The Top 3 Reputation Management Platforms You Should Actively Use

Yelp

     Yelp is known for its reviews, particularly of service companies including restaurants, hotels, mechanics, local shops, and more. An estimated 45% of customers will head to Yelp to read reviews before trying a new place. If your business has nothing but good reviews, you are in the clear! However, even one or two negative reviews can seriously damage your reputation if you don't handle them accordingly. It is simple to set up a business account on Yelp and claim it so that you can respond, add images, edit info, etc. Once you have an account, you'll be able to manage your reviews. Now, when we say manage, it's actually used quite loosely. If a review is posted, you cannot remove it. You could reach out to the reviewer to request them to take it down, but if they refuse, it's up on your account forever. Thankfully, Yelp is cracking down on bots and bought reviews which is helping to keep ratings for businesses more honest and realistic. When it comes to reputation management, it's important to show other customers that you care about providing the best product/service. Be sure you take constructive to heart and try to prevent the problem in the future. Otherwise, you'll get more and more negative reviews about the same thing. That's hard to come back from!

     When you receive a review on Yelp - positive or negative - it is important to respond to it! Potential customers will be looking to see if you appreciate your customers and can take feedback from them. The last thing you want to do is snap at someone for the world to see! When you get a positive review, respond with a simple thank you message acknowledging that you read the review and appreciate it. For negative reviews, be sure to accept constructive criticism gracefully, apologize for the less-than-ideal experience, and offer to make it right in one way or another. It can be tricky to keep up on Yelp, especially if your business is popular. That's why it's a great idea to find a digital marketing agency that can handle reputation management for you! We respond to reviews as we see fit, and if we aren't sure, we'll pass them along to you!

Google

The next reputation management platform you should visit frequently is Google! If you aren't already on Google My Business, it's time to change that! If you don't know about Google My Business, it's  a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. Since Google is the #1 search engine, you definitely want to use it for reputation management! You can add all kinds of information onto your Google My Business listing, including hours, website, phone numbers, special achievements, and more! You can also add posts that will stay up for 7 days. These can help encourage more people to click on you when your listing pops up! Any digital marketing agency will tell you that the most important use of Google My Business is definitely the review management! It's becoming more and more common for customers to leave Google reviews, and GMB is the place to go to check them out.

     When someone leaves a review, it will appear on you Google My Business listing. As we mentioned in the previous section, consumers trust peer reviews far more than they trust your website! It's once again crucial to work on your reputation management. Google reviews are very simple to respond to once you've logged into your account. You can then filter by reviews you have yet to respond to. A trend that our reputation management team has noticed is that Google is one of the platforms that we most commonly see star ratings without comments. In most cases, it is acceptable to leave any 5 star, no comment, reviews alone. However, for poor reviews, you want to be sure to respond asking them to let you know publicly or privately why they were dissatisfied. Not only will this response show other potential customers that you want to grow and better your business, but it will also make it easier to determine if the review is serious or not. It takes seconds to star rate a business, but anyone that really wants to leave feedback will likely take the time to write it out. If you feel that a review was created by a bot, or paid for by a competitor, you can submit a request for Google to look into it. The process can take some time, but if you're correct, the review will be removed and the rating will not be factored into your overall star rank.

Facebook

Facebook reputation management is not stressed enough by most digital marketing agencies. Everyone will tell you that you should build out an account for your business, but they seem to skip over the review side of the platform. Your customers can leave reviews that appear on your wall for all future visitors to see. Rather than a star rating system, Facebook uses a "Recommends"/"Does Not Recommend" system. Business accounts will have a tab/page dedicated to these "reviews." We promise that anyone researching your business will check them out! Just like with the other platforms, it's important to respond to reviews you receive. This is especially true if you're running Facebook Ads. Since the customers are already on the platform, they may head over to your page to check you out. The last thing you want is an account filled with negativity that has not been responded to!

     Reputation management is simple on Facebook. All you need to do is watch for new recommendations/do not recommends and comment on them/like them. It's always a great idea to respond to positive posts to show people that you are actively watching for feedback! You can even make a post or two highlighting some extra sweet testimonials. As for negative posts, you should handle them quickly and professionally. It's often a very bad idea to argue with the reviewer on the public page. There are, of course, instances where it can be justified, but 9 times out of 10 it's a bad idea. Simply apologize that they did not have a great experience, and invite them to private message or email you to discuss further. It's a simple system, but it shows that you are active on your page and are willing to talk to customers about ways you can improve. Usually, acknowledging that something went wrong with a simple "We're sorry" is enough to make an upset customer feel better. Reputation management is all about keeping the public happy and viewing you positively, so you'll occasionally need to push your pride aside and realize that everyone makes mistakes.

If you're on the lookout for a reputation management team, be sure to find digital marketing agencies who will monitor all of these platforms. Of course, depending on your industry, there are other platforms as well. The BusySeed team manages reputations across a variety of these platforms including:

• Angie's List - Home Improvement/Trade Services
• Trip Advisor - Entertainment/Lodging/Restaurants
• Amazon - For E-Commerce
• Home Advisor - Home Improvement
• And More!

It's important to prioritize reputation management so that you can be a more trusted brand. You may not realize how much impact a review can have, but we assure you that your online customer rating can really make or break your business. It's important to note that even if you don't have a business account on these platforms, you can still be reviewed. Clearly, there's no way to handle these reviews, so we strongly encourage all of our clients (at least those in the service industries) to claim the business ASAP. The only thing worse than getting a negative review is getting a negative review and not even being able to respond to it! It can be tricky to keep the public on your side, especially with internet trolls and paid negative reviews. However, with a strong digital marketing team behind you, reputation management can be simple. If you're ready to take control of your perception online, give us a call today at (888) 353-1484. We hope to hear from you soon!