REPUTATION MANAGEMENT

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The major business review websites — platforms such as Yelp, Facebook and Google — are full of customer activity. Monitoring these and many other review websites is an essential element of managing and maintaining a company’s reputation.

Responding to online reviews is another key element of building a positive online presence. Brands should always respond to all reviews — whether they are negative or positive.

It is an easy way to interact with satisfied customers, which benefits both your brand identity and your one-to-one relationship with that customer. Also, when it comes to negative reviews, you must remember that you are not just responding to the one reviewer. The way you deal with negative reviews will cement your image to future customers.

You are talking to everyone who reads this review, including potential future customers.

Social media monitoring provides a look at what your audience has to say about you; your competitors and your market in general — there is a ton of social activity online.

Monitoring this activity helps you better understand your customers; and gives you information to improve your marketing strategy; stay on top of trends, protect your brand, find leads and build relationships.

Brand-related mentions can occur in many areas online, including blogs, news websites, forums, listings and more. With so much online activity, tracking the full range of brand mentions on the web is a crucial part of a comprehensive reputation management strategy.

Not to mention monitoring; companies miss out on key information that can help them keep track of what customers and clients are saying about their brand, their products and what their competitors are doing.

Staying ahead of your competition can be complex given the sheer magnitude of content companies have all over the web. Competitive benchmarking can help you monitor your competition to see how your business stacks up and how you compare in terms of local searches.

It can also help you track competitors’ social activity, and provide information on the best times to offer deals; share updates and find out who is signing up. It also allows you to compare the social analytics that matter most to local businesses.