June 7, 2017

Have you checked your brand reputation online lately?

June 7, 2017

Have you checked your brand reputation online lately?

Have you checked your brand reputation online lately?

Your brand. You work hard to make people aware of it. But did you know there could be conversations being had about you online? All it takes is one bad review or negative comment to tarnish your brand reputation and everything you’ve worked so hard to achieve online. In today’s digital climate of social networking and anonymous sharing, it’s so easy for anyone to say anything, no matter if it’s true or not. The scary reality is, bad results can happen to good people, so you need to be prepared for the worst.The Importance of Online Brand Reputation ManagementDid you know over one billion names are searched on Google everyday? As Google Search continues to further integrate into our daily lives, these search results become increasingly important, especially when potential customers are looking for information about your company.We live in a search-happy world, which means before anyone decides to do business with you, they will first look you up online. And what they find has a huge impact, for better or worse. According to the latest research, brands risk losing 22% of business when potential customers find a negative article on their first page of results. This number increases to 44% loss of business with two negative articles and 59% with three negative articles.Now more than ever businesses need to be aware of their digital footprint. Everything we do online is recorded forever, so businesses need to know what’s being said about them within the online space and be equipped with the tools to make sure these words don’t harm them long-term.The Online Brand Reputation Management ChecklistIt’s time to retake control of your brand. Don’t wait until your Google reputation is a mess before you decide to clean it up. Be proactive and follow these simple steps to take care of your online footprint.1. Google YourselfFirst and foremost, give yourself a good Google to see what you’re working with. This isn’t the step to be cutting corners, so make sure to be thorough so you don’t miss anything that might slip through the cracks. This includes:

  • Scrolling through the first few pages of results to find any negative content you’re up against
  • Checking to see if any inappropriate images come up against your name
  • Reviewing your social media history to flag any potentially damaging posts

2. Determining Which Category You Fit IntoOnce you’ve completed a full audit of your search results, it’s time to diagnose the situation and decide which category your Google brand name search results falls under:

  • Positive & Relevant - Congratulations! Your search results are full of positive, well-branded content that’s about you along with many positive 5 star reviews.
  • Hey, That’s Not Me! - In this case, your results may be dominated by somebody or even multiple people with similar brand names.
  • Outdated - The results are about you, but they have become outdated such as an old address, no Google Plus images etc.
  • Negative - Definitely the worst category to fall under which is when one or more negative review websites or negative content is being associated with your brand name.

3. Make a PlanNow you know where you stand, it’s time to start improving your brand reputation. The goal is to fill your first page with as many positive results as possible - but how?To take control of your search results, you have to prove to Google your web priorities are more valuable than anything else that’s ranking for your name. The only way to do this is to provide legitimate value to people by coming up with an effective brand reputation strategy built around new content, social profiles and other associated digital assets. And that’s where we come in.Online Brand Reputation Management with BangOnline brand reputation management is one of the services we offer specific to the digital marketplace. The objective is to simply lower the rankings of the negative listings on Google, by increasing the rankings of other non-negative digital branded assets.As listings cannot be removed from Google by request, the best course of action is to have the undesirable links drop down the rankings. The idea is to “hide” the negative listings from users who have just searched for your company by getting them pushed down to page 2 or 3 on Google.While this doesn’t technically remove the negative listings from the search engine, it does drastically decrease the chances of someone searching for you finding it. In fact, 93% of users never scroll past the first page of search results, so getting these links onto page 2 is a positive result. And even if they do find them, they’ve just gone through an entire page of positive content that lets them know who you really are.We do this by optimising current web assets, listings and associated platforms (i.e LinkedIn Pages) as well as creating new assets such as content posts and social profiles, with the objective of pushing down the unflattering links through the optimisation of these “good assets”.We have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to brand reputation management and an expert team who work to help our clients put their best foot forward online every single day. If you would like to know how you can improve your business’ digital footprint through online brand reputation management, contact Bang today.