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Reputation management is a field that encompasses many different clients—ranging from small-town dentists to national politicians, from Fortune 500 companies to small start-up companies. For each different client, the reputation management professional needs to implement a different kind of strategy and a varied range of solutions.
Take small businesses, for example. Small businesses are turning, with increasing frequency, to reputation management firms. Many small businesses are making reputation management a significant part of their marketing budget. But how can a reputation management firm most successfully protect the interests of these small business clients? Read on for five battle-tested tips!
Tip #1: Create Educational Content
You’re probably familiar with the “content revolution” that is sweeping the reputation management and SEO industries. With the recent advent of Penguin and Panda, content strategies are coming under scrutiny, and what many reputation defenders are finding is that the quality of your written content is vital. One way to create small business-related content that users will love is to make it educational. Tips, techniques, and how-to’s—all related to the industry in question—are excellent methods for engaging readers.
Tip #2: Get Promotional
Being overly promotional, in terms of your client, is a mistake. Being promotional about other leading services or experts within the industry, however? That’s a great way to establish a small business as reputable and authoritative within its sector. Promoting good causes or industry leaders helps cultivate a sense of trust.
Tip #3: Get Social
This blog is continually endorsing the importance of social media within the reputation management space—and that’s especially true with small businesses. Much small business thrives on being relatable, interactive with clients. Using social networks is a crucial way to establish a small business in question as active on the Web.
Tip #4: Get Specific
When it comes to written content, it is vital to present the small business in a way that causes it to stand out, to be distinct from everything else that’s out there. Talking only in general terms about the industry, then, will never work. The reputation management professional must position the small business as something unique, which means getting into specifics. If the small business has practices, products, or techniques that are uncommon or even exclusive, those are the things the content needs to highlight.
Tip #5: See What Competitors are Doing—and See What’s Missing
This is an essential step if you want to make a small business stand out from its competitors. Do a little keyword research and find out what rival companies are emphasizing—and what’s missing. See if you can position the small business in question as a special member of its industry.
Reputation management is not something that can be done from a template or a cookie-cutter formula. This is never truer than when dealing with small businesses. Your campaign must be tailored to meet the needs of the business in question. Using these tips as a set of guidelines, however, will help keep your campaign on the right track!