Everything you say and do online can have an impact on your reputation and can be affected by what others say about you. Your online reputation isn’t just what you put up online but how you put it online, where you put it and when you do it.
Whats being said?
Staying on top of what’s being said can help prevent damaging comments and you can share the good ones. A good presence online can win you patients and respect. A bad presence can influence people to change their opinions about you. Before someone else can write about you, create your own strategy, get online and establish a strong and positive presence. Google your practice name frequently and take note of where you appear online including Facebook, Twitter and other sites that are likely to catch everything being said about you. The more frequently a practice appears the more dominant and reliable it seems.
Linkbuilding
A creation of links pointing back to your website enhances your organic search presence. Therefore It’s important to build your brand online so that customers keep coming back, even when there are no promotions.
Who are your customers?
Understanding who your customers are allows you to understand common interests and figuring out where your target customer spends time online is extremely beneficial. Research the keywords people use most to search for your practice. If you have details of your customer demographic it will help you to stay focused and your content will stay relevant. If you create consistent messaging throughout it will allow patients to continually recognise and recall your practice. This will make you a clear choice when patients are ready to make a decision as they will remember you.
Online Reviews
Online marketing experts have spent a lot of time providing advice on managing online ratings and reviews for local businesses but reputation can have much broader impact than your reviews on Google. There’s hardly a business out there that doesn’t have an occasional issue arise with a customer. Ideally, you can resolve things before it reaches a point where a customer believes they can only get satisfaction through a public forum or feels they ought to warn people about your practice. The internet has made it so the barriers between one customer and another are far reduced as word-of-mouth can now travel almost literally at the speed of light. However if you’ve prepared and planned for how to handle online criticism of your practice, the impact of one or two complaints can be much reduced, and you may be better able to respond effectively and rapidly to minimize monetary impact.
No opting out
Online reputation management cannot be opted out of or ignored. If a practice doesn’t invest in developing their online presence and reputation proactively, they will more than likely pay considerable costs later down the line. Businesses who want to keep a low profile and avoid all forms of social media out of a desire for privacy may again be damaging their reputation. Perhaps the only thing worse than under-engaging in online media is handling social media badly. No one can damage you as seriously as you can damage yourself if you don’t know what you’re doing.
With these concepts in mind, here are 8 professional tips for your online reputation management.
If you would like any further information then give the Dental Design team a call on: 01202677277.