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What is the first thing someone does when they seek business partners or service providers?

The first thing they do is go online and search the web. Even if they come across your business through word-of-mouth referrals or recommendations, they still go back to their office and Google your business to check its reputation in the market. Since the World Wide Web has become so important in business, what now matters to any business is its Online Reputation!

In today’s business world, your online reputation is just as crucial to your success as any other marketing strategy that you deploy. Accordingly, you need to ensure that you make a great impression online!

Online Reputation Management, or ORM as its popularly called, involves diligent monitoring of your company’s brand and reputation on the web aiming to protect your business reputation and counteract any negative online content from parties unrelated to your company. Content can beposted on the web amount your company in blog posts or comments, customer review websites, community websites, social media forums and so on. As the Internet becomes an increasingly integral part of people’s lives, online reputation has become just as important as offline reputation.

Here are some tips to protect and manage your online reputation and make a good impression with anyone who searches your company or business:

Optimize your Website for Search Engines – If you have a website for your business, its important to get it optimized for search engines. This will not only ensure top rankings on search engines for your desired keywords, but it will also ensure that prospective customers will be able to find your business more easily on the web. As positive comments about your business rise up the search engines, negative publicity will automatically be pushed down the charts.

Set Up a Monitoring System – In order to monitor the presence of your company or brand, you need to keep an eye on all that is being said about your business online. This will include referrals to your company name or brand, your products or services and key employees. Start by setting up Google Alerts, Yahoo Alerts and subscription feeds like Technorati and BlogPulse. This will give you a continuous stream of content that refers to your business which you can then choose to handle accordingly.

Start an Online Dialogue – In business, you will come across both positive and negative reviews about your company. It’s certainly not unusual to come across negative comments once in a while. If you see negative online feedback about your company or business, then don’t be afraid to address the situation. Establish an online dialogue with the person who wrote the negative feedback. First, do some research to determine whether or not the complaint or review is legitimate. If it is not, then provide your facts and ask for a retraction or correction. If it is genuine, then make a polite apology and try to address their concern. Either way, your response should be open and honest!

Remember… Negative publicity can have a dramatic impact on your business, no matter how great your brand is. So, make sure you keep track of what is being said online so that when prospective customers come searching… your business makes a good impression!

Disclaimer :  Sabra Easterday is the owner and founder of MatchB2B.  Sabra is also a lawyer with a special interest in business issues and e-marketplaces.  Notwithstanding that Sabra Easterday is a lawyer, nothing in this article and no services of MatchB2B or its website are legal services and no attorney-client relationship exists between any reader of this article or user, customer or potential customer of MatchB2B, and MatchB2B, its website or Sabra Easterday.

Sabra Easterday is the founder and managing member of MatchB2B, an efficient E-Bidding platform that allows businesses to post their projects and RFBs and also place bids online. She has in depth knowledge of handling business transactions and aims to make the world wide web more useful for businesses.