In today’s social media and internet world, stats for online reviews are impressive: 86% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase. Yes, a whopping 86%. That is an eye-dropping number, therefore making online reviews something you have to be on top of (good or bad) for your business and an integral component to any marketing or SEO strategy.

So how should you handle these reviews?

Positive reviews:

The internet is extremely viral. We have all seen that funny youtube video get passed on to us via email or Facebook. Next thing you know it seems like everybody in the world has seen it. When you receive positive reviews, engage them and pass them along in all the social aspects of the web. Don’t just be happy with it on one site, but use it with your company’s marketing, publicize it through twitter, and showcase it on your company’s Facebook page.

Also, don’t be afraid to ask your consumers for positive feedback on the web. It can’t hurt to ask and you will be surprised by how many people will do. Believe it or not, people love to write positive things about companies and share with their friends their experience. Encourage them to do it about your business.

Negative reviews:

Lets be honest, you are not going to get 100% positive reviews all of the time, unless you are Neptune Local of course…Companies get too worked up with negative reviews and compound the problem. First step is to take a deep breath and work to turn the negative into a positive. If the negative review is 1 out of 130 positive reviews, then you have to assume that majority of people will not look negatively toward your business and still  go ahead and make that purchase.

But, if you are seeing a common theme in the negative reviews or they are more common, then put on your customer service hat and try and fix the issues. Offer up solutions and make the changes known on the review site, therefore future visitors will know that the “problems” have been solved.

Summary

Reputation management can make or break a business, particularly on the local level, and the best plan is to be proactive versus reactive. It is always much easier to reduce the chances of something damaging happening, then to have to reverse the damage.

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We have been hired in the past and present to help brand individuals online, to put them on the cybermap. Think about it for a second, would you pay $1,000, $2,000, or $100,000 to promote yourself in your career that will take you from one rung on the professional ladder to a much higher–more profitable–rung? What happens if you branded yourself on the web and took yourself from being a manager in your industry to an executive, would it be worth it?

I know you are sitting there and asking, “But, I am unknown and do not have the persona of Ashton Kutcher, this doesn’t apply to me?”

Oh contraire, I believe “regular” folks can achieve what they are looking for by promoting themselves on the web and showcasing their talents in their specific field. Think about it once again. What better resume to show a potential employer than a successful Blog, Facebook fan page or Twitter following that you have generated in your particular industry. If you have carved yourself out as the platform on the web for your field, who wouldn’t want to hire you.

How can you brand yourself?

Here are 3 quick first steps to take when beginning to take yourself online:

1. Find a niche and start a blog.

• The #1 problem for individuals when they want to promote themselves online is they want to talk about everything in their lives. One day they write about pink elephants and the next nuclear physics. Before taking the leap onto the web, find out what you know and what you want to write about. Be specific and specialize, and most importantly, write passionately about it. The better your content, the more you specialize, the more likely people will read, like, and link to your blog post. Getting links to your blog is the cornerstone to being successful, and these links only come with rich content that people find intriguing.

2. Promote yourself. Attend conferences and follow other Blogs in your niche and make comments.

• If you have the ability to be a speaker at a conference, do it. Promote your blog when you do and people will write about it and start following you. For those who are not quite to that level, follow others in your niche. Comment on their blogs with thought provoking insight and chances are their followers will check you out as well.

3. Social Networking

• Nothing spreads faster than social networks. Keeping your fans up to date via Twitter or Facebook will spread your message virally. You want to open up your brand to as many people and platforms as possible and nothing is bigger than the major social networks. Stop resisting change and embrace it.

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The current economic state is bleak and companies small and large are struggling. Time and time again, I have heard owners of companies tell me they are cutting their marketing/advertising budgets, which makes me cringe.

A down economy or recession is NOT a time to make cutbacks to advertising, and actually, the reverse is true. Researchers from Oregon State University and Western Oregon University studied data from five recessionary periods since 1971, sampling data from 3000 firms listed on the public stock exchange. Their findings,

“Firms that are able to increase their advertising during recessions are likely to have stronger future earnings.”

I guess that quote would make the 6th reason to advertise in a recession– more future sales. Here are some others that gets your company to achieve the ultimate goal, higher profits.

Reputation

When you market during a bad economy, people see your brand and make the assumption business is good for your company. If you are able to afford to market, then the thought process for consumers, and your  competition, is that you are doing something right–your product and service must be worth it.

People are looking for deals and coupons

If you look at the graph below, I have given you a snapshot of the searched terms of coupons (blue) and deals (red) and how often they have been searched since 2007. As you can tell, both terms have approximately doubled in the amount of times they are searched on any given day. Consumers are looking for deals and are turning to the internet to find them. When marketing, be cognizant of this fact and include promotions in your advertising material.

Don’t follow in your competition’s footsteps

If you are thinking about cutting back on marketing, then so is your competition. Do you really want to do what your competition is doing? Be innovative and market when they are not which leads to….

Increase market share

Marketing in a recession when others will not will increase your market share during the down times. When the economy rebounds (which it will), you will be in a much better position than your competitors.

Did you know that in 1990 Reebok and Nike were virtually the same in sales? During the 1990-91 recession, Nike tripled its advertising budget while Reebok cut back. Do I need to explain what happened? Well, when we emerged out of the recession, Nike’s profits were 9 times higher than they were going in–Reebok has been eating Nike’s dust ever since.

Internet provides cost-effective advertising

Unlike past recessions, the internet provides the ability to use the most cost-effective advertising. Companies are able to track their marketing and see real-time data on their results. When done right, and with the right people in charge, companies are able to get the maximum ROI.

Need help with getting more customers?

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