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In the pre-Internet days, what people could learn about you and your company was pretty limited. We’re talking Yellow Pages and word-of-mouth type of limited.
Today, the buying process couldn’t be more different. And look, I get it. It can be uncomfortable to admit how much your business is affected by its online reputation, especially if what’s out there is irrelevant or negative.
But the fact is, your online presence does matter. If you’re in a client or investor-facing role, networked recently, or gave out your business card, you should absolutely assume you’re being Googled. Not only that, but clients, employees and investors are making decisions based on what they find online.
Each of the following online reputation red flags can have a negative impact on a business’ bottom line. See which ones apply to you and then follow the included tips to help mitigate their impact and get your business back on track.
You Have Negative Search Results
When it comes to your digital reputation, search results are really just the tip of the iceberg. But they are worth your attention because they offer a first impression about you and your business. That’s nothing to sneeze at: 65% of people see online search as the most trusted source of information about people and companies.
Unfortunately, negative online first impressions are incredibly common -- nearly 50% of US adults who Google themselves say the results aren’t positive.
How is that possible? Well, consider the fact that anyone can say anything about you online without getting in trouble, whether it’s true or not. That includes disgruntled clients, someone you fired, or someone you used to date. The problem compounds when you realize that everything we do is now recorded online forever, including old lawsuits, negative press, and the like.
The latest research shows that businesses risk losing 22% of business when potential customers find one negative article on the first page of search results. That number increases to 44% lost business with two negative articles, and 59% with three negative articles.
Perhaps you’re thinking, “Sure, but I get most of my business from referrals. So how much could this really matter for me?”
Fair enough, but where do you think clients go as soon as they get your name? (I’ll tell you: Google.)
And it makes sense, right? We’re accustomed to living in a world where if we need more info, we resort to using the web. As soon as clients get your name, they do their due diligence and look you up online to learn more about you.
If you do have irrelevant or negative results showing up, you should absolutely assume it’s affecting your bottom line. Read this guide to learn more about pushing down negative results, and use this rubric to measure the ROI of implementing an online reputation management campaign for your business.
You Are Misrepresented By Negative Reviews
We all have a story about that one crazy client or disgruntled ex-employee. (You know the one I’m talking about.)
The problem is that even after you’ve gone your separate ways, the ghosts of those strained relationships can come back to haunt you.
Take, for instance, irate customers who share their experiences on platforms like Yelp and Google Reviews. Or ex-employees who vent anonymously on recruitment platforms like Glassdoor and Indeed.
Business owners have long complained of an inherently negative review bias on anonymous review platforms, where the angry and upset are more likely to organically volunteer their thoughts than their satisfied counterparts.
Unfortunately, business owners have more than an unfair reputation to worry about. Businesses that don’t proactively correct for this negative bias are likely to suffer monetarily as well.
Consider this: 84% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and a 1-star increase has been shown to increase revenue by 5% to 9%.
For that reason, negative reviews can be particularly frustrating for business owners whose review platforms only seem to serve as a megaphone for a vocal minority of dissatisfied customers.
Without a strategic plan in place, it can be particularly difficult to overcome unrepresentative and biased online reviews. Here is an in-depth guide to improving your client-facing review platforms (like Google and Yelp) and here is a blueprint for improving your recruitment review platforms (like Indeed and Glassdoor).
You Don’t Produce Digital Content
If you’re still putting content initiatives on the back burner, you’ll want to seriously reconsider.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re in B2B or B2C, whether you’re a startup or international business, or whether your industry is SEO or steel manufacturing. Today, buyers in all industries are using digital content to inform and make their purchasing decisions.
The reason is simple: buyers progress more than 70% of the way through the decision-making process before ever engaging a sales representative. If you’re so focused on pricing, discounts, and sales tactics, then you’ll miss the first 70% of the sales cycle and wonder why your pipeline isn’t filling up any faster.
Digital content can mean lots of things: blogging and thought leadership, earned media coverage, white papers, case studies, videos, and infographics.
The list goes on, but the point is this: when asked why buyers selected the winning vendor over others, 75% said the winning vendor’s content had a significant impact on their buying decisions.
This trend isn’t reversing any time soon. More than half (51%) of B2B buyers say they rely more on content now to research their buying decisions than they did a year ago. Businesses that ignore customers' increasing reliance on the Internet risk making the same mistake Blockbusters made years ago.
Don’t let the daunting task of digitally engaging with your customers paralyze you from getting the right ideas in front of the right audience. It’s too big a risk: companies that don’t engage buyers during that research stage risk losing buyer awareness and ultimately, sales opportunities.
Here are five serious lessons in creating engaging content and five satirical tips on producing more effective content.
You Ignore The Importance Of Employee Advocacy
A business is nothing without attention. You could have the right people selling the right product at the right price point, but none of that matters if people never hear about you in the first place.
If you’re like many businesses, you go to great pains to get the word out about your company, spending big bucks on marketing and advertising campaigns only to forget about the biggest opportunity for attention right under your nose.
I’m talking about your employees.
Each of your employees has a network of people who care deeply about what he or she has to say. That’s why brand messages shared by employees on social media get 561% more reach than the same messages shared by the brand’s social media channels. And content shared by employees receives 8 times more engagement than content shared by brand channels.
Of course, the importance of employee advocacy is not just in earning awareness and staying top of mind, but also in filling pipelines and closing deals. The data shows that leads developed through employees’ social media activities convert 7 times more frequently than other leads.
With such a dramatic impact on lead generation and close rate, you can bet that companies that nurture their employees into brand advocates are beating out those that don’t.
Read this guide on how you can use personal branding to drive revenue, and consider using tools like LinkedIn Elevate and Smarp to empower your employees to become influential thought leaders in your industry. Lastly, here is a terrific guide from the CEO of Hootsuite on how to turn your entire staff into a “social media army.”
Your Executives Don’t Have Personal Brands
Take a hard look at your company’s executives. If they lack strong personal brands, your company is probably paying for it, literally. Global executives estimate that 44% of a company’s market value is attributable to CEO reputation.
Take the case of Abercrombie and Fitch, whose ex-CEO Mike Jeffries put his foot in his mouth a few too many times, causing huge PR nightmares for the company. ("A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong," Jeffries famously said in a Salon interview.)
It’s pretty telling that Abercrombie and Fitch was ranked lowest in the 2016 American Customer Satisfaction Index, making it the most hated retailer in America a full 14 months after Jeffries had already stepped down.
For companies with executives like Jeffries -- Uber comes to mind -- the impact of an executive's reputation on the company’s bottom line can be a scary prospect.
But it can also be a massive opportunity. Take Elon Musk for example, who has become a household name and helped garner Tesla an enthusiastic international following. Or Grant Cardone, the sales guru and real estate investor who has produced so much content that he puts most authors to shame. Cardone’s ability to educate and entertain at scale has helped him earn tremendous awareness, build five successful businesses, and amass a multi-million-dollar fortune.
Even corporate stakeholders are not immune to the impact of a powerful executive brand. When surveyed, 95% of financial and industry analysts said they would purchase stock based upon a CEO’s reputation, and 94% said they would recommend the stock to others.
By tapping into our desire to connect with people and not corporate entities, executives with strong brands give their companies a chance to stand out in an oversaturated marketplace with limitless options.
If your executives’ personal brands are lacking, read this introduction to building a powerful CEO brand, and entrepreneurs will want to check out this guide to online reputation management written specifically for them.
Ryan Erskine is a Senior Brand Strategist at BrandYourself, where he helps people take control of their online presence. Visit his website, follow him on Twitter, and read his book here.
