As a business owner, you need to consider your online presence: what messages are you conveying, how do customers view your brand and what are the reviews saying about your service or products? If you are struggling to keep on top of this, perhaps it is time for a chat with an Online Reputation Management specialist.

Red Desk Virtual can help improve your online presence.  We work closely with web designers, looking at SEO and social media strategies. This includes keywords, the types of content to post, and the best social media outlets for your type of business or product and how to respond to reviews.

Digital Presence

If you want your brand or business to be taken seriously then you need to ensure that you have a website and some social media. Through these, you can control the message that you want the public and your target audience to see.  Never under-estimate the power of social media. Think about how many times you have based your purchasing decisions on information you find online.  It could be either the way the website looks, if they are active on social media or their reviews. It all links back to online reputation. So, make sure you are at the top of your game with an updated website, regular social media posts and remember to respond to those reviews.

What are people saying about you?

How can you control what others are saying about you?  The best way is to set up monitoring tools so you are informed when comments are posted (positive and negative) and you can then respond accordingly.

The simplest tool to use is Google Alerts.  The only prerequisite you need is a Gmail account.  Just type in the name of your product or business into Google and then select the “news” tab.  At the bottom of the page there will be a button to click saying “create alert”.   You can then select the frequency you would like the notifications sent to you.

We often find that if your business is located in a particular area then joining local Facebook groups can help you monitor referrals and comments as well.

Another recent strategy we have used, is to restrict who is able to comment on your social media posts. You may have posts that don’t require comments ie they are announcements or you might be writing something that may provoke trolls, hate speech or negative interactions. You can read more here.

Online Presence Tips

• When someone has taken time to write a review (Facebook, Google Business or other platform) try to respond in a timely fashion
• If the review or comment is negative then you might find our article helpful
• Repost positive comments

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