorporate that into your advertising and business model.

Cater your content to a niche market. Too many small businesses try to throw out a broad net in an attempt to bring in as many customers as possible. While the idea sounds good on paper, it’s actually counter-intuitive.

By thinking small instead of big, you will establish a small but incredibly loyal (and vocal) following who will champion your cause.

Master Social Media

In today’s day and age, social media is integral to a brand’s success. Not being active on social media will paint your company as curmudgeonly and out of touch.

To master social media, you will want to know what platforms your target audience uses the most and then put together an appropriate digital marketing strategy around it.

Companies like Wendy’s have become famous for their hilarious social media antics and, as a result, have a reach of 2.5 million followers on Twitter.

By using social media, you can engage in real time with your customers and build a community around your product or services. For a more comprehensive guide on social media, check out our article which covers this subject more thoroughly.

Hire Experts on Company Reputation

Building and maintaining a strong reputation is difficult, especially for business owners who are unfamiliar or too busy to focus on it. It takes time, strategy, and lots of experience to get it right.

There is more competition and possibilities than ever, which can be overwhelming. By hiring a consultant or an in-house reputation manager, you can take the burden of worrying about your reputation off of your shoulders and focus on your product and vision for the future of your company.

Conclusion

Company reputation is a double-edged sword and you definitely want to be on the right side of that blade. At Reputation Results, we can help you discover your niche and boost your reputation for as low as $99 a month!

If you want to see what consumers really think of your company, we offer a free audit to give you a good idea!

The post How to Build a Company Reputation appeared first on ReputationResults.

With the growing popularity of online shopping, customers who can’t examine a product for themselves now turn to online product reviews to determine quality and fit.

It’s simple: higher reviews make your product look good, and encourage a consumer to buy it.

Product review sites can be daunting at first, but here are 6 benefits they can provide to your growing business.

What are Product Review Sites?

Product review sites are websites dedicated to providing product reviews.

Sometimes, these websites perform the reviews themselves. Usually, reviewers in the technology field test products for battery life, speed, etc. and then generate a review of their own.

More often, these websites are simply a place for customers to leave a product review, and the website itself does not do any testing or reviewing.

How Can Product Review Sites Benefit my Business?

Your online reputation is important and can make or break your business.

Positive reviews mean that a consumer can trust your product and your business whereas negative reviews may send them to another business.

Here are 6 ways that product review sites can benefit your business.

1. Establish Credibility

Small businesses and independent retailers are often less visible than large chains. Online reviews allow consumers to trust in both your company and your products through the feedback of your customers. Establishing this trust and authenticity not only encourages a customer’s initial purchase, but keeps them coming back to your website.

2. Free Advertising

Search engines prominently display product reviews. These ratings and reviews redirect consumers to retail websites. Therefore, products without reviews are less likely to be displayed on search engine websites.

Review sites can provide more exposure at little or no cost than through traditional marketing.

3. Use Review Material for Marketing

Snippets of product reviews make for great marketing.

Your site can proudly display customer reviews from product review sites and market them on social media to promote your brand.

4. Enhance Quality

Online reviews allow your business to learn what customers love and don’t love about your products. They provide constructive feedback that you can use to make a better product.

5. Build a Closer Relationship with Customers

Online review sites allow you to read what customers have to say, increasing feedback on your business and product. You can use this exposure to develop a closer relationship to your customer base, and even reply to both positive and negative reviews. Replying to these reviews demonstrates that you’re interested in what your customers are saying.

6. Providing Insight on Services

In addition to reviewing products, your customers will likely review customer, shipping, and other services your business may provide.

These reviews will allow other customers to see how your business handles these services, and will allow you to see where your business can potentially improve.

Final Thoughts

Online customer reviews highlight various aspects of your business, whether they are products, services, or customer service interactions.

You can use these reviews to promote your business and build a satisfied customer base.

For more articles on improving your company reputation, visit our blog.

The post 6 Benefits Product Review Sites Can Bring to Your Business appeared first on ReputationResults.

Digital photos are quickly replacing traditional family photo albums as a way to capture our most precious family moments.

Keeping photos safe used to be a lot easier. All you had to worry about was protecting the photo album from wear and tear. With proper care, your album could survive generation after generation.

Today, we still have to protect our photos, but in a different way. You have to know the best way to store digital photos – or you could lose your precious keepsakes forever.

Did you know that certain storage formats will become obsolete? A good example of this is the floppy disk.

What if all of your photos were stored on a floppy disk? A few years from now on, it will become impossible to find a machine to read this format.

When you store digital photos, the technology might seem new to you now. However, over time, certain storage techniques will become just as outdated as the floppy disk.

Safe and easy data storage can protect your photos from being deleted or lost. Take a moment to learn about what your digital storage options are.

Types of Digital Media Storage

Cloud, optical, and magnetic are the three main ways to store your digital photos.

A lot of photographers will use more than one storage option. If you have everything in one place and something goes wrong, you’ll be devastated. Instead, diversify your storage options by combining all three methods.

With the three main storage options in mind, you can choose a primary one. Your primary storage option should be one that’s convenient for your storage needs. If you take thousands of photos weekly, you’ll need the cloud to be your primary choice.

Keep in mind that technology is constantly changing.

For example, marketing used to be done through ads in newspapers. Nowadays, companies are using new marketing techniques like geofencing. Old marketing strategies will quickly fade away – and so will companies that don’t catch up.

With new ways of storage being created, you’ll have to be flexible to keep up. Be prepared to change your primary storage method.

The most important thing is that your photos are readable in the future. You want to be able to enjoy your photos years down the road.

Make sure you know what formats are being cycled out. If a technology becomes outdated, don’t hesitate to make the switch.

Optical as Backup for Digital Photos Storage

Optical digital photos options include CDs.

CDs are a great backup option for digital media storage. Many photographers only use these devices as a backup storage option for safety reasons. Remember, if there’s a fire or natural disaster, you could lose your CD forever.

A CD can hold a little over a hundred high-resolution photos. Individuals who only want to save a couple hundred special photos might also prefer this option.

However, if you need a lot of storage, or you take photos daily, this isn’t the best way to store digital photos. You’ll have to spend time writing the CDs and organizing them. The entire process will quickly become a headache.

Purchase CDs that are read-only. These disks are often referred to as R discs.

The alternative option is rewritable disks, also referred to as RW discs. These have been proven to last longer than RW disks.

Read-only disks also cost less and minimize risk. Plus, you’ll only have to burn photographs onto them once. It’s no need to worry about writing over the wrong disk or erasing important photos.

Magnetic Storage for Digital Photos

Portable external hard drives are a more updated storage method.

Magnetic storage options refer to any type of hard drive your data is stored on. Traditionally, computers were the only hard drive, but now you can use an external hard drive.

An external portable hard drive can hold a lot more data than a readable disc. The high storage capacity makes this option appealing to professional photographers who take thousands of photos weekly.

You still have to be wary of losing your work due to a major mishap. If you lose the hard drive or it becomes destroyed, your work will be lost forever. This is why cloud storage needs to be a part of your backup plan.

Cloud Is the Best Way to Store Digital Photos

Storing data with a cloud platform is the safest way to store digital photos.

When you store data on a cloud platform, it’s similar to having photos saved on your social media. Your photos will be instantly stored on the cloud platform. Cloud storage is ideal for long-term data storage.

When data is stored for a long time, it’s referred to as being archived. Cloud platforms work great for archived data. They offer high storage capabilities with convenient upload processes.

Oftentimes, we have photos we want to save, but don’t need to access them frequently. These photos can be safely tucked away on your cloud. When you’re ready to see them, you can easily retrieve them with a simple search.

This storage option eliminates the dangers other options still carry. Your photos won’t be lost or left vulnerable to physical damage.

Digital pictures can be accidentally deleted from physical storage options like optical or magnetic. When your photos are on the cloud, the chance of accidental deletion is greatly reduced.

