On top of diffusing looming reputation risks, you Stepping up your game in (online) reputation management goesīeyond just damage control. Other articles on this website describe the tools available to you more thoroughly, such as social listening, community building, co-creation and content marketing.
There are many ways to listen to and openly interact with your customers. For this reason it is imperative that you frequently stay on top of word-of-mouth and that your business actively joins the public conversation. Usually, you will discover that your reputation has been declining – or improving – when word has hit the streets days or weeks ago already, often accelerated by the power of social media. You do not want people to spread their grievances about your business with everyone they know: “I will never go there again, and neither should you!” Or, to be more precise, you would like to know about it when someone is bad-mouthing you publicly, wouldn’t you? People might say: “Great and reliable service!” Obviously, you would prefer your reputation to precede you You should see this as an opportunity to get ahead of the competition.
Especially on social media the amount of silent eavesdroppers can have a significant impact on your reputation. It is important to realize that chit-chat, among a few people, can leave an altered impression of you and your business. Whether you are aware of it or not, people talk about you and your business all the time – at a birthday party, around the coffee machine at work and, of course, on the internet – picking apart or hailing what you do.