Nowadays, when you hear people chatting about reputation repair they are probably not referring to an individual making amends for a mistake that has been made. Instead, reputation repair refers to a company’s reputation and its overall perception from the public.
Reputation repair doesn’t just mean repairing a reputation, but also managing it. No matter if you have a good or bad rep with your customers, you need to focus on either building or maintaining your reputation. Here are the 5 main steps for getting started.
Step 1: Hire a Reputation Management Professional
First thing is first, you should hire someone to help you improve your brand’s reputation. You might not think that is necessary at first, but you’ll quickly come to realize that building up a company reputation is a lot of work. There are so many moving parts and steps involved, so just leave it to the experts.
There are tons of agencies that specialize in reputation repair and management so you have no shortage of options. Do your research first and read up on each company to see what sort of reputation they have with past customers. See, reputation really is everything!
Step 2: Perform an Audit
Once you’ve hired a firm, an audit should be performed. This just means that an online intake will be completed to get a clear picture of the current state of your brand’s reputation. Every aspect of your online presence will be analyzed. Customer reviews will be dissected, social media accounts will be browsed through, and your website will be examined.
Step 3: Create a Strategy
After everything relating to your online rep has been carefully analyzed, a strategy can be set in place. You might have a good idea before the audit has been performed of what needs to be done, but the audit can let you know exactly what measures to take.
Do you need to focus on social media posting? Are negative Google reviews bringing you down? Does your website lack functionality or is it not pleasing to the eye? Whatever the case may be, you and the reputation management team will determine what strategy is best to repair your rep.
Step 4: Begin the Repair Process
Now comes the fun part. If you have hired a team to help you with this, all you need to do as a company leader is sit back and watch the magic happen. If you are taking matters into your own hands, expect this to be a full time job in itself. Whatever strategy has been formed needs to be carried out now; results will come, but don’t expect them to be instantaneous. It often takes 3-6 months to see real reputation change.
Step 5: Remember to MAINTAIN
Once your reputation has been repaired, the work is done. NOT! This can be compared to getting in shape. After you have put in work at the gym and healthified your diet, you can’t just go back to your old ways and keep the weight off. Remember that maintenance is key.
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