Find out more about how a reputable cloud platform can help you safely store your digital photos.

Safely Store Your Photos for a Lifetime

The cloud is hands down the best way to store digital photos. You won’t have to worry about misplacing or losing them.

Protecting your photos is as important as protecting your reputation. Take a moment to check out these stories about how you can promote and protect your brand online!

The post Wondering What the Best Way to Store Digital Photos Is? Find out Here appeared first on ReputationResults.

So, what’s the secret to successful brand promotion? What differentiates a well-established brand from an average one?

The key to promoting your brand is to establish customer trust. You must position yourself as an industry leader and emphasize innovation.

About 89 percent of millennials trust recommendations from family and friends more than TV and online ads.

If you have a good product, make sure it goes viral. This way, everyone will find out about it. The more people know about products, the more likely they are to buy.

What’s Brand Promotion All About?

Brand promotion is a key aspect of marketing. Your brand defines what you stand for. It reflects your business and its core values.

When it comes to branding, everything matters. The company’s website, name, messaging, and design are just a few factors to consider.

A defined brand strategy will make your business stand out and give you a competitive edge. It also creates brand equity, which leads to higher revenues.

Depending on your goals, you can try different brand promotion strategies, such as:

o Online advertising
o Mobile phone promotions
o Social media marketing
o Content marketing
o Video ads
o Magazines/newspapers
o Press releases
o Discounts
o Loyalty incentives
o Mail order catalogs

Nowadays, the online environment makes it easier to take action. It also involves lower costs than traditional marketing.

Need inspiration? Check out these five examples of successful branding strategies:

Bank of America

The second largest bank in the U.S. provides all electronic customer banking. For this reason, it’s considered the first 21st-century bank.

Its online services have more than 23 million mobile active users and 34 million accounts. Zelle, its mobile app, registered over 100 million transactions in just six months.

Whole Foods Market

Two decades ago, Whole Foods Market has established itself as an industry leader in organic and natural foods. Later, they have invested heavily in a new market segment, namely foodies.

The company switched to a new logo and marketing message using the tagline Passionately Picky. This transition led to massive growth.

IKEA

IKEA marketed itself as a company aiming to provide a better everyday life. Its products are highly functional and inexpensive, fitting into any budget.

The organization’s goal isn’t just to sell furniture but rather improve people’s lives. Its branding strategy is based on customer research.

Harley Davidson

Successful branding has a lot to do with human emotion. For instance, Harley Davidson makes customers feel as if they belong to a large family.

Those who purchase its products feel connected to other bikers. It’s like an invisible bond between all the freedom loving riders out there.

Taco Bell

About half of Americans eat Taco Bell every month. The company’s market share is growing from one year to another.

While other industry players focused heavily on quality, Taco Bell came up with irresistible prices. Who can say no to an $0.89 cheesy double taco?

Taco Bell restaurants became the go-to option for those who want cheap Mexican food. Its products are constantly updated and keep up with the trends.

Wrapping Up

Even if you own a small business, you can still use these brand promotion strategies for inspiration.

Successful marketing doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Creativity and innovation can go a long way toward customer satisfaction.

How do you promote your brand? Share your favorite strategies below!

The post 5 Successful Brand Promotion Strategies You Can Learn From appeared first on ReputationResults.

But research shows that online marketing is one of the most important things a small business can focus on. And it isn’t limited to tech-based industries, either. Construction companies would be smart to start looking towards the web for lead generation.

Sites like Houzz are directly targeted at builders and those looking for renovations. But to gain new clients, you’ll need to establish your credibility through reviews.

Here are 5 ways you can leverage Houzz reviews to generate more leads.

1. Show, Don’t Just Tell

A positive review from a customer is one of the most rewarding gifts for a builder, as it shows that the customer is thrilled with the results.

And while these lengthy posts may make your heart swell, others won’t always read them. Our attention spans are only getting shorter, so steer customers in a more visual direction.

Take lots of before and after photos throughout the repair process and use them to beef up your Houzz profile. Generally speaking, a company without much content isn’t going to garner much trust.

But you can also utilize these photos to gain trust and show off your great work at the same time!

2. People Trust Houzz Reviews More Than Your Profile

Let’s say you’re in the market for a new car. You can go to a dealership where you’ll get a whole marketing spiel. Or, you can get a recommendation from a trusted friend.

Chances are you’re going to trust your friend more, aren’t you? You wouldn’t be alone in that thought. We tend to trust the opinions of others before trusting an advertisement.

This translates to the Houzz reviews, too. 88% of consumers reported trusting online reviews as much as a peer recommendation.

So you can spend thousands of dollars on great advertisements and hope for results, or you can let your clients do the work for you.

3. Houzz Results Are Hyper-Localized

Ask any marketing expert what matters most for small businesses and they’ll likely point you to hyper-localized content.

Most small businesses focus on one concentrated area, so they’d do well to aim their ads accordingly.

Luckily, Houzz makes this pretty easy, as it tailors results to your location. Make sure you’re using lots of region-specific keywords to get as many hits as possible.

4. You Can Implement Houzz Reviews in Your Site

It’s true that a well-written Houzz profile can do wonders for a construction company, but you can also use these reviews on your site, as well.

After all, not everybody is going to go to Houzz initially, so it’s best to cast a wide net. Notice how the Pom & Associates does a great job of selling you on its services

This is a great strategy, no doubt. However, adding a section for reviews makes sure that every visitor sees your great work.

5. Respond to Let Customers Know You Hear Them

Customers want to feel appreciated. Social media makes this easy thanks to ‘Like’ buttons and comments.

So when a client gives some praise, send some love back. Take the time to write a quick thank you on their profile. It shows that you’re paying attention and that you care what they have to say.

Final Thoughts on the Importance of Houzz Reviews

Whether you’re an experienced social media veteran or a total newbie, take control of your reviews. They can do more for a business than even the most expensive advertisement.

At Reputation Results, we understand that managing your online reputation isn’t always easy. That’s why we’d love to help your business.

Get in touch today for your free reputation audit!

The post 5 Ways Builders Can Leverage Houzz Reviews appeared first on ReputationResults.

This shows how reviews can be so powerful to grow or quash your business. Therefore, as a business owner, you need to consider online reputation monitoring to know people’s opinions about you.

Your reviews on Yelp, Google My Business, and other local business listing services really matter. Most importantly, getting reviewed by journalists on major publications also impacts your reputation.

In this post, we’re going to cover the importance of monitoring your online reputation.

Read on for more.

Control Negative Reviews and Results

It’s always a nightmare when you do a branded search and all you get are negative search results topping the SERPs.

Keep in mind that customers are likely to trust the reviews they found online. By monitoring your reputation, you can identify these results and formulate a strategic approach to mediating the situation.

One way you can do this is through suppression SEO.

Typically, you create quality content around those search phrases that bring up negative results. You can link the posts to authoritative sites to help them rank high. This means your posts are likely to push the negative results to the third or fourth page of SERPs.

Manage Defamation

Then again, not all reviews out there can be genuine. Some companies and individuals are likely to defame your brand.

Online reputation monitoring allows you to identify such sites or journalists. You can contact them to pull down the posts or reviews. If they refuse, you can raise your grievances with Google.

However, Google may remove the links from their SERPs, but the reviews and content will remain live on those sites. The best approach to handle adamant website owners is to see legal counsel.

If you’re confident that a person or organization is defaming your business, a good lawyer can help you navigate the issue.

Put Your Business in a Positive Spotlight

Word of mouth travels fast. And there is an online adage that state “the internet never forgets.”

In some cases, mistakes can be made. As a business, you must be willing to acknowledge them. This is the first crucial step to resolving the issue. No one is perfect, and the best approach is coming out openly to your audience.

You can then proceed to clean your reputation. You can do this by improving your customer service. Also, issuing refunds or product replacements can help to ease your customers. The more you do this, the more you’re likely to get positive reviews from genuine clients.

