What is online reputation management? ORM is … The process of proactively using tools, processes, and systems to be aware of and influence the conversation that is taking place about you and your business online

What are the stakes? Short answer: Everyone is online, and everyone has an opinion!

Look who’s talking (about you) Customers Prospects Competitors Disgruntled employees Ex spouses Former business partners, investors Trolls (the permanently aggrieved)

Reviews now at the center of search

What are the stakes? Today, an unhappy customer will tell thousands of their “closest strangers” on the Internet.

What are the stakes?

74% of U.S. consumers choose to do business based on online feedback Source: Society for Communications Research

What are the stakes? 59% of U.S. consumers use social sites to vent about customer care frustrations Source: Society for Communications Research

What are the stakes? 72% of U.S. consumers research companies through social channels before making purchases Source: Society for Communications Research

12 Surefire Ways to Protect Your Reputation (While Promoting Your Business)

Effective ORM should: Be proactive and reactive –Ideally 90% proactive Combine marketing, SEO, public relations, branding, sales, and customer service Cut across ALL core business functions

Five core principals of ORM 1.Listen to what your customers are saying 2.Contribute to the conversation 3.Delight customers by exceeding expectations 4.Collect feedback, referrals, & testimonials 5.Plan how you will respond before you need to

LISTEN To what your customers are saying.

1. Set up Google Alerts Get updates on the latest relevant Google results on your name, company or industry keywords

2. Monitor social media sites, blogs and forums Tools of the trade: –Google Reader –TweetDeck –Hoot Suite –Social Mention

CONTRIBUTE To the conversation in a meaningful way.

Why do you need to contribute? You can’t control what people say about your company BUT … You can make sure you’re adding enough to the conversation to ensure that the ratio of positive to negative is in your favor! THIS IS IMPORTANT!

3. Set up profiles in all of your key directories and networks Google+ Local *important* Yelp Trip Advisor LinkedIn Facebook Twitter

4. Start blogging! Add social media sharing buttons Post on subjects that will help your clients and prospects Use posts to populate a monthly newsletter Business blogging leads to 55% more website visitors Source: Hubspot

5. Make educational videos and post them to YouTube Any given video stands about a 50x better chance of appearing on the first page of results than any given text page in the index. Source: Forrester

DELIGHT Your customers and be easy to work with.

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon: “If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”

6. Promote remarkable customer service Create a service culture Happy employees = happy customers Establish metrics (and rewards) that promote a good customer experience Encourage all employees to collect testimonials Share client praise with your team

7. Start using the Net Promoter Score Monitor customer satisfaction Identify ratio of detractors to promoters PromotersDetractorsNPS

8. Say thank you Edible Arrangements Postagram (cool iOS app!) Handwritten notes … $0.45 = customer for life (OFF THE CHARTS ROI)

COLLECT Customer feedback, referrals & testimonials

9. Use free or paid survey tools to collect client feedback Survey Gizmo Survey Monkey

10. Set up channels for receiving voluntary feedback Use these places (and others) to collect unsolicited feedback: signature Web forms Invoices / receipts Newsletters

PLAN Processes > improvisation

11. Develop a process for responding to negative buzz (before you need it) Listen Decide whether to engage Apologize Affirm Take it offline Move on Reflect Act

12. Build a referral system Collecting referrals should be an ACTIVE and METHODICAL process Consider creating a referral reward system

Questions? Shoot.

Big takeaway? You can’t control what people say about your company. But you CAN exercise some control over the larger conversational context that they say it in. Proactive ORM is all about making sure you’re adding enough to the conversation to ensure that the ratio of positive to negative is in your favor.

What can we do? Reputations take years to build. But they can be damaged in minutes... We offer highly specialized ORM services to help you protect and grow the business you’ve worked so hard to build.

We’d love to help. Just get in touch!