Check Yourself Before You Yelp Yourself

Have you ever Google searched yourself? Go on, give it a try and see what comes up. If you are applying for a job, operating a company or managing the social media side for a business, you should absolutely spend a few minutes finding out exactly what your brand reputation looks like. In the ever-increasing world of social media, it is more important than ever to take a proactive approach online. In just about every possible scenario, people are quick to use Google search before they make any type of decision no matter how major or minor. It could be a potential employer researching candidates or simply a potential customer trying to find out where to eat. But how much do you really want people to know? Assuming everything posted on the internet can eventually be found, you’re never truly safe. There are online sites you can use for personal brand reputation management or having someone well-versed in social media can always help show you what is currently out there. Some programs are at cost, but can be worth it. You can always use sites such as BrandYourself.com, Reputation.com and Reputation Changer to hide any negative information for when someone searched about you or about someone who has the same name (which can always be troubling). If you are managing your brand’s presence online, you need to take a bit of a different approach. Below, 1851 has outlined a few tips on how to pay close attention to what is being said about your brand. The best advice is to be as proactive as much as possible and to constantly update information so it appears higher in the Google Rankings. Be cautions and don’t get defensive on bad Angie’s List, Yelp!, Glass Door or any other similar sites because responding to a specific negative post will just rank that comment higher and push it back to the top of the page as most relevant. If posts are negative across the board, then you should probably reevaluate what customers are saying and start fixing problems from within. Here are some simple tips to help you improve and manage your brand reputation. Set up Google Alerts Step one to being proactive is to realize that your brand’s name could be used in any context at any time. Media is always working and when you have multiple locations, it becomes even more challenging to oversee every location. Set up Google Alerts and check them daily. If it is news you can control, then stay ahead of the game by finding out what people are saying. It will also help give insight and share what people are saying about your service or restaurant online. Answer and Address Negative Comments on Social Media Sites Since some of the most popular site rankings are Facebook and Twitter in the Google Search, you definitely need to have a standard process for addressing negative comments on social sites. When customers see negative posts have gone unaddressed, they will be more likely to post on revue sites rather than letting you address their poor experience. On Facebook and Twitter, you are able to remove the discussion from online and keep it private where you can later delete it. Be Active on Social Media Sites To protect yourself, make sure you have a clear brand page on every social media site possible. Make sure you have profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. If you don’t, you leave the door open for people to create a fake profile and act as the brand. People will assume it is the correct page and you instantly lose control of the content they could push out. Aggregate Information for Searchability       If you don’t have a Blogger, Word Press or Tumblr set up, you should highly consider it. Put in as much information as possible, including articles, press releases, franchisee profiles, company information and events. Make it easy for customers to find positive information (which is selected by the brand representative) so they don’t have to go searching. Most people aren’t out there looking for the negative, so embrace it and help your customers find information you know they will care about. Optimize Your Web Presence When you have the opportunity to insert the brand’s information, fill it out as completely as possible. Make sure you are linking to all of your other social media sites as it will make your social media presence stronger and direct your customers to the right outlets for your company. Also, when you can change your URL, do so as consistently as possible with your brand name. Then people will find the most accurate page associated with your brand across all platforms and it will rank higher in any type of search engines.