In the age of instant communication and the fast-as-light spread of information, any potential success story or flop can quickly reach people all around the world. Brands and businesses often use this to their advantage, but it can sometimes be a painful negative with respect to their reputation. All too many businesses and brands have learned first-hand what can happen when a poorly-thought out post or negative review begins to gain traction on social media and across the web. In order to maintain your online reputation, certain steps must be taken. We’ll talk below about how your brand’s online reputation can be maintained through proactive means.

Alerts, Alerts, Alerts

You do not want a potential back-breaking mistake to spiral out of control before you have a chance to respond. In order to prevent this, setting up alerts for your brand is crucial. Various entities such as Google Alerts, Yahoo Alerts and social media searches can quickly help you track down any and all mentions of your brand across the web. When calibrated to report to your inbox, you’ll be alerted to any changes in your reputation as soon as it happens. Pinging to Google and other entities these requests will help you in many cases catch problems before they become too big to maintain. This example of proactivity is one of the main ways in which brands keep an eye on problems before they arise.

Encourage Reviews and Feedback

Brands that do their best to obtain as many reports of customer satisfaction and membership approval are taking proactive measures to ensure that a few disgruntled individuals do not dominate the conservation. Entities that do not push their members and customers to leave feedback or review their services will inevitably be viewed online with a less than pristine reputation; by default, only those who are upset with their service or experience will take time to leave reviews. This is why so many brands have taken steps as of late, pinging to Google the opinions of their users and customers. In addition, this proactive response can also help mitigate any attempts by competitors to sully your reputation through the use of fraudulent reviews and feedback on other websites.

Respond to Criticisms Directly

Whenever an alert for a negative comment or review becomes apparent, the best way to handle the situation is to engage directly. This is not an invitation to become hostile or defensive, but rather, an opportunity to properly handle the complaints and criticisms so that the world can see how your brand reacts under pressure. You can provide details about what you have done or are doing to resolve the matter, as well as ways to minimize the likelihood of the problem occurring in the future. In the end, the vast majority of people understand that mistakes will be made, so your tenor is what will swing others in your favour upon reading the complaint.

There are dozens of steps you can take to be proactive in the fight against negative brand reputation. Starting out, however, three simple measures can help keep things under control. By responding to criticisms directly, setting up alerts for brand mentions and encouraging satisfied users to leave feedback and reviews, your brand can be proactively strengthened in terms of its online reputation.