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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Wrong.

Many companies complete this first step in their web presence but that is where they stop. They do not take that next initiative to list their business with Yelp, get a Facebook fan page, or claim their Google business listing, and this is a mistake.

I believe many companies are afraid of these sites because of the negative reviews they may receive. Well, get over it. People will talk negatively about your business on or offline, and knowing what they are saying allows you to take a pro-active approach and overcome the negative reviews. Turn a negative into a positive if you will.

There are many advantages to jumping into the social media sphere and I will name just a few of them for you here:

• SEO for Social Media Sites– The search engine optimization on many social sites is excellent. They have an immense popularity behind them and have great rankings, which enables your business to be found.
• Trusted Referrals–I think any business owner would tell you that the best referrals are ones from past customers and friends. Social media allows people to recommend a service or product or “become a fan” of a service or product. When people see that their friends like something, they are that more likely to buy since it is coming from a trusted and reliable source. This can’t happen with a search engine or PPC marketing campaigns.
• Social Media is the New Search Engine–Not only is it becoming the new search engine for real-time results, but also is the new search engine when Google or Bing fails or the user is looking for a second option. People are increasingly turning to Yelp, Twitter, Facebook and many others to find relevant results, and, at the same time, getting feedback from past customers.

When people are going online to look for a business, which over 70% of us are now doing, they are not solely turning to a Google or Bing result, but increasingly seeing what social sites have to say. As mobile search continues to increase, people will count even more on social sites that have embraced the world of apps. Do you think somebody with an iphone is going to search for a restaurant via a Yelp app or open their lap top, log onto the internet, put in a google search and see what comes up?

Jump on the bandwagon of Social Media for your business before it leaves you behind.

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