One day while walking to the grocery store, I noticed that the person in front of me had dropped six dollars on the floor. Without thinking, I picked them up and handed them to him as he stared at me with wide eyes and a confused gesture. I kept walking towards my targeted products, sifting through endless isles, when out of the blue he appeared at the corner of the canned foods section. In his hand he held a bright orange paper that resembled a parking ticket, but that wasn’t the case. He came closer and with emotion handed me a lottery ticket. “Here,” he said, “These are the six dollars you picked up for me, good luck”. I won four dollars with it, but nonetheless I was able to take home the pride of helping out. So by now you’re probably wondering how exactly does this fit into your online reputation?
Well, for starters, your online personality is equivalent to your day-to-day actions; thoughts and emotions tend to transfer to the online realm. When you interact with users through your website or Social Media sites, they are seeing your personality through the eyes of technology. As humans we seek to be treated in special ways; we seek to be respected and appreciated. Small generous gestures can go a long way when establishing client relationships. An honest demeanor may mean the difference between doing business with your client and doing business with your client’s friends. Bottom line is that if you’re true to your word, you’ll be inclined to attract more business.
Establishing a positive online personality is often difficult and time consuming, but can bring numerous rewards once achieved.
Find motivation in these results:
- Returning Clientele- You must abide by the law of good customer service. They say that a restaurant with outstanding service tends to attract more returning clientele than a restaurant with horrible service. If you keep your promises and treat your customers with respect, you’ll see that they’ll be inclined to return.
- Recommendations– Not only will they return, but will also recommend your business to their friends and relatives. It’s a win-win situation.
- Authority– A company that people trust and believe in will have an easier time forming B2B and B2C relationships solely for their good reputation.
Want to know the secret potion?
Here are some tips to get started:
- Being Legit– Be trustworthy and confident when presenting a new idea to a client. Prepare beforehand. Even if you know your topic by heart, we are not machines and we need to organize our ideas in order to present them with a coherent flow. Use tools like PowerPoint Notes to help you with the process. The last thing people want to see is someone who is unprepared and doesn’t seem to know enough about his niche. If you have to, cite higher management, use data and facts, and obtain your information through credible sources.
- Cultivating Relationships – Rely on loyalty and friendship to get a higher number of shares, followers and likes on your Social Media profiles. Have friends support and share your work. It’s important to start somewhere and the best place to start is with people who believe in you. In order to attain the desired popularity, your requests should have some kind of logical pattern and should be goal oriented. It’s very important to always be willing to give back.
- Online Networking – Yes, there is such a thing as online networking, and it resembles the old-fashion way. It’s important to remember that when connecting with other users online, the only thing that divides you is the thin veil of technology that you are using. As a result, your words, actions and content define you just the same as if they were meeting you in person. For this reason, be friendly and genuine if you want to influence strangers. Ask questions and be a patient listener. Most importantly, find common ground in which you can establish yourself as a leader and follower. Great tools for online networking include Google+ Hangouts.
- Values Count – Target your audiences’ feelings and emotions by sharing inspiring content. By this I mean don’t limit yourself to posting industry based technical content. Engage the audience by sharing stories of interest, videos, cartoons and photos relevant to the industry. The goal is for your followers to become aware of your services, but also to understand the industry itself. Nurture your users with free information, tips and ideas.
- Inspire – Having a positive online reputation doesn’t mean sharing other people’s content and experiences. It means creating your own and taking the lead. For instance, have your company
participate in volunteering activities, benefit races and fundraising events. Record your experiences in video or photo and post them on your Social Media sites. Sometimes great footage can come from these events, and who knows? You might just go viral.
- Teamwork -Work together with your team to achieve a positive reputation. By this I mean get your employees pumped up about their work environment. Studies show that employees who are content in the workplace tend to actively participate in team building activities, meetings and even become more productive during conflict resolution. How can this increase your positive reputation online? Well, your employees will most likely be inclined to sharing their positive experience in their personal Social Media profiles by “checking in” on Facebook or simply by updating their status. They might even spread the love by tweeting about their experience and uploading photos of the workplace in photo sharing sites. Happiness for them and exposure for you.
Knowing what your online reputation is and monitoring the effect of your reputation efforts is obviously of critical importance. Luckily, there are a number of tools that can help you with your online reputation goals.
Take a look at the following:
- Rankur– This tool provides demographic analysis and Social Media monitoring. Track your own online reviews and receive alerts when negative comments emerge online. Rankur can be configured in several languages when monitoring your online reputation.
- Google Alerts– This tool gives you the option of monitoring the latest results from the web by inserting desired “keywords”. You can choose to receive updates through e-mail as they happen in real time. Use Google Alerts to keep updated on the competition
- Quick tip: When entering your “brand name keyword” include a + sign prior to the word. It should read like this “+keyword”.
- TweetBeep- This tool tracks mentions of you, your company and your product through hourly updates. This tool is meant to cover Twitter. Use this tool if you wish to efficiently track Twitter cost effectively.
- Trackur- This tool monitors everything said of you in Google and other major search engines. It also tracks Social Media and Social Bookmarking sites including: Twitter, Facebook, social networks, social media blogs, forums, videos and images. Trackur’s main highlight is its ability to show you how influential the individuals mentioning you are.
- BrandsEye-This tool is designed for large companies where multiple users must be involved in the brand management and engagement of the company. Whenever there’s any mention of your brand, BrandsEye will send you notifications via RSS, SMS or e-mail allowing you to communicate quickly and effectively.
With these tools, you’ll be well on your way to tracking and preventing any bad online reputation.
So, go out and discover the types of strategies people aim at when persuading their online audience. Your overall success will depend on the relationships you foster and the messages you give out to the world.
Achieving online influence takes dedication and an open, friendly demeanor that shines through the anonymity of the internet. Establish an online personality with the help of family, friends, and willing business connections. Once you have a following, offer valuable information. Be willing to return favors. Your overall success in business and in life will depend on your personality and ability to positively influence people to help realize your goals. Of course, contact us if you have any questions.
