If you want to make sure that your company appears in a positive way online, then you should use professional reputation management services. These services will look at your website and your content, put social media strategies in place, find negative and positive comments, and more. However, those companies also hold your most precious asset, your reputation, in their hands. Hence, it is vital that you know what to look for when you want to hire one of these services.
Hallmarks of a Good Reputation Management Company
- They should not ask you to sign up to a long term contract. While reputation management is ongoing, you should be able to go to different companies as and when you please to improve your reputation.
- They should monitor your reputation, which means that you will find out instantly whenever something is said about you, good or bad.
- They should be engaged in genuine link buildingpractices, meaning they write content linking to and from good websites and that they do not use any unethical processes such as hidden links.
- They should offer content management. Building a positive reputation is about being proactive and creating a positive image, for which you need excellent content.
- They should advise you on how to manage your customer service, and particularly in communication with people online. If you have blogs, a presence on forums, and social media pages, customers can contact you directly and you need to know how to respond to them in order to improve your reputation.
- They should have high levels of experience. A good reputation management company will have been in business for a while. If it is a new company, then the people who work there should have gained experience elsewhere. If it is a new company, they should also offer a really innovative way of managing your online reputation.
- They should be happy to provide you with references from companies they have worked with in the past, and you should check those out. Make sure the company itself has a positive reputation, in other words. Do also look for reviews outside of the referrals that they have given to you.
- They should be able to give you a free, no obligation quotation that highlights all the work that they aim to do for you in order to manage your reputation, and how those things will improve the situation. These quotes have to be no obligation, because you should try to obtain at least three different ones.
- They should be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.
With these nine tips, you should be able to find a highly professional reputation management company. The most telling clue that they are doing their job right is that you start to see an increase in sales. After all, if your reputation is positive, people will feel confident about shopping with you. Hence, make sure you keep your eye on your visitors’ tracker.