Maintaining a Good Reputation Online

If you have a business, online or otherwise, chances are you’ve come across a complaint or two. You can’t make everyone happy, right? However, you can and should protect your company’s reputation.

Here’s an example:

I received a recommendation from a friend about a product he thought I might be interested in. This friend had not actually purchased or researched the product, he had just heard good things about it. So I went to their website and did some research. To my surprise, I discovered all kinds of negative reviews. I wasn’t impressed at all with their site and I was skeptical about their claims and promises. So, because of all of the bad information I found, I chose not to give them my business.

So, what’s the moral of the story? What should you be doing to protect your company’s name and/or to combat bad reviews? Good Reputation Management! How?
-use social networking sites
-use content creation sites
-use blogging sites
-create your own separate “defense” website

Each of these tools can be used to post positive information about you or your products. Honestly defend the criticisms that are out there. One really effective way to do that is to use a search engine. If someone is researching your business and, just to see, Googles Your Company’s Name and Sucks, they now have access to all the bad reviews you don’t want them to see. But, you can use this to your advantage. Create a site that defends all the criticism, and you just might change their mind.

The point is, maintaining a good reputation online can mean the difference between success and failure. Which would you choose?