Grab Hold of Your Online Reputation
I recently read an article by Hubspot entitled “Online Reputation Management: Big Deal for Small Businesses.” This wasn’t just another blog article, this was one that really got me thinking…
“Even if you are a small business, social media users are increasingly likely to talk about your business online. More and more, users are conversing on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and others about products and services. Although you can ignore these conversations, there’s one inherent risk with this: Your online reputation can have a significant impact on your offline business relationships. What makes this particularly troubling is that social media sites, blogs and forums can often rank well in Google — perhaps even higher than your own website. Imagine a prospective customer searching on Google for your company or product and landing on a discussion of your business online. An important conversation that impacts your business. One that you’d likely want to at least participate in.”
While the article goes on to discuss methods of responding to criticism and becoming a part of the conversation, I strongly encourage taking it a step further.
Create Your Own Conversations and Build Your Own Image
If you’re a small business owner with a large amount of prospects surfing the internet, then you need to not only get involved in the webosphere, you need to overcome it.
If people are already talking about you - great! It means you have tons of prospects online. It doesn’t matter whether they’re saying good things or bad things (well, obviously you’d prefer the former), at least you’re relevant!
If people aren’t yet talking about you, then beat them to the punch! Make yourself relevant and build a positive reputation online before anybody else gets the chance to create your reputation for you.
There are tons of ways to get recognized on the internet and thousands of individuals and small businesses have made a fortune by simply promoting their expertise and brand online. You can start a blog, participate in forums, write advice articles, publish eBooks, and more. The options are endless…
…but just because you have a long list of options doesn’t mean you have a long time to decide before you choose one of them.
I procrastinate, you procrastinate, we all procrastinate…it’s human nature. But here’s a simple fact: the more you procrastinate the more you miss out on.
Don’t worry about having to do everything at once, do one thing at a time. The most important thing is to get your name out there so when prospects search [Your Name], [Your Business Name], or [Your Industry, Your Region] that you come up smelling like roses!
Search engines can be a business breaker if you can’t grab hold of your reputation online. If you can, however, you’re see significant results and a growing bank account.
Go for it…grab hold of your online reputation today!
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Don’t know where to get started? Start here! Advice Network can help you build an impressive online reputation that your prospects will find!