Share your reviews on social media pages, website, and local business listing services. In the long run, it will be easy to put your business in the positive spotlight.

Online Reputation Monitoring – Final Thoughts

Today, the world is connected extensively. It’s more than a small village.

Negative reviews can spread easily and ruin your reputation. This will affect your bottom line, leading to a drop in sales and poor employee retention. Online reputation monitoring allows you to identify and fix issues before they worsen.

The post The Importance of Online Reputation Monitoring appeared first on ReputationResults.

To begin with, competition for customers is fierce in virtually all markets. You have to deliver excellent customer service, run efficiently with little profit loss, and incorporate a winning branding strategy to stand out.

Brand awareness is how familiar casual consumers are with your company’s image and products–in other words, your brand. For example, you only need to see the word “Disney” with a pair of mouse ears to imagine the magic of childhood.

To establish brand awareness among your target audiences, you need a strategy that hits them from all angles. Here are some effective steps you can take to develop a strong brand awareness strategy.

Be Present on Social Media

Having a strong presence on social media is all-important for reaching potential customers.

In fact, 80% of marketers acknowledge that social media leads to increased site traffic.

Being present on social media entails periodically updating your company’s social media accounts. It also entails ensuring that the accounts reflect the company’s current brand and direction. (For example, you don’t want your company’s accounts to showcase its old logo from five years ago!)

Interact on Social Media

One sure-fire way to win brand awareness is interacting with customers on social media. Customers love companies that care about them and not just their money. Receiving a friendly message from your company indicates to a customer that you acknowledge their presence and what they have to say.

Optimize Your Website

SEO is a digital strategy that virtually all serious companies incorporate on their websites. It entails using select keywords a certain amount of times to increase the site’s search engine ranking. The higher your site’s ranking, the higher your return on investment.

This strategy applies not just to the website’s text, but all elements of the website. Include your keywords in your site’s headers, meta descriptions, and images’ alternative text.

Sponsor Events

Many community events are sponsored by local companies.

It’s customary that event hosts thank their sponsors and then list them during the event. So if you help sponsor an event, most likely you’ll receive a public acknowledgment in front of a crowd of potential customers.

Not only that, sponsoring events improves your company’s image. When your company sponsors the local theater’s productions or a marathon to raise awareness of a disease, for instance, your company is saying it cares. You care about your customers as much as you care about your community.

Host Competitions

Everyone loves free things. Hosting a competition and giving away a demo of your latest product to the winner is an effective way to get potential customers interested in your brand.

Competitions can be held in a number of ways. You can host one in-person, via email submissions or social media. Displaying everyone’s entries with a short, nice comment is icing on the cake.

Need a Review of Your Brand Awareness Strategy?

At Reputation Results, we care about how your potential customers see your company.

We make it our business to provide thorough, honest audits so you know where your company stands with customers. Contact us today for a free audit!

The post How to Create a Strong Brand Awareness Strategy appeared first on ReputationResults.

Whether you run your own business or want to land a new job, a negative story in search results is the last thing you need. A bad review might have a new client thinking twice.

How can you bury Google search results? It’s easier than you think.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to push down negative search results on Google. By doing so, you can reclaim your reputation and improve your personal brand. Landing a new job or improving your business’s reputation is just a few steps away.

This Strategy for Burying Results Rarely Works

The first advice you might get about how to bury negative search results is to ask for removal of the content. Unfortunately, this strategy rarely works.

First, the negative result may be coming from a domain that is no longer monitored. Worse, it might be an extortion site, which will just replicate the content. If you’re unsure about the website, don’t contact the webmaster to request removal.

Some people will put in a DMCA request to have Google remove the negative content. Google is unlikely to remove the content unless there’s copyright infringement.

Mastering SEO is How to Push Down Negative Search Results on Google

If you want a more effective method for how to push negative search results down, it’s time to learn about search engine optimization.

The principle behind SEO is optimizing your content to rank higher in search results. You can’t control what other people are publishing about you. You can control what you put out there.

You’ll want to create some content that ranks high for your search keyword. In the case of your reputation, the keyword is your name or the name of the business. With SEO content, you can push your personal website and your social media accounts to the top spot.

Create More Content to Bury Results

You’ve improved your ranking for your website, but the negative story is still on the first page of results. Using what you’ve learned about SEO, create some more stellar content for your website.

You can also create a blog on a platform like Medium or WordPress. Don’t forget the power of backlinking either. Write for authoritative publications to push down negative search results on Google.

This is the most effective strategy for how to bury Google search results.

You Must Manage Your Online Reputation

From this discussion of how to push down negative search results on Google, you should know you must act. A negative news story could be harming your online reputation, and no one else will manage it for you.

Not sure what your online reputation looks like? Find out by getting an audit from the professionals. Click here for more ideas for overcoming a bad reputation.

The post Manage Your Rep: How to Push Down Negative Search Results On Google appeared first on ReputationResults.

It’s easy to measure key metrics online. Keeping track of visitors and conversions is like a thermometer for your business. But what about those elements that are harder to measure?

You need to know how your brand looks from the eyes of your customers. How they perceive your brand will determine your success. But it’s impossible to understand brand perception without a brand audit.

Why Is a Brand Audit Important?

95% of small businesses fail on social media. This is in large part because they have no proper brand positioning. They lost all their sales and didn’t see it coming.

When you understand your brand’s position in the market, you can prevent future disasters. That’s because you can identify problem areas and address them directly. You get a peek at your brand through the eyes of your ideal customers.

5 Steps to Conducting a Successful Brand Audit

You’re about to go on a journey to better understanding your brand. In five easy steps, you’ll have visibility into how you can adjust your positioning. And you can conduct another audit at any time.

1. Create a Framework for Your Audit

Create a framework by making a list of all elements that influence the success of your business. This includes your objective, competitors, strengths, and weaknesses. Include market components like industry trends and differentiators as well.

There are many more factors to consider. Try to organize these into a logical arrangement. You will use these considerations during your audit.

2. Learn More About Your Customers for Qualitative Data

You’ve been successful with customers in the past, but do you know why? You can ask your customers about their experiences and perception of your brand. The more information you get, the better you will understand the customer experience in general.

Tracking down customers for feedback isn’t easy. But anonymous surveys with incentives should get the ball rolling. Combine open-ended questions with multiple choice to get the best qualitative results.

3. Study Your Web Statistics for Quantitative Data

Your website analytics will reveal a lot about what customers like and dislike about your brand. They may solidify some of the qualitative data from your customers as well.

Study which touchpoints customers are using to interact with your brand. If 90% of your traffic comes from social, you might want to look at your email marketing strategy.

4. See What Your Competitors Are Doing

If you’re missing a lot of sales in one area, it may be because of your competitors. Study how your competitors differentiate themselves in the market. Do they have better branding on products similar to yours?

You can create new strategies to address these pain points. You can use your new understanding of customers to develop better, customer-centric campaigns as well.

5. Identify Action Points and Go

Place all your data into your original framework. You should see obvious problem areas. Create action items to address each of these concerns.

Consider conducting an audit annually. Before long you will see trends and improvements in your brand performance. In time, you will be delivering ideal products and messaging to your target audience.

Get Results for Your Brand

There are dozens of elements that influence brand perception. You can’t capture them all in a personal audit.

Expert auditors provide the tools and services you need for an in-depth understanding. They provide results that can transform your business. They can train your teams on reputation management as well.

You can get started right now, without paying a dime. Get a free audit from ReputationResults and discover what your business is missing.

The post A Step-By-Step Guide for Conducting a Brand Audit appeared first on ReputationResults.

According to director Caitlin Davis, business owners often lack a clear sense of who they are. Thus, they also lack a sense of what they have to offer.

The purpose of branding is to convey your message to customers. Secondary goals are to build customer loyalty. Persuade them to buy your product or service. Doing this means making an emotional connection with your customers.

