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5 Steps to Improving Your Reputation Online Posted by Tyson Downs on 11/17/14 6:29 AM Find me on: One evolving aspect of being a doctor or other healthcare professional in our increasingly online world is that prospective patients are able to find out all about you and your practice with the click of a button. While this is largely a positive thing, even the best doctors need to make sure that their brand is presenting its best face to the world via the Internet. Your business’s Yelp reviews might be the first thing you think of in terms of your online reputation, but online reviews are just one piece of the ORM (online reputation management) puzzle. You can also start to optimize your online standing by leveraging search engine-optimized content and using social media to your advantage. Read on to learn the top 5 ways to perfect and protect your practice’s online image.
1. Monitor Your Brand’s Mentions In order to get a good handle on what people are saying about you online, you need to keep on top of your brand’s mentions across the Web. An easy way to do this is to set up Google Alerts so that you receive emails whenever your brand is mentioned online. Set up these alerts for your name, your company’s name, and high-profile employees. You can also search your company regularly in Social Mention (essentially, Google Alerts for social media) and on Twitter search. If you’re aware of what customers are saying about your business, you can take action to address any problems, both online and within your organization.
2. Expand Your Footprint Online Footprint online. What the heck is that? Your online footprint is everything associated with your brand online. This
includes your website, your blog, and all of your social media accounts. A website and a Facebook page is not enough – you need to have a presence on all of the relevant social media sites. (At the least, do register for profiles at the major social sites, and then as I've said before, test each site one by one for interaction and engagement.) Having accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Quora is a good place to start. For example, on my Quora profile, while I'm not as active as I'd like to be given time constraints of running a business, I try to get on an engage and answer questions that I have knowledge on. Here's an example of a question I answered recently:
YouTube is also a great social network to help build your brand & expertise online, as videos are valuable tools to showcase your practice. Finally, link your social media accounts to your blog and website to improve your search rankings and more importantly to make it easy for your visitors to visit your different web properties when they come upon one of them.
3. Publish New Content Regularly Now that you’ve set up your web presence, you need to maintain it. The best way to do this is to publish fresh, relevant content on a regular basis. Keep in mind that “content” includes everything from blog posts and articles to pictures and videos. Tweets and Facebook posts are also content. Tactics such as keyword optimization do come into play when creating content, but the most important thing is that the content is interesting and high-quality. Search engines reward good content, and having a steady flow of new content associated with your business can also help to push down negative items such as bad reviews so that these don’t appear on the first page of search results about your company.
4. Respond to Negative Reviews and Comments Engaging with customers online is vital to maintaining a positive online reputation, and in order to stay engaged in the online conversation about your business, you sometimes need to tackle the unpleasant task of responding to unhappy customers. This means going on Yelp, Twitter, and anywhere else people are talking about you, and trying to resolve problems. Sending a short, pleasant message to the disgruntled poster saying that you are sorry that they had a bad experience and that you’ll be happy to talk with them to try to resolve the issue can help diffuse the situation and show other potential customers that you’re responsive and professional. The other type of responding that you need to do when it comes to negatives reviews is to use the review as constructive criticism, doing what you can within your practice to make sure other patients don’t have the same bad experience.
5. Avoid Social Media Blunders (duh!)
Even the largest companies sometimes make social media blunders, which sometimes even end up making national
headlines. Talk about bad press! Making an ill-timed joke about a sensitive issue or accidentally posting something on the company account that you meant to post with your personal account are just a couple ways companies set off public ire online. Sometimes professionals even engage in fights over social media, another big no-no. Even if your business is not well-known, be assured: a social media gaffe is not something you want to become known for. Make sure you are careful and appropriate when handling your professional social media accounts, or hire someone who specializes in social media management and understands the tone your business strives to project.
Online reputation management is a broad concept that encompasses all aspects of your practice in the online sphere. It includes proactive measures (such as updating your online footprint with new content regularly) as well as defensive measures (such as responding to dissatisfied customers who post negative reviews). Following the above tips will help your practice maintain a positive image that inspires trust and brings in new customers.
Topics: Review Management inShare7