Amber’s Recommended Training

1. Introduction

Reputation management is about shaping how a business or individual is perceived in the digital sphere. For local businesses, it means ensuring that when potential customers look them up online, they find positive and accurate information.

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2. Why Reputation Management is Needed

2.1. Digital Influence on Consumer Decisions: Most consumers check businesses online before making a decision. A negative review can deter potential patrons.

2.2. Instant Spread of Information: Information spreads rapidly online. One negative incident can significantly harm a business’s reputation.

2.3. Building Trust and Credibility: An effectively managed online reputation fosters consumer trust, making them more likely to choose one business over its competitors.

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3. Key Deliverables of Reputation Management

3.1. Monitoring and Reporting: Ongoing monitoring of online mentions – from reviews to social media – to understand public perception.

3.2. Positive Content Creation: Producing and disseminating favorable content about the business to overshadow any negative content.

3.3. Review Management: Engaging with all reviews, both positive and negative. Addressing concerns and thanking patrons for their feedback.

3.4. Crisis Management: Swift and strategic action during a crisis to mitigate negative fallout.

3.5. Social Media Management: Maintaining a consistent, positive brand image across social media platforms and engaging meaningfully with the audience.

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4. Key Review Platforms in Order of Importance

Local businesses should focus on these review platforms, as they hold significant sway over consumer perception:

4.1. Google My Business: As the most widely used search engine, Google reviews often serve as a customer’s first impression of a business.

4.2. Yelp: Especially important for restaurants, service providers, and retail businesses, Yelp reviews can greatly influence consumer choices.

4.3. Facebook: Many customers look to Facebook business pages for reviews and recommendations, making it essential for local businesses to maintain an active presence.

4.4. TripAdvisor: Crucial for businesses in the hospitality and travel sectors. High ratings here can boost bookings.

4.5. Better Business Bureau (BBB): Known for its accreditation system, a good standing with BBB can instill trust in potential customers.

4.6. Niche Industry Platforms: Depending on the business type, platforms like Angie’s List, Zomato, or HomeAdvisor may also be pivotal. They cater to specific industries and can be influential within those sectors.

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5. How Reputation Management Improves Local Businesses

5.1. Increased Sales: Positive online reviews lead to increased trust and higher sales.

5.2. Enhanced Customer Trust: Active review management showcases a business’s commitment to its customers.

5.3. Attracting Top Talent: Good reputations attract not just customers, but also top-tier employees.

5.4. Valuable Insights: Feedback, even when negative, can provide actionable insights for business improvement.

5.5. Protection Against Misinformation: Addressing and rectifying false information swiftly is key to maintaining a trustworthy reputation.

Below is Amber’s recommended training resources to give you a good understanding of reputation management.

How to use Power Online Reviews WordPress Plugin to collect and manage reviews. POR is included with your Agency Client Finder account and is my recommended tool for building your online reputation.

Online reputation management: The complete guide for business owners. Recommended tool for tracking your review across all platforms.

AI is still in it’s infancy but is already causing a huge change in many areas.

It has the potential to help transform local businesses. In many cases of new technology only the big companies had early access and so gained the advantage. With AI anyone can access it’s power at very little cost. It has immediate uses in content generation, education, customer support, data analysis and of course reputation management.

In it’s simplest implementation AI assist in responses to reviews. Creating high quality answers for customers and giving businesses ideas and opportunity for improvement.

Taken a step forward AI powered chatbots can manage the customers directly and actually manage things like cancelling or sending order.

Of course like all new technology it can be used for good or bad. Mass generation of content can be a bad thing. Fake reviews, articles, blog & social posts are bound to be prevalent. Part of your reputation management is understanding these things.

The Future of AI and Reputation Management.

Social Media Listening

Social media listening refers to the practice of monitoring and analyzing conversations happening about a brand, product, or keyword across social media. Some key things to know about social media listening:

• It involves using social media monitoring tools to track mentions of specified keywords/phrases across networks like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
• The goal is to gain insights into what customers are saying, identify trends/patterns, detect threats/opportunities, and understand brand sentiment.
• Tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Brand24 provide capabilities to search, monitor, analyze, and report on social conversations.
• Common use cases are reputation management, understanding brand health, gauging reactions to campaigns, competitor analysis, real-time customer service, etc.
• Users can filter by keywords, profiles, groups, influencers, locations, languages and more when setting up listening streams.
• Paid tools provide access to historical/archived messages matching keywords for deeper analytics.
• Analytics and reporting features help summarize volume, sentiment, influencers, and other metrics over time.
• Insights gained from social listening can inform marketing, product, PR, customer service, and other business decisions.

Social Media Listening & Online Reputation Management Explained