Brand management then is a combination of concepts, strategy, and marking your brand. Read on for some essential keys to managing your brand.

Define Your Brand

Before all else, define your brand. Focus on your mission and vision for your company, product, or service. Think about character and value.

What is it you do best? What are your company’s strengths? Focus on those. Determine what qualities you wish to communicate to your customers.

Be sure these qualities are authentic and true to your company. Your brand will become your business model.

Consistency Above All

More than anything else, consistency makes a company stand apart from its competitors. Think about the quality your company delivers and focus on that.

A regional grocery store chain called Publix, for instance, delivers consistent customer service. Thus, their long-running slogan is Publix: Where Shopping Is a Pleasure.

Start from the Inside

Ask your employees what they think about your brand. How do they feel about it? Develop your brand’s story from their answers. Take their story and bring it to your customers.

A brand is more than a logo on a website. A brand is an idea that evolves into your products or services. Why not ask those who helped you build your products for their ideas?

Stay Relevant

Brand management demands that you remain flexible with your brand. You want to project consistency, but you also want to adapt to marketing trends as well as customer needs.

Branding is both a strategy and a process. Be open to tweaking your message. Make it stronger and reach more people through your brand promotion.

Measure Effectiveness Through ROI

Return on investment (ROI) indicates that your brand management strategies are on track. How are your customers responding to your product and price adjustments? To marketing campaigns? To online brand promotions?

Any brand readjustments should lead to higher profits and reduced expenses/overhead.

Cultivate Your Brand’s Community

Your brand’s community is a powerful platform in and of itself. Your buyers remain engaged. They develop loyalty towards your brand. Member can also feel connected to one another.

Focusing on a brand community enables you to collaborate with your customers. This can be beneficial when developing new products and determining a pricing strategy.

Reap the Benefits of Effective Brand Management

Developing an effective brand management strategy brings focus to your product or service. From there, you can focus on what you do best, creating something your customers want and care about.

Often, company owners opt to hire brand strategists to help with brand management. That way, they can concentrate on running their business. The brand strategists can handle branding.

The post The Keys to Online Brand Management: What it Takes to ‘Brand’ Online Success appeared first on ReputationResults.

While rebranding a business leads to cosmetic changes, it doesn’t always fix the core issue. Brand repositioning, on the other hand, involves re-evaluating your place in the market. It’s what catapulted Old Spice from a faltering brand to one of the leading US deodorant brands.

Of course, brand repositioning can be costly. However, you can also lose out on money if you avoid repositioning when your brand desperately needs it. Therefore, it’s important to look start the process before it’s too late.

Keep reading for a quick look at 5 common signs you need to reposition your brand!

1. The Benefits of Your Brand Aren’t Clear Enough

Erratic sales and unstable market shares can signal under-positioning.

If your brand is under-positioned, it means that your message is too vague. As a result, consumers have a poor understanding of what benefits your brand offers.

The only way to fix this issue is to reposition your brand. You need to focus on tightening up your message. Use a more succinct slogan and compare your brand to relevant competitors.

2. You’re Offering New Products or Services

It’s normal for businesses to expand as they grow older. They innovate and begin to offer new products or services, or they refine old ones. This leads them into new, unfamiliar markets.

However, when you enter a new market, it’s critical to adapt to changes by repositioning your brand. Failing to reposition makes it impossible for you to compete with other brands in that market. Many consumers will completely miss out on what you’re offering due to lack of awareness.

3. Consumers Think Your Brand Is Irrelevant

If your brand has been around long enough, consumers may perceive it as trustworthy. Unfortunately, they may also perceive it as stale and irrelevant.

The only way to shake off the perception of being an outdated brand is to reposition, as this problem will only get worse over time. Modernizing your brand can help you compete with newer firms in your market.

4. Your Brand Doesn’t Stand Out

You may also run into an issue where the benefits of your brand are well communicated, but there are few points-of-difference. In this case, you have a lack of unique attributes that separate you from your competitors. By repositioning your brand, you can draw attention to these attributes.

That said, avoid over-positioning your brand. This occurs when you focus too much on a few points-of-difference. Instead, find a balance by incorporating points-of-parity, or attributes shared by your competitors.

5. You’re Attracting the Wrong Customers

If your average customer doesn’t match your target market, you should consider repositioning your brand.

Make sure you’re attracting the most profitable target market. The market should target now even be a lot different than the one you were targeting 10 years ago.

Consider using focus groups to find out what your target market wants from your brand.

Brand Repositioning Done Right

When repositioning your brand, don’t neglect your current customers. Keep in mind that acquiring new customers can cost more than 5 times as much as retaining old ones.

Start the repositioning process by identifying what’s wrong with your current branding. Get a free reputation audit to find out where your brand stands. Also, use surveys to determine why people prefer your competitors’ brands over your own.

Be sure to check out our blog for more articles on building a successful brand!

The post 5 Signs Your Business Needs a Brand Repositioning Strategy appeared first on ReputationResults.

As of today, there are over 800 million active users on Instagram. One problem with the platform is that Instagram has made it quite difficult to find followers. If you know the best Instagram followers hack, you should have no problem having thousands of new (real) followers in no time!

If you’ve heard rumors about a new algorithm, it’s true. Instagram has changed their algorithm, making it hard for any average account to get noticed and find new followers. They are also penalizing anyone who attempts to buy followers and perform any black hat style marketing.

If you want to stand out from the crowd, you need to know how to get noticed on Instagram.

So how do you gain new (and real), followers without getting penalized? How do you know when you have crossed the line and avoid getting shadow-banned?

Keep reading to learn the best Instagram followers hack and have thousands of real followers in no time!

Let’s get started.

First Off, Why Instagram?

Instagram started as a fun way to share pictures with your friends. It’s now a powerful tool to gain brand awareness, connect with your customers, and boost sales for your business.

When compared to other social media platforms, Instagram has higher engagement rates and more active users. It’s the king of social media marketing. The more followers you have, the more official your brand will seem to potential customers.

Participate In Popular Conversations

An effective Instagram followers hack is to involve yourself in popular conversations that are relative to your brand. This will establish yourself as a professional in your industry, causing more people to spark interest in your profile.

To do this, search for the top hashtags relative to your brand. Go into the comments, answer questions, and involve yourself as much as possible.

Create Descriptive and Captivating Captions

An important strategy for gaining followers is creating captivating captions on your pictures. This gives you a chance to connect with your potential audience.

It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words, so do not skip the captions! A simple way to create a caption is to include a quote, your opinion on the quote, talk about what you are doing, and what it means to you.

Get Busy With Instagram Stories

Instagram stories are a way to connect with others and give them a chance to have a sneak peek of what your life is like. Do not be afraid of talking to the camera. This is essential to connect with others and spread your brand awareness.

Couple tips for creating epic Instagram Stories;

• Make sure you tag the location of where you are, this puts you on the daily story for that location and gives other users a chance to see you.
• Include relative hashtags. This puts you on the daily story for that hashtag.
• Mention other users or include other users in your videos. These people will probably re-share your story in their story, now you have their followers noticing you too.
• Curate your story highlights. Design a good cover photo for each category, then organize all your stories into each category. Think of this like a movie trailer or a sneak-peek.
• Teach your audience something! If you want to get really meta, create a story on how to get more followers. Create something so valuable that people will want to share it with their friends
• Add fun GIF’s and make it entertaining
• Create a poll, and get your followers to chime in. Then share the results later, tagging some of your followers thanking them for their comments.

There are so many more ways to gain new followers by using Instagram stories, try these out and let us know how it goes!

Curate a Beautiful Looking Feed

By creating an attractive Instagram feed, you’re giving people a reason to follow you. These new followers will share it with their friends. There are many apps such as Later and the Preview app that allow you to drag and drop your future photos into a grid that is aesthetically pleasing.

