website

You already know that conversations about business are happening online, all over the place. People can write reviews, comments, complaints, blog posts, articles, post videos, etc. on hundreds of websites all across the internet. But what do you do if you find that your small business is the topic of discussion?

One solid way to help manage what people can read about your company is to join in the discussion.

If you do a search in Google for your company name, and other websites show up in the top 10 search results, you have a challenge and an opportunity. If those results link to positive information about your company, that’s great. But if they link to negative reviews, complaint sites and other reputation killers, there are things you can do to change that.

Create a page on your site specifically for people to send you a complaint. Call it “(Business Name) Complaints” and put a super simple form on the page that doesn’t require the user to enter a bunch of information. Let them come directly to you to do their complaining and be sure to immediately respond, acknowledging that you received their complaint. Then look into what they’re saying and honestly address it. Quickly.
Create a page on your site specifically for people to write reviews of your company. Call it “(Business Name) Customer Reviews” and post them without editing. If there is something negative in the review, publicly address it and encourage the visitor to submit a complaint so you can privately remedy it.

To read 3 more opportunities that your blog can help you maintain your business reputation visit the original article here http://blog.supermedia.com/using-your-blog-for-reputation-management/

Protecting Your “Online Reputation” (pharmexec.com)
What is Reputation Management? Get All the Answers and Ways to Protect Your Business. (jennifercelayablog.wordpress.com)

Without traffic, your website is rather worthless, right? Well, most people think that to get traffic, you need to just optimize for the search engines and let Google give you all the traffic necessary to survive. Sadly, what many people don’t realize is that there are SO MANY ways to promote your website outside of Google. As you probably already know, it’s always best to diversify so that your eggs aren’t all in one hat. So with that being said, let’s take a quick look at 25 very easy and cool ways to promote your website:

#1 Niche Directories

Don’t just submit to the directories like DMOZ and Yahoo! Sure, while these can bring you some traffic and link juice, focus on niche directories that can help you drive in targeted traffic.

#2 Social Media

Take advantage of Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. These are great platforms with millions upon millions of people using it every day. Be sure to update it a few times a week!

#3 Message Boards

Find a niche based message board and add your opinion. Make sure that you don’t go there just to spam, but instead, add your link to your signature. If people like what you say, they will probably click through.

#4 Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking isn’t dead yet. Consider starting campaigns on websites such as StumbleUpon and Digg. While the sites may seem like dinosaurs now, they still do send in traffic.

#5 PPC

If you have the money, start running ads on Facebook, Bing and Google. PPC takes a while to learn and if you have the time, read up on Adwords, Adcenter and Facebook ads. If you have the patience, this is a great way to bring in traffic now. continue reading….