What is Online Reputation?

Today we wanted to talk about online reputation – what is it?

First, here’s a question:

When you see a business that has really good ratings and a lot of reviews, are you going to choose that business, or are you going to choose a business that has less reviews and lower star ratings?

We all know we’re not going to the 1-star pizzeria down the street, and we’re not going to go get a root canal from that dentist who people say falls asleep or drools while he’s over your face.

So let’s get into what online reputation is

Online reputation is not only what a business posts on their blog, website, or their social media. It’s also what their customers post about them on their own blogs or on social media. These posts can include pictures, videos, reviews and star ratings – pretty much anything that reflects what a company is, how they treat their customers, and what their customers experience.

Publicity is also part of online reputation. If a business has been in the news lately, was that news good or bad? If you’re seeing a news story about a business, then that’s going to give you some kind of impression – be it good or bad – about that business, even though you’re not necessarily customer or ever planned on being their customer.

Online reputation can also come from past employees. If you have a current or previous employee who’s disgruntled and they post bad things about your business online, that’s part of your reputation.

Basically, online reputation is formed by everything that a business says AND everything that anyone else, including customers and employees, says about that business. It is any mention that a business has across all of social media and the internet. Most importantly, online reputation tells potential customers what type of experience they can expect from a company, how they’re going to be treated, and whether they should choose them or their competitor.

We hope that answers the question of what exactly online reputation is and how it can affect your business.