Get Busy Engaging

We already told you the importance of getting involved in popular conversations. In addition, start commenting on other people’s posts that are relative to your brand. This could be other professionals in your industry or commenting on the posts of potential clients.

Start by searching for relative hashtags in your industry, then get busy commenting. Not only will you gain new followers, but you will also gain a great reputation as a professional in your niche.

Create a Call to Action on Every Post

Rather than thinking of your posts as a way to broadcast your business, think of it more as a way to create conversations. By asking a question and getting people to comment on your post, the algorithm will pick this up as a hot post and push it to the top.

Some simple ways to do this is to ask people if they relate to your post, if they have experienced anything similar, or if they have anything to add.

Get Creative with Your Hashtags

Hashtags are a powerful Instagram tool. Using the right hashtags will boost your brand awareness and get you on the top of the feed.

Do your research, find which hashtags are relevant to your niche, and create an inventory of those hashtags so that you can use them again in the future. Make sure to not use the same ones every time or else Instagram may penalize you.

Have fun with it, create some long-tailed hashtags, and make it entertaining.

Now That You Know the Best Instagram Followers Hack, What’s Next?

Practicing these strategies is the best Instagram followers hack. These tips are the best way to get noticed on Instagram and will help you get ahead of your competitors.

Want to learn more about social media hacks? Check out more articles on our blog such as building more brand awareness and branding shortcuts to know right now.

The post Guided Growth: The Ultimate Instagram Followers Hack for 2018 appeared first on ReputationResults.

No, it’s not plans to cut expenditures. It has nothing to do with labor or hiring.

All the successful companies are focusing on B2B marketing strategies. 

Do you really want your business to find success? Then it’s time to jump onto the business-to-business bandwagon. And we have nine of the greatest ways to do it in 2019. 

1. Continual Research

It’s something every entrepreneur knows should be done, yet many bypass this important strategy. 

To market to businesses successfully, whether the end goal is to get the company’s business or to extend your services to their consumers, it is vital that businesses research thoroughly. 

This should include:

• Marketing research that focuses on potential customers, current customers and methods to attract target audiences
• Research and development that finds ways to better products or services or contemplates new products and/or services
• Continual company analyses that explore the business’s reputation, success and competition

Conducting this continual research translates to a better grasp of your company, services and customer desires. Some companies choose to outsource this work; others use the many tools available today to conduct research themselves.

As a result, you will be able to reach out to companies in a way that your competition can’t, giving you a distinct advantage. 

2. Case Studies

The research doesn’t just pay off by letting your company draw attention and interest; it also gives you the opportunity to highlight strengths. 

Case studies are an excellent way to strut your stuff and gain the attention of serious businesses. In fact, almost 75% of B2B consumers make purchasing decisions based on case studies. 

What, you may wonder, does a successful case study entail? If you want to increase conversion rates:

1. Target a specific audience
2. Make the consumer the champion of your sales pitch
3. Make the study easy to read

By integrating all that hard-earned research into a case study that shows customers your worth, you’ll gain a positive reputation and more clients. 

3. Mobile Marketing

If you haven’t gotten in on mobile marketing, you are missing out on a huge pool of consumers. Business professionals and consumers alike are turning to mobile devices for everything from research to purchases. 

And it’s no longer enough to simply add mobile to your list of marketing techniques. Now, it’s necessary that mobile isn’t just checked off your list–it’s at the top of your list. 

Everything offered on your website or in other platforms should be available in an app. And the interface better load quickly and be user-friendly, otherwise, customers will search elsewhere for their products. 

Focus on:

• Friendly, easy-to-use interfaces
• Providing the same or additional services through the app
• Quick loading times
• Designs that work with multiple devices

The practice of geofencing is also becoming all the rage and allows businesses to focus on consumers who may be right around their doorstep. 

By doing this, you immediately create a positive connection with potential businesses you’d like to work with. 

4. Product Reviews

Do you want some free advertising? How about a better reputation? 

Make sure your company has product reviews easily accessible by consumers. Keep the reviews genuine and have representatives consistently reach out to those who post about your products or services. 

Doing so:

• Establishes your business’s credibility
• Creates real connections between the company and the consumers
• Increases your brand’s reputation as word spreads
• Encourages sales by providing insight into products
• Provides data for research, development, and marketing

If you don’t have a product review page yet, get one on your site pronto. 

5. Cross Platforms

Direct mail is dead, right? That’s the myth, anyhow. 

And it’s completely false. Study after study demonstrates direct mail is just as effective as ever and holds up well to other forms of marketing. 

MRP reports direct mail for B2B marketing is at least somewhat effective almost 60% of the time and initiates a 15% conversion rate, which is a startling percentage across any marketing platform. 

But we can’t forget other ways to reach out to clients, and every company official knows the importance of social media today. It’s so integral to B2B marketing that one in four consumers claim they turn to Facebook first when making purchasing decisions. 

However, social media isn’t the place to continually post sales pitches; instead, use it to foster relationships and promote discussions. Keep in mind paid advertising in social media outlets is an excellent way to subtly promote your brand. 

Go cross-platform for the best results.

6. Sponsors or Influencer Marketing

Yet even with your research, poignant posts and focus on mobile marketing, B2B companies may still find themselves falling short. 

It’s time to reach out. 

Online, contact individuals, sponsors or organizations with impressive followings and ask them if they would be interested in promoting your product or service. Consider offering these free of charge, as this relationship can have a huge impact on your business’s success. 

Done correctly, you’ll wow the sponsor and–voila!–hundreds or thousands of followers see your company.

7. Advertising Buddies

But what about consumers walking into a store? 

Don’t forget the influence of good old advertising, including in-store merchandise. Sniff around the neighborhood and partner up with businesses who complement your products or services. 

Offer to promote their business or service in your own ads, online platforms, and store and ask them to do the same. 

That means when a potential consumer is at a store selling laptops, he or she will see your company name associated with fixing broken laptops. Genius? We certainly think so. 

8. Referral Marketing

Some of the most successful businesses started on little more than referral marketing. Ask your past and current consumers to refer you to others. 

It’s an easy way to spread the word about your company, and if you make the process easy, fun and engaging you’ll be surprised at the influx in customers. 

The key? Make customers feel like they earned the referral. 

9. Niches and Target Audiences

But for any B2B business to grow, two things remain unwaveringly the same: you must offer a specific service in a niche and you must reach out to people interested in that niche. 

If you fail in these two endeavors, the entire marketing campaign falls apart. Know what you offer and who to offer it to.

Want More B2B Marketing Strategies? 

The New Year is sneaking up on us. Now is the time to research the B2B marketing strategies that are right for your business. 

But marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. Check out our seven free ways of promoting your products and services.

Fly ahead of the competition and let your company soar.

The post B2Brilliant! 9 B2B Marketing Strategies to Know for 2019 appeared first on ReputationResults.

Your online reputation is crucial to your business’s success. Everything from your social media profiles to your own blog and website plays a part in the way consumers perceive you.

Managing your online reputation should be part of your routine business strategy. In case your business has seen some negative online reviews or nasty comments on social media, use the following tips to conduct your own online reputation repair.

1. Perform Routine Monitoring Maintenance

Nearly half of U.S. adults said they have Googled someone before doing business with them. About 45% of those adults said they found an article or review in an online search that deterred them from doing business with the person.

Part of your business strategy should be to routinely monitor your brand or company’s name. Type it in Google and other search engines. Look up your products on Amazon and see what people are saying about them.

Follow up with reviews and comments made about your product or business. Always be professional when doing so.

2. Create a blog for your business.

A blog allows you to share positive information about your company, your services or products. By publishing content regularly, the search engines will eventually bury any negative content with the positivity happening on your blog. Don’t be afraid to speak highly of your business – in a humble way – to help with online reputation repair.

