There’s no questioning the popularity of the First Lady, Michelle Obama. Along with her husband, President Barack Obama, the pair have captured America’s attention. Mrs. Obama, however, can offer great lessons to small businesses in the area of controlling your own image and reputation management.
Whether you run an online or offline business, the world of Web 2.0 now gives incredible power to people. They have a voice and can make or break a small business. Always know what is being said about your company.
Sites like Twitter and Facebook are great ways of promoting your business. They’re also excellent ways of driving traffic to your site. But they’re also feeding grounds for people to say all kinds of things about your business - good and bad. It’s important to have a social networking strategy, carefully crafted in a way that helps you get in the news, not become the news.
You always want to connect and engage with your customers. That shows a willingness and interest in building your online community. Just be sure to build your online community so that it’s a friendly one.
Online reputation management can hit even large companies. Many people have grown frustrated with Dell Computer’s customer service responsiveness and they’ve taken action by blogging about it. When this “voice” becomes prevalent enough, these blog posts - or worse, complete Web sites designed by angry customers - can actually ruin your Google search rankings.
Have you ever dealt with a bad online reputation management situation? Tell us about it here.
