Do you own a start-up business online? If yes, you need to be aware of online reputation management (ORM) practices. To explain in easy terms, it is enhancing and managing online content, which your end users will refer to and use. And this management reflects how professional and progressive your brand is.

Everyone has a Smartphone today! It is easy for people to research on specific brands, by writing out their online search terms. And if today, you are not investing in ORM tactics, you lose out on a particular set of your target audience. They might not consider viewing your website and social media profiles, without you being aware of it. You might not be able to manage the process all by yourself. A professional SEO service provider specializing in ORM solutions can help you here.

Also, a brand will have both happy and unhappy customers. Sometimes, unhappy customers might give way to their thoughts in the form of a negative review. If you don’t have a systematic online reputation management team at work, things might go worse for you. Any type of ORM takes various forms. However, even if you are not actively getting involved in the ORM process, you should consider the following three aspects:

1. The search engine outcomes

Search your brand’s name on Google. If you haven’t yet opted in for a proactive ORM program, you might come across a few search results that you wouldn’t want to see. And for a start-up business that isn’t a good sign. You need to make sure that everything users get to know about you online when your business is at the beginning stage, is positive and useful.

Here you will have to generate new, informative, relevant, and error-free online content. And you should use your relevant keywords in the content as well. It will make your online audience check the fresh content that is getting churned out at an ongoing basis. It will successfully push back the unwanted and harmful content that existed about your company. And gradually, the customers will be able to see only the best content about your new business.

It has happened to several brands. For instance, there could be a YouTube video, dating four years back that completely talks negatively about a company. And this can get featured across several search terms. It is excellent news as it doesn’t compel a brand to come up with an extended content stream on various topics for replacing the negative outcome. To mend this problem, the company can resort to the three following guidelines:

• Create interesting online content focusing on the concerned topic
• Get the content pages optimized for the search terms
• Relocate all the harmful content all through various branded search terms for a period so that it can get more slots on this page

2. Consider the online feedback websites

Do you know how badly negative feedback can harm your online business brand? Based on a research done by Pew Research Center, about 82% of the adults share that they make it a point to read online feedback, reviews, and testimonials when they are about to purchase a product. There have been other research results that suggest that whenever there’s an increase in a rating star in Yelp, it can maximize the revenue by a good 5% to 9%.

In several situations, an organization’s customer satisfaction scores better as compared to the online review site ratings in Yelp or Google Reviews. It is only because most customers will make it a point to review a service/product and rate it the moment they are not happy about it and vice versa.

Do you wish to enhance the online reviews and ratings? If yes, then request more customers to share it. And sometimes, it ensures that your public ratings speak volumes about customer satisfaction. You can send gentle email requests or reminder to your valuable and loyal users. It will motivate them to write a review or share a rating. Based on the quality of your start-up business, you have the chance to prompt the users to write a brand, service, or product review via in-person interactions or text messages.

However, here you need to exercise some caution! Don’t consider or say yes to any strategy for getting false customer reviews. You might think it will enhance your online ratings, which it will for a short while. Google will soon find out that these are fake reviews and might take your website down.

3. Give importance to the online consumer service

Every brand and organization have its way to react or respond to online feedback! It could be negative or positive feedback, which might get companies to respond differently. Your start-up business should respond to feedback and social media comments promptly. Also, you need to manage this with a polite tone and professionally. It will help you to manage your online customers better!

It is essential that you assign proper protocols and responsibilities for your start-up business. Responding to online feedback promptly in real-time is necessary. Some companies might want to outsource this work from another agency. Many other companies assign the duties within their customer service or marketing departments.

Business houses which are present in various locations that have a competent local management unit can generate guidelines and specific protocols, that the local operators need to abide. The most important task here is to train your customer service team to promptly respond to a negative review, feedback, comment, and testimonial. When you don’t, there can be a dialogue happening on social media surrounding that negative feedback which might cost on your online reputation, beyond your imagination. As a start-up business, it will put roadblocks on your way to business expansion, getting more clients, and making increased profits.

Today, you can have access to several ways to secure and manage your online reputation. Right from online PR to search query management, you can resort to several ORM tactics. However, if yours is a start-up business, then your resources in the initial years would be limited. Hence, you can resort to the tactics mentioned above and keep your brand free from any negative reputation and unwanted negative talk.

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