The Web is the marketing space of today. TV ads are becoming a thing of the past. Print media is even more outdated, as sad as it is to see print go away. The Web is where you need to focus your marketing efforts, and one very simple thing you can do is to manage your online presence to boost your public image.
What is an Online Presence?
Your online presence is basically a term that refers to everything on the Web related to your business. Your online presence does include your business website, but it also covers customer reviews, your presence on popular social media sites and anything else you can use to interact with your customers. The Web is an invaluable tool because it lets you actually see the things your customers are saying about your business. You don’t have to guess at what they think – if they love you – or hate you – you can find out on the Web. If you proactively manage your online presence, you can influence customer perception of your company by:
- Responding proactively to customer concerns;
- Conveying important information to your customers via the Web;
- Finding out what your customers have to say about you;
- Ensuring that information about your business is relevant and up-to-date;
- Correcting misconceptions about your company or business.
How to Effectively Manage Your Online Presence
You can manage your online presence in a number of ways. One useful aspect of managing your online presence is to present a consistent, branded image. However, potentially more important is your ability to monitor and respond to what customers have to say about your business.
Managing Your Online Image
First and foremost, decide what image you want to present your customers and manage that image. Make sure your branding is consistent throughout your website, and anyplace else your business is represented on the Web. You may want to consider joining popular social networking websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, LinkedIn and anything else that’s relevant to your business. Joining these websites gives you a face, and gives you the ability to more proactively manage your online image.
Responding to Customer Feedback
One of the most useful features of managing your online presence is the ability to track and respond to customer feedback. Set up a free Google Alert or other keyword tracking tool to find out when your customers refer to your business on the Web. Track what your customers have to say, and reach out to customers who have had a negative experience. You may be able to change their opinions in the way you handle their feedback, or you may at least provide a positive presence to onlookers who see that you’re attempting to address negative feedback.
You can also set up a service that tracks inbound linking. In this way, you can see when people create inbound links to your business, and check out the context of those links. If people are linking to your business and saying “Don’t work with these guys,” you might want to reach out to those people to try to resolve the issues. On the other hand, if people are linking to your website saying “These guys are great!” – you know you’re doing something right, and you can turn that into more customers and a higher conversion rate.
Conversely, you can reach out to other people who have negative feedback about your competitors. If you set up Alerts to track when your competitor’s names are mentioned, you can reach out to people who have left negative comments about your competitors and invite them to try your services or products, instead. Don’t drag your competitors through the mud – simply offer an invitation to see what you have to offer, and consider adding how it addresses their specific needs.
Avoid Mudslinging Online
One unsavory aspect of the Web is how easy it is to get into mudslinging contests. If a competitor is leaving negative comments about you somewhere, resist the temptation to drag your competitor through the mud, too. Simply inform your customers that a competitor has left those comments. Alternately, don’t drag your competitors through the mud, either.
Professional battles should stay behind the scenes, unless competitors are intentionally damaging your reputation, so keep your beef with your competitors out of the spotlight unless you’re directly responding to customer concerns. Think about how you feel when politicians engage in mudslinging tactics. It’s never popular, and it can result in losing a vote – so don’t do that to your business.
Case Studies: Successfully Managing Your Online Presence
I recently placed an order online for a hard-to-find product. I found a really good deal at a specific business, so I placed the order with that business, thinking I’d save money. I received an order confirmation, but days went by without receiving a shipment confirmation. I looked at the business policies listed on the website and saw that I should have gotten a shipment confirmation, and then gave the business an extra day or two after that just to be nice. Eventually, I called the business to ask about the status of my order.
When I spoke with someone at the business, he put me on hold while he checked my order. He came back a few minutes later saying he was having computer problems, and that he would have to call me back in 10 or 15 minutes. He never called me back. Instead, I got a call the next day from a completely different individual, who left me a message saying that my item was out of stock and that they had canceled my order. This person said that he had sent me an email confirmation stating that my order was canceled, but I never got one.
I did some research on the Web, and found many other people complaining of poor shipping practices, erroneous billing and other shopping-related problems with this company. I considered myself lucky that they hadn’t billed me, and moved on to order a similar item somewhere else.
The replacement item that I ordered from a different company yielded a completely different experience. I got four emails that afternoon – an email confirming my order had been placed, an email confirming that my order was being processed, an email with a copy of my invoice, and an email with shipment information. In addition, a representative of that company found a blog post I had written about the experience, and even left me a comment on my blog informing me that the product was in stock, and thanking me for the order.
I received the order quickly, and was thrilled by the customer service experience I got with the second company. I wrote another blog, adding my voice to the many other happy customers.
Now, when people go searching for those companies on the Web, they’ll see all of the customer comments. The first company has a slew of customer comments about poor shipping and billing practices, and frequent out-of-stock items. The second company has a host of positive comments about the order process and customer service.
If you were a customer, which company would you rather patronize?
