Reputation Marketing & Management

Are You Working on Your Online Reputation Every Day?

6 Things You Can Do Every Day to Help Your Online Reputation It’s very difficult to build a great online reputation and all too easy to have it disappear instantly with a couple of negative reviews or mentions in social media. Due to the nature of Google, in that it’s all about having the latest news and reviews, it’s not unusual to find unpleasant entries with staying power near the top of the search results for your company. There are steps you can take on a daily basis to minimize the effects of these events, and we’ve complied a handy list you can use each day to help manage your online reputation! 6 Ways to benefit your online reputation daily! Monitor – The Web is a gigantic place, and you ought to be monitoring what is said about you and your company. Doing this on your own is a time consuming task, so make sure you use some of the tools available for finding what is being said about you. Some of these are Google Alerts, Mention, and Topsy, among many. Solicit reviews – Ask your best customers to help you out by making positive reviews for you. Repeating this on a regular basis helps push any negatives further down the search results where they won’t be found. Be Nice – It ought to go without saying that if you are being less than gracious in your dealings with your public, this will return to bite you where, well, you know where. Be nice, even when it hurts! Search Google – Make regular searches of Google for name, product and keyword mentions associated with your company. Being proactive in this regard will certainly pay dividends! Also, don’t forget to look at Google Images for product images tied to reviews. Add positive content – Make it a practice to add new, positive content that will offset negative entries. This can be done with guest posts or content on popular Web 2.0 sites like Tumblr and Squidoo. Link out to positive mentions – Be sure and link out to positive reviews of your site. This serves two purposes: outgoing authority links as well as highlighting your content in Google. Maintaining a terrific online reputation is a bit of work, but is totally necessary in an environment where we can be trashed quite nicely in minutes!

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7 Hot tips for Location Based Marketing

Use These 7 Tips to Profit from Location Based Marketing Location based marketing services including FourSquare, Yelp and others have combined with mobile devices to seriously change the way your customer finds and interacts with your business. The amount of information and trust that these sites provide has given consumers a real help when choosing where to shop, eat or go. How can you as a small business owner make use of location based marketing in your business? Here are 7 tips to help you profit from location based marketing! Ensure that your local listings are correct – It should go without saying, but it doesn’t, so here goes. Ensure that your listings in Google+ Local, Yelp, FourSquare and any other service or listings you have are correct with regards to name, address, phone, maps and anything else you would like to convey. Make sure your website is mobile responsive – Some 50 percent of all local searches are emanating forma mobile device, so it’s imperative that your site renders well in a mobile browser. Pushing  and pulling – There are two ways to reach consumers: you can push ads out to those who are in your neighborhood, as well as being available to those who are wanting to discover someone like you where they are! Get local reviews – 90 percent of consumers based their shopping decisions on reviews, so it would behoove you to stimulate (and perhaps incentivize!) your satisfied customers to leave a review, either on Facebook, Yelp or your Google+ page. Offer incentives – This is an fantastic way to leapfrog the competition when the choices aren’t so clear-cut. Be responsive to reviews and social media – Don’t forget to keep up with your social media, especially reviews. People notice! Offer deals for Mobile wallets – Here’s a new one: offer deals to consumers who are choosing to use their mobile wallets, such as through Google Wallet, Passbook or others. You will most likely skin your competition with this one!

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How to Rate Your Suppliers and Shippers

How to Evaluate Suppliers and Shippers A major factor in the health and profitability of your business is your relationship with the suppliers and vendors that will be supplying you and your customers with services and products. Nowadays when competition is so strong, and time is of the essence, it’s a bigger factor than ever to have a handle on the vendors and suppliers who work with you. You most certainly need systems set up that not only allow you to determine whether or not a particular vendor may be right for you, but also keep your business properly protected. This goes for online businesses also, especially if you are outsourcing services. Evaluating your vendors or suppliers from the very beginning! Taking the time to research a potential vendors resume is best done at the outset, so you can avoid as many problems as you possibly can. Know the answers to questions like these: How long have they been in business? How many employees do they have? How well are they doing? Ask to speak to current and former customers, and if there is any hesitance, reconsider this choice. Who would you be working with, and what kind of guarantee is there that they’ll come through for you? What happens when there is an emergency? How hungry are you for my business? Put accountability systems in place Making sure everyone is doing their part is critical in a relationship that uses vendors and suppliers. Additionally, it needs to be a good arrangement for all concerned. Set performance guidelines early on as to what is expected, and adhere rigorously to them. Don’t let weak performance go without challenge. Be sure that the vendor or suppliers you choose have a solid management style in use. You surely want someone there looking after your business for you! Don’t hesitate to move on! If it all goes south, and it does in some cases, don’t be reluctant to move on to another vendor or supplier. Give them a chance to correct things with a formal notice, but if it doesn’t get fixed, move on. You can’t afford not to!

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