3. Maintain a positive presence on social media

Create profiles for the major social networking sites and share positive updates regularly. Social media offers a great way to connect with your prospects and target audience. You can serve them by answering questions and addressing common concerns with your product or service.

Building up a community on Facebook and other social networks helps your audience to trust you.

4. Create more positive content

When it’s time for an online reputation repair, you want to get as much positivity out there as you can about your business. You can do this on your own blog and social media channels as we’ve mentioned, but don’t stop there.

Use a variety of channels to promote the positive aspects of your business. Consider press releases, guest posts on other websites or podcast interviews. Be authentic and honest to represent your brand and repair your online reputation.

5. Encourage more customer reviews

Don’t let negative reviews discourage you. You just need more positive ones, and, unfortunately, people with negative experiences are the ones who will be sharing their reviews more often.

Encourage customers who are having a positive experience to share their reviews. Hopefully, with a little online reputation repair, your product’s Amazon review will be as good as those for Nuton MCT Oil.

Manage Your Online Reputation

Since the majority of people scope out a business online before making a purchase, your online reputation is crucial. By performing routine monitoring practices, posting positive content and encouraging good reviews, you’ll attract loyal customers with your sparkling online reputation.

But it can be hard to keep up with monitoring reviews and keeping your cool when you see negative comments. That’s where Reputation Results comes in! Check out our reputation services to see how we can help you maintain professional online integrity.

The post 5 Online Reputation Repair Tips You Should Know appeared first on ReputationResults.

If you think that online reviews are just people looking to talk trash about your business and they should be ignored, you need to reconsider that stance.

Online reviews play a major role for customers who are looking at similar products and services. About 84% of customers trust online reviews as much as a recommendation from someone they know.

The question comes down to whether or not you want to get the business or you want them to go to your competitors.

Read on to learn how reviews impact your business and what you can do to use reviews to bump up your bottom line.

How Customers Make Buying Decisions

We’ve come a long way from the days where people would use the yellow pages to find a plumber, restaurant, or other service providers.

Back in those days, the biggest ads and companies that started with the letter A would get called first. It basically came down to the one with the biggest ad spend would win.

Things have changed and the playing field has become more level. Companies no longer have to rely only on a massive ad budget to compete for eyeballs. SEO, social media, and pay per click ads have leveled the playing field.

What happens now when people search online is that they turn to their phone instead of a massive, heavy book. They look for services and products online, either on Amazon or Google. You might be surprised to learn that 52% of product searches start with research on Amazon.

People will look at your website, where they’ll form an impression based on the design. Your logo needs to be up to date and professional. If it’s not, you could lose business. Click here for more information about website and logo design services.

They’ll also look at reviews to support their initial impressions. If they already have a bad impression, they’ll look for reviews that are also bad.

That’s why you need positive reviews and as many as possible. If they can’t find negative reviews, they are more likely to pick up the phone or buy your product.

Local Business Reviews Helps SEO

Search engines take a lot of things into account when deciding search results. They look at things like website speed, backlinks, keywords and more.

For local searches, reviews also play a big role in how your site appears in search results. You rarely see a search result that shows negative reviews at the top of listings. That’s because search engines have to get the best results to their users.

If they consistently show search results of companies that have bad reviews, people won’t trust the search results. They can then use another search engine.

It’s in your best interest to have your customers review your business on Google first since that will impact SEO. Reviews on your website should be the second priority since that data is also used to determine search results.

After you have plenty of reviews on Google and your website, you can focus on building positive reviews on sites like Yelp, Angie’s List, and Houzz.

The result is that you get more web traffic to your site from people who are genuinely interested in your services. That turns into revenue for your business.

How to Get Reviews

Are you wondering how you can go about getting glowing reviews online?

It’s actually easier than you think. You have to ask your customers. Simple, right?

You do need to be aware that there is a grey area when it comes to asking for reviews. Some sites like Yelp don’t allow business owners to ask for reviews in their terms and conditions.

Google’s terms and conditions say that you can ask for reviews, you can’t provide incentives to people to give reviews.

The reason why sites have such strict policies is that they want users to trust the reviews on their sites. It’s impossible to trust reviews if there’s the possibility that reviewers received some kind of benefit to leaving a positive review.

How do you go about asking for reviews? The best way to ask for reviews is to have a system in place. For example, after your business works with a customer, you can send an email asking them to rate your business on Google.

If you have a retail location, have a couple of signs posted saying that customers can find you on Google or leave a review on your website.

Don’t forget to ask for reviews in your social media posts.

Managing Bad Reviews

If you’ve been in business for a while, you’ve probably had some customer issues that couldn’t be resolved. Hopefully, those experiences are few and far between, but they can end up becoming negative reviews.

It’s tempting to respond to the negative review by blaming the customer for the bad experience or to get angry. That will only make your business look worse to people who are reading about your business for the first time.

The best way to respond to bad reviews is to make sure the customer feels heard, even if they’re wrong. You also need to make sure that the issue is handled offline.

Finally, you want to personalize every response. If you just copy and paste the same response, it looks inauthentic and uncaring.

Here’s a great example of a personalized response:

“Hi, Julie. We appreciate your feedback, and we’re sorry you had a bad experience with us. We want to make sure that the situation is made right and it doesn’t happen again. Please call us at 123-456-7890 and ask for Jimmy. We’d love another shot at making you a happy customer.”

It shows that you care about your business and you’re committed to customer service.

Local Business Reviews Drive Customers to Your Business

Local Business reviews can drive people to your business and make it easy for them to make a decision to call for more information or book an appointment.

You can encourage your biggest fans to leave reviews on Google, specialty sites like Angie’s List and your website. The more positive reviews you have, the better.

Are you ready to use reviews to get more business? Start with a free review audit, which will tell you how you can improve your online presence.

The post How to Boost Your Online Reputation with Local Business Reviews appeared first on ReputationResults.

This type of analysis is essential to gauge public opinion of a business’s brand. Companies want to see the impact they have on consumers, primarily through outreach online.

There are numerous tools available to help organizations perform this type of assessment. However, some are better than others.

Here are seven helpful tools that will assist your business with opinion mining and sentiment analysis.

Google Alerts

With Google Alerts, businesses can essentially eavesdrop on conversations that are being had about them on social media.

They can see how potential customers view their brand and its connection to the business.

Using Google Alerts allows organizations to track their online presence and view comments and likes that show support and satisfaction or complaints that signal areas in need of improvement.

Google Analytics

Another Google tool, Google Analytics, allows businesses to discover what about their brand is attracting consumers and how they can capitalize on it.

Google Analytics allows you to see the exact amount of visitors that have found your website, learn which exact terms your visitors type in search engines, and optimize keywords so that your site will hopefully rank higher.

Facebook Insights

If a business’s Facebook page has more than 30 likes, it can take advantage of Facebook Insights.

With Facebook Insights, organizations are able to see their page’s number of fans, number of likes, and page views.

More importantly, it also allows you to view fans’ demographics and who of them are daily active users, letting you to understand your social media audience better and craft more specific posts that cater to them.

Tweetstats

With roughly 950 million websites on the Internet, you are guaranteed to face stiff competition from other business. Tweetstats can supply information to help you evaluate your own progress and how you stack up against your competitors.

With Tweetstats, marketers can track and measure specific aspects of Twitter accounts, such as average number of tweets per day, growth of followers, and frequency of replies.

People Browser

If you really want to see the impact of specific marketing campaigns, People Browser is an amazing tool.

Not only can it find every mention of your brand, industry, and competitors and analyze sentiment, but People Browser can also compare the number of mentions before, during, and after campaigns.

Brandwatch

Brandwatch is another incredibly useful tool that provides its users with detailed information from over 70 million traffic sources.

Additionally, Brandwatch can review the tone of the posts it’s scanning so that businesses can examine how potential customers respond to certain types of content.

Semantria’s Lexalytics

People misinterpreting each other’s sentiments online is not a rare occurrence. A mean or sarcastic comment can be misconstrued as positive and encouraging.

