From The NY Times Small Business Guide, By Kermit Pattison:
Your customers are talking about you — and the whole world is listening.
How do you manage your reputation when everybody is a critic?
For some business owners, this is a terrifying prospect that seems more like mob rule than the wisdom of crowds. Negative reviews can hang an albatross around your neck if they appear prominently in search results. Happily, there is a big upside: referrals from happy clients are traditionally the best source of new business — and online forums are powerful word-of-mouth. The review process has been democratized.
But managing your online reputation requires a whole new skill set, including monitoring the online conversation and engaging with customers and the tech-savvy to promote yourself in the best channels. These skills are becoming essential for mainstream businesses. According to a survey by the Opinion Research Corporation, 84 percent of Americans say online reviews influence their purchasing decisions.
“Social media for business now is life or death,” said Dan Simons, a restaurateur in the Washington area who closely monitors these forums. “You could open a business and do everything right, but if you’re unaware of these social media you will perish. Social media can take a business and put a bullet in it.”
Read the entire article here.
Quick Tips:
- Set up automatic email alerts (like “Google Alerts“) to notify you when your business or name is mentioned in a review or blog.
- Local search sites, databases and Internet Yellow Pages – make sure your business is listed. The more complete your listing, the more likely you are to get good search results.
- Respond to reviews to show readers that you are listening and that you care about customer service.
- Don’t write false reviews to puff your business or trash a competitor. You can severely damage your reputation…and look really silly.
Suggested Reading:
Local review sites are reshaping the world of small business by becoming the new Yellow Pages, one-stop platforms where customers can find a business — and also see independent critiques of its performance.
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