Protecting Your Business Reputation Online
It might not be at the forefront of your mind when it comes to your business, but ensuring that your business’s reputation is secure from negative online publicity will only prove beneficial in the long run.
The best time to protect your company’s reputation is before it becomes damaged by a damaging event. It can be done with as simple an approach as a well-formulated strategy.
Identifying the potential damaging events is key to working out exactly what you can do to mitigate their effects. Damaging events could include data breaches, employee issues, recalls and defective products, workplace accidents or even negative social media posts. Posts on Facebook can be just as damaging as a well-written newspaper article if not handled carefully.
Once you have identified what could harm your business’s reputation, it’s important to work out how you will respond to customer issues. For example, if a post has been made with false, irrelevant information, you can respond with factual information that is well-sourced to counteract it.
To prevent your social media accounts from being misused, it’s best to create and implement a clear social media policy specifying who can access accounts, create and post content and what message you want to convey when communicating about your business. It can also stipulate guidelines for how business employees should behave online as representatives of your business.
Address minor problems quickly to prevent a landslide buildup of more extensive consequences. Doing so will allow you to get on top of issues and maintain your business reputation (and potentially grow it as an adaptive business willing to cooperate with your customers to ensure their satisfaction).
Create a cybersecurity plan to assist you in addressing data safety concerns, any potential risks to your business of exposure and securing sensitive data on your network, website, and within your payment systems. This will add an extra layer of protection to your business and prevent reputational damage if a breach does occur.
You can also seek additional help from a professional online reputation company to ensure that your reputation is managed, maintained and monitored for damage and risks to your business reputation.
Need assistance and want to know more?
Contact Holmans today;
Holmans Noosa: (07) 5430 7600 or email info@holmans.com.au
Holmans Maroochydore: (07) 5451 6888 or email infohm@holmans.com.au