Use Your Company Blog to Help Regain Your Online Reputation

If you’re a small business owner who never gives a second thought about your online reputation, both as an individual and one owning a company, you could be setting yourself up for trouble.

While many small business owners have too much on their daily plate to worry about what is happening online, it seems like some of them only take an interest when something goes wrong. If that’s the case, it can be too late to fix a problem that can hamper your ability to do business.

So, should your online reputation be called into question, how did it get that way in the first place?

Oftentimes, it can be a simple encounter with a customer or an unhappy current or former employee, an encounter that finds its way online. When that happens, many eyes can be trained upon the discussion, potentially harming your ability to do business going forward.

In the event you find yourself in that position, one of the best ways to gain back the reputation of both yourself and your business is your company blog.

Now, the very first question to throw at you is how much time and effort have you put into your company blog over time? If the answer is not much, then you could find yourself playing catch up.

In the unfortunate circumstance that your online reputation is called into question, use your blog to:

* Promote the positive – First and foremost, you shouldn’t wait until your online reputation or your company’s is questioned. Your blog can and should be used to promote the good things your company does. Use the blog to educate consumers about the products and/or services you offer, providing consumers with all the details they need to know prior to possibly making a purchase;

* Improve search engine ranking – When your online reputation is being targeted, it can be one of the first things to surface when consumers go online to find information about you and your business. In order to lessen the negative impact, putting out positive blog posts and press releases can increase the good things people will see about you and your company when they do a Google search;

* Highlight your team – The company blog can and should be used occasionally to promote what your team does (assuming you have employees). Put a name and a face together can provide customers with more reason to do business with you, especially if the customer is dealing with one or more of your people on the phone or online, be it a call center, etc. Highlight the positive things your team does, with your blog being the vehicle to do it;

* Be more vigilant going forward – Lastly, don’t put yourself or your company in this place going forward. You should review your online reputation periodically, checking to see if you need reputation protection going forward to prevent suffering a potential loss in business. Review your blog postings from time to time to see if there is anything in them that warrants concerns. Finally, look at the traffic each blog post has received, seeing if any have received a substantially larger amount of hits. If so, they could potentially be drawing some negative attention to your business, something you must address. Never just put up a post and then forget about it.

If your online reputation is something you have not given too much thought to in recent times, the time is now to not only do that, but also put your best foot forward with your blog.

Photo credit: neolane.com

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