Fortunately for businesses, Semantria’s Lexalytics breaks down each word in every sentence and assesses its sentiment based on the context of the post.

Semantria then compares that post with other related content to reach a more definitive conclusion.

Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis: Going Forward

All of these tools can be extremely helpful when it comes to building and monitoring your brand.

Be sure to keep them in mind when focusing on opinion mining and sentiment analysis.

Do you have any other questions about opinion mining or sentiment analysis? Can we assist you with your brand in any other way? If so, please contact us so we can help!

The post The Best Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis Tools for Social Media appeared first on ReputationResults.

The truth is, people can be vengeful. You never know when an ex-employee or vindictive ex-lover is going to try to make a public online move against you. The truth is, people can have a substantial impact on your online presence by simply posting a thing or two.

Your Google results can make all the difference when it comes to people using your business or not. It can make the difference between getting a job or not. That’s why there is absolutely no shame in finding out what is lying underneath your name in the Google-verse.

Here are a few other reasons to check your virtual self out:

You’ll Learn Why Google is Important

It’s time to learn how Google works so you can better represent your business. We expect so much from Google, without knowing how much it really works. There are a few things that can help you out when you google yourself.

First, you’ll learn what else comes up with your name as relevant keywords when someone is googling your business. It will show you all the websites that are relevant to said search.

It will also list websites according to authority. This will show you in order which sites are most respectful, visited, and reliable. So where do you fall?

Google Yourself, Because Your Employer Will

We live in an age (for better or for worse) where everyone is always online for information. Employers are also aware of how active most people are on the internet, which makes it very easy for them to dig and find out personal information.

Many employers will simply search a potential employees name. Consumers will search a business name and read reviews. Google yourself first to make sure there is nothing that needs to be cleaned up professionally.

You Have The Power

Great news everyone: if you see something you don’t like, you can have it removed! You might need to hire a lawyer and do some damage control, but you can have the online presence you desire.

Sure, the internet can be quite a long-lasting bible of reputations, but you can have derogatory or incorrect results removed from what comes up under your business or personal name.

A-List

Don’t be afraid to Google yourself and tailor your image. Roll out the red carpet (virtually speaking) for your company or name. Even if you don’t want to hire a lawyer, Google makes it pretty easy to hide information or remove information that you simply don’t want to be seen.

For everything else, hire the professionals to manage your online reputation. If you really want your online presence sparkling like a diamond, then use a company who can watch every step your online persona is making.

Much like a crafted career in Hollywood, a management team can make sure you don’t take the wrong steps and end up in reputation disaster. For help with your online presence, contact us today for a free audit.

The post Why You Should Definitely Google Yourself appeared first on ReputationResults.

This isn’t solely a financial issue, either. Sometimes all it takes is one misguided tweet or one bombardment of bad reviews to tank a business.

As a business owner, it’s important to stay protected in a world where anyone can write anything. Since the web is such a slippery slope, most businesses could use a reputation defender.

But what exactly is a reputation defender and why would a business need one? Here are a few of the top reasons to hire someone to fix that tarnished reputation!

Monitor Online Conversations about Your Brand

If a brand has even a shred of success, there’s likely an online conversation about it. Those not convinced should check out reviews for businesses near them.

That hole in the wall no one knows about? It’s probably more popular than previously thought.

It’s important to keep track of these conversations and monitor what’s being said. After all, perception is the reality.

Hiring a reputation defender is a great way to stay up to date on the public’s opinion without taking valuable time away from business operations.

It’s hard enough to find enough time in the day to get everything done. Who really has time to maintain their reputation when there are dozens of social media sites?

People Trust What Others Say

For better or worse, the internet has given everyone a voice of equal volume. It takes one customer’s bad experience to change the course of a business for the worse.

But who’s going to listen to these people? After all, what they’re saying doesn’t even need to be true to be heard.

As it turns out, most of the internet is going to side with the customer. See, people trust other people more than brands. In fact, most people trust reviews as much as a personal recommendation.

Hiring someone to defend your business reputation can prevent things from getting out of hand too fast.

A Reputation Defender Knows How To Respond Appropriately

People put thousands of hours of blood, sweat, and tears into their business. When someone comes along and makes a disparaging remark, it’s all too easy to react rashly.

Take the curious case of Amy’s Baking Company, for instance. The business had its share of problems to start with, but the shop’s owners gained notoriety on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares.

Aside from the lackluster food, Amy’s Baking Company had a massive image problem.

They weren’t only aware of the negative reviews about their business, but they actively responded to each one. And the results were less than professional at best.

Unsurprisingly, Amy’s Baking Company shut its doors for good a few years ago.

So what’s the lesson in all this?

Be professional. Sometimes that’s easier said than done. Those that can’t divorce themselves from their work would do well to hire a reputation defender.

What’s said online doesn’t simply disappear and can come back to haunt a brand.

These reputation experts are well-trained when it comes to unhappy customers. A reputation pro will do his or her best to respond to that customer and solve a problem.

Get Reputable Reputation Repair

Looking to raise brand awareness or just fix a blemished brand? Let Reputation Results assist!

We offer tons of resources to help any business struggling with negative reviews. Ready to get the reputation every brand dreams of? Then contact us today and start repairing your brand in a matter of minutes!

The post Why You Need a Professional Reputation Defender appeared first on ReputationResults.

With as hard as you’ve worked for your online reputation, it’s amazing how easily it can come crashing down. A single event or one out-of-place comment can throw your public into an outrage.

Do you know how to fix your reputation? We do!

Below is a step-by-step guide to internet reputation repair. Follow these steps to win back your public approval.

1. Stop the Sin

Whatever you did to earn this bad reputation, stop doing it right now. Your public needs to see that you address the problem immediately.

Everybody makes mistakes. Responding immediately shows the world that you care enough to fix your mistakes. But if you keep doing the thing that made them angry, your reputation may never recover.

2. Publicly Apologize

Now, because you acted immediately, you can tell the world that you have already taken action to address the problem. Do this on the news, your website, social media, a press release, etc.

3. Spend More Time on Social Media

Next, get ready to be way more active on your social media accounts. Post constant updates about how you’re addressing the problem. Narrate each little detail of your progress in solving the problem as soon as you have any.

And try to respond to everyone who posts about this issue on your social media. Assemble a team for this workload if you need to.

This will draw more and more attention from anyone looking for information on this issue online. That will make you the authority on the subject. Then more people will see how hard you’re working to solve the problem and how much you care.

4. Don’t Blow Your Fuse

People will be criticizing you. You need to stay calm and collected and respond politely. Then your audience will see how well you’re handling the situation and how mature and responsible you are.

No matter how angry the attacker is, they are still your customer. And it’s your job to help them.

Always be apologetic, never be defensive. Give them all the relevant information you have. Tell them you are truly sorry and you are doing everything you can to resolve the issue.

You may not make the commenter happy. But you can still please the others who are watching.

5. Put Reviews on Your Website

This may seem weird considering the situation, but user reviews are good for your SEO and your online reputation.

Google looks for user reviews when ranking your site in search results. Allowing reviews on your site will up your search ranking.

Also, it makes you look more human to your audience. If you don’t allow reviews, it makes it look like you don’t care what customers think. It also looks like you’re trying to hide your bad reputation.

Allowing feedback shows openness and care.

6. Use Analytics

There are many tools available to help you keep track of your online reputation. Google Alerts tracks keyword usage across the internet. It can alert you when keywords related to the current issue show up on a newly indexed page.

Social media tools like Hootsuite do something similar for social media. It can track keyword usage across social media. It can also help you organize your current social media PR strategy.

7. Consult with an Outside PR Company

You needn’t handle big, controversial issues alone. Hire some experts.

An experienced PR company knows exactly what to do. If you can afford it, it can’t hurt outsource your PR strategy to them. But, it may hurt not to.

