Your Online Reputation Is More Important Then You Know
Businesses have always had to watch and manage their reputation. How you monitor it has changed over the years, particularly in the digital age.
It used to be that a businesses reputation was known among certain circles or the bankers who loaned them money. That has changed drastically within the advent of online reviews, forums, social sites, and discussion platforms.
A businesses reputation is driven by the customer and the reviews are used extensively.
The online reputation of business now needs to be monitored constantly. In addition to monitoring a business needs to request new reviews, respond to existing reviews, and share those 5 star reviews with potential customers.
91% of millennials trust online reviews as much as family and friends (source: brightlocal)
The biggest search engine that every business wants to rank on, Google, literally shows you how important reviews are. They now show reviews in the markup when you search.
...and in the map section
...and in the Google My Business profile
Reviews are everywhere and Google is making sure everyone can see them and create them.
The 3 examples above only show Google platforms for reviews, there are a multitude of other review platforms that customers are also using to make decisions. All of them need to be monitored.
Your online reputation is important, more important in fact then you may know.
