Your business has been working to elevate its public relations profile and brand awareness by optimizing the website, engaging on social media and writing a blog. Now that you’ve “put yourself out there” you need to employ an appropriate online reputation management strategy which focuses on optimizing your website, engaging on social media and writing a blog. Yes, you read that correctly, the very things you need to do to establish and elevate your business’ online profile are the same tools you need to use to manage your online reputation.
It is not enough to simply open social media accounts, establish a blog and have a website, you have to use them, and keep content current. Word-of-mouth is still the most effective form of advertising and promotion, but instead of being face-to-face it has moved online where a customer’s praise of, recommendation for or condemnation of your product or service, is on display for the entire world to see. As the Huffington Post reports, 90 percent of customers say their decisions are driven by online reviews. How you engage and respond to your customers and other target audiences online will enhance or hinder your company’s reputation, both online and off.
1. Post
Seems obvious, but one of the best ways to positively impact your online reputation management is to regularly post on social media and your business blog. The more you post, the higher you will rank in feeds and search engines. In fact, every time you add to your blog it indexes another page on your website helping to increase your SEO and page rank. However, don’t forget about quality over quantity. What you post has to be