Get Internet Reputation Repair Today

Don’t lose hope! Internet reputation repair is possible. Just stay calm, follow the steps in this guide and seize that brighter future.

Now check out 3 Ways to Get More Positive Reviews Online.

The post Internet Reputation Repair: How to Overcome a Bad Online Reputation appeared first on ReputationResults.

There are currently more than 1.8 billion websites on the World Wide Web. And this number increases every minute, making it increasingly important that you have a solid backlink strategy in place.

Backlinks help improve your ranking in the search results, position your business as an expert in the industry, and increase your traffic. In this post, you’ll learn how to get backlinks so you can enjoy all of these benefits.

Ready? Let’s get started.

Why Are Backlinks Important?

The number of backlinks your website has is a good indicator of how popular it is. Search engines give credit to sites with large numbers of backlinks (of high quality) and they’re given more relevance in search queries.

In the days of Blackhat SEO, many business owners and SEO professionals would simply pay for links from a variety of irrelevant websites. But Google’s algorithm is too smart for this now, meaning you’ll need to get backlinks from high-authority, relevant websites.

How to Get Backlinks For Your Website

Backlinks are like stamps of approval from other websites. When you have a new backlink, that means that someone has found your website relevant, helpful, or interesting enough to share it with their own readers.

Here are a few ways you can get backlinks for your site:

Comment on Other Blogs

When you comment on another website or blog, you can link back to your website. Some of these are “follow” links, which mean they’ll give you “link juice” and an actual backlink for Google.

Others are “no-follow” links, but you can still gain new followers by sharing your perspective or expertise with a new audience.

Guest Post

If you’re an expert in a particular industry, why not share that knowledge? Guest blogging is a great way to reach a new audience and demonstrate your expertise with potential followers or clients.

The trick to being successful with guest blogging is doing your research so you can choose high-quality, relevant websites which will link back to your site.  To successfully get a placed guest post, it is sometimes more beneficial to use a service, like this one by GuestPostTracker.com.

Invite Experts

Just as you can write for other websites, you can easily ask for an interview or guest post from an expert in your niche. This works well in a few different ways.

First, the person who is being interviewed or writing a guest post for you is likely to share the content with their own readers. They’re also likely to share it on social media, which will result in more traffic and potentially more links from their followers.

Produce Valuable Content

One of the best ways to get backlinks? Simply become known for your top-notch content.

Whether you have the latest statistics, a helpful infographic, or a long-form blog post, if you can solve a problem or create a conversation in your industry, people will naturally link back to your website.

You can see how this works on the Figment Agency SEO blog.

Be sure to ask people to share your content on social media or their own websites.

Wrapping Up

Now that you know how to get backlinks, the only thing left to do is to use the above tips. Keep in mind that getting inbound links is a marathon- not a sprint.

You’ll need to be continually working on the above actions to attract backlinks from high-quality sites.

Want to learn more about inbound marketing? Check out our blog for some top tips.

The post How to Get Backlinks for Your Website and Increase Traffic appeared first on ReputationResults.

Building a brand, even if it’s yourself, takes precise measures to ensure that you’re putting forth what you intend so that others will perceive it correctly. And, it’s easier said than done. You must be willing to take all of the advice you’re given and utilize it to your advantage so that you can earn the trust of your followers and those you hope to gain as followers.

In this article, we’re discussing seven things to avoid in order to successfully brand yourself. Keep reading to learn more.

Don’t Be Caught Without a Website

Social media simply is not enough. If you don’t have your own personal website promoting your brand, what do you have? Don’t be caught without a website while branding yourself.

Don’t Be Superficial

Make sure your content is full and creative, no matter what you’re presenting. People count on your professional reputation for depth. Don’t be superficial when you can avoid it.

Don’t Call Yourself a Guru

Stay away from phrases that liken yourself to a guru, pioneer, visionary, or other such nouns. Others may refer to you as a thought leader, but you should never refer to yourself this way. It’s unprofessional and it will cause audiences to shy away from your content.

Don’t Present Yourself as Perfect

Reality is that nobody is perfect. Don’t ruin your personal brand by presenting yourself as perfect. Whether it’s airbrushing for a TV program or stressing about your hair for a presentation, don’t worry too much about it. People will respect you for your presentation content, not your looks.

Don’t Be a Thought Follower

Make sure the content you pass on to your followers is original and unique. In order to be authentic all of the time, you can’t even once use someone else’s ideas as your own.

Don’t Overuse or Under Use “I”

Using “I” too much can send off inappropriate signals such that you think too much of yourself. On the other hand, under using “I” might make others think less of you. Moderately referring to yourself in the first person in conversation will ensure that others believe in you.

Don’t Care Too Much

Don’t care too much about your brand. Make sure to focus on your organization too. If you are the brand that you’re creating for yourself it’s still a good idea not to stress too much about it. Just be yourself.

Brand Yourself

Building a personal brand is all about being honest and reputable. Don’t damage your reputation by doing too much of the wrong thing, or nothing at all. You can be successful and brand yourself according to what you have built and believing in these simple tips.

Remember, too, that the quality of your exposure is more important than the quantity of your exposure. Your content marketing campaigns should employ authentic details that are substantive enough to make a difference. Using the internet and social media alone will not uphold your reputation.

If you’re ready to brand yourself, or if you still have questions, contact us! We can help you get reviews and results.

The post Brand Yourself: 7 Don’ts To Creating an Authentic Personal Brand appeared first on ReputationResults.

Despite the surge of online bookings and DIY travel packages, people are still turning to travel agencies for peace of mind, personal recommendations, and customized itineraries.

If you’re looking to promote your agency, it’s important to understand the ins and outs of successful travel agency marketing.

Let’s get into the top tips!

Use Social Media

8 in 10 Americans use Facebook, and the number of older adults using social media continues to rise.

What does that mean for you? It means that you need to be integrating social media platforms into your travel agency marketing.

Get active on Facebook. Send out tweets on Twitter. Post gorgeous #wanderlust pictures on Instagram.

This will naturally build up your online presence and reputation.

Get Blogging

Today, SEO dominates the online industry. If you don’t have a blog, start writing. If you do have a blog, but it’s not active, that’s also a huge mistake.

Posting fresh, new and engaging content is one of the best ways to make your website visible and increase your traffic. What does this mean for you?

More visitors and more customers.

Use Video

Consider using Youtube or Facebook Live to promote your travel agency marketing.

The options for this are endless. Chat about common travel issues or fears. Offer a Q&A about travel recommendations and planning. Share your insider recommendations.

From talking about a premiere hot massage service in Dubai to dissecting the best way to plan a trip to Disney World, people love “expert advice.”

Don’t worry about fancy recording equipment. Nowadays, having basic smartphone knowledge will get your point across. Add your video channel to your business cards and watch your traffic numbers soar.

Email Marketing

Reaching out to former and current customers is a great way to maintain loyalty to your business. Add a SUBSCRIBE button to your website to keep your readers wanting more!

Offer a monthly email newsletter or special deals that you can include within the content. Email marketing is a great way to target your ideal demographic without a ton of hard effort.

Make Reviewing Easy

Before traveling, most people are turning online to check out recent reviews on hotels, planes, and excursions. That means they’re also going to be turning online to check out reviews on you.

This is why it’s important to make it easy for customers to leave reviews. For example, after a customer returns back from her trip, send a follow-up email asking how everything went.

Encourage them to leave an honest review about your services.

How people see you is important, and ignoring the reputation of your online brand can destroy your business.

Final Thoughts on Travel Agency Marketing

As a travel agent, you help transform bucket list dreams into actual reality. It takes a lot of hard work to get there, and we want your effort to be worth it!

Concerned about your reputation or (yikes) bad reviews? Check out your free audit here today!

The post 5 Travel Agency Marketing Ideas to Promote Your Brand appeared first on ReputationResults.