Social proof and reputation management are very important in today’s marketing tasks. These are the signals customers are looking for when they are making a purchase. Without social proof and reputation management, customers will quickly look to find another company that has the proof they need that the product or service is reliable and worth their time or money. Let’s look at this more deeply.

 

Social Proof

Social proof is the idea that people will conform to the ideas of society or specific influencers. People do this so that they can be liked or accepted by their peers. According to Oberlo, 61% of customers read online reviews before choosing to buy a product or service, and 63% of consumers said that they are more likely to purchase from someone with ratings and reviews. There are many types of social proof including testimonials, reviews, and case studies.

 

Testimonials and Reviews

The first kind of social proof is testimonials and proofs. These are short recommendations from past customers that were happy with the experience of working with your company. This can be used by either business-to-business or a business-to-consumer. There is a slight difference between the two, however.

 

Testimonials

Testimonials are longer and more detailed and are provided directly to your company. These can be used on your website, in your commercials, in brochures, and much more. They can be written or a video, and are usually more impactful than just a short review.

 

Reviews

Reviews are a short view of a user’s experience. They are gathered or provided by a third-party site and are often not on your own website. You can find reviews on sites like Yelp, Business.com, Foursquare, and Glassdoor. Mostly written with some kind of rating system, for example, a one to five-star review system, they can be more impactful in larger quantities. If your company has many five-star reviews more people will want to work with you, rather than if you have many one-star reviews.

 

These are usually open platforms where anyone can express any positive or negative experiences they have had with your business. You can’t change or delete them as they are on a third-party site, you can respond to them though. Responding shows that you are paying attention to your customers and their thoughts, which helps your social proof as well.

 

Case Studies

According to CXL, case studies are “data-driven, in-depth analysis of the product or service you provided a current customer with.” If you have an agency service, this is a great option as it works best for business-to-business companies. These can be used on your website to take it to the next step. You may have a testimonial on your site that a user can click on to bring them to the case study. Having a case study can build out your proof more and gain you more traction.

 

Social Media

Social media is mostly used for business-to-consumer but can also be used for business-to-business. You can add social sharing buttons onto your website that shows how many shares each page has. The more shares you have the more credible you will be. This shows that people are using you as an expert and will create more trust in your company. The social sharing buttons can be added to any page on your website, like the ones to the left on our site. Having these buttons will also make it easier for users to share information, allowing your site to be seen by more and more people.

 

You can also embed social media posts onto your website. If you find posts that positively reflect your brand, you are able to add those to your site. When you add it to your site, your users are still able to interact with the post like you would be able to if you were on the social site.

 

Reputation Management

Reputation management focuses on watching and reviewing how your business is viewed online. As Reputation X puts it “Reputation management is the effort to influence what and how people think of a brand or person when viewed online.”

 

Why do you need reputation management?

When running a business, you need a good reputation in order to gain more clients, make more money, and grow your business. It can get you a better search engine ranking and it can increase customer trust in you and your business.

 

Affects Sales and Marketing

If your company doesn’t have a good reputation then possible clients aren’t going to want to work with your company. Approximately 87% of people will reverse their decision to buy a product or service after finding negative content.

 

Increases Transparency and Trust

The more trust you have with your clients the more they will come to you if they have a problem that needs to be fixed. When was the last time you looked up an answer to a question on Google? If you build a good reputation using reputation management, your business could be the one that pops up to a search query.

 

Helps You Reach More Customers

The more of your business that you have online the higher your chances are of being found. The more you’re found, the more people will choose to work with you. As those customers tell their friends, your company gains more and more popularity and more people will come to your business. Don’t you want to know if the information out there about your business is good or bad?

 

How Do You Get a Good Online Reputation Thought?

 

Check Out What Your Current Reputation Is

The first place you can check your current reputation is by Googling your business and seeing what comes up. Look at things like

 

• Are you one of the first listings?

• Are those positive or negative findings?

• Are you being viewed as an expert on things your company promotes?

• Do you have a Google Business Profile set up? Is the information on it correct?

 

Are You Paying Attention to Your Socials And Reviews?

When was the last time you responded to a comment or review on your or someone else’s page? These sections can be a great place to see what your customers are saying about you and maybe even respond to some of them. If you see a negative review, you could respond back asking what you can do to make it better next time and see if there’s any way that you can help them. Check sites like Glassdoor, Yelp, and Angie’s List.

 

Then take a look at your social media accounts. Things like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. What are the people on those sites saying about your company? Check out things like Google and Facebook reviews.

 

What to Do If You Need More Work?

 

Make Your Claim

The most important thing is to get your business on everything you can. Get your name out there and start reaching people. Claim your name on everything you can so that you can make yourself known. Use sites like Yahoo, Citysearch, and Local.com.

 

Monitor Your Reputation Online

Your business can set up monitors to watch your reputation for you. Sites like Google Alerts or HootSuite allow you to track your companies mentions and give your reports on their findings and where you stand in the world.

 

Blogging

One way you can increase your search ranking is to focus more of your content strategy on blogging. These pages will show up when someone searches for you so the negative aspects of your company don’t show up as high. If someone writes a couple of bad reviews but you have more blogs and writings showing how reputable you are, people are more likely to see past those reviews and choose your company regardless.

 

If you don’t show up at all in the search results this will help you bring your name to the playing field and will give you something to be found for. The more blogs you have, the more likely you are to show up as a trusted source on a topic.

 

Get Some Help with Your Online Reputation Management

Doing all of this and more can be a lot for a company, especially a small business. Companies like Small Hits take the work out of it and do it for you. This allows you to get good reviews because you can focus on doing the work instead of finding the clients. Small Hits and other marketing agencies create a great reputation through all of these and more to keep bringing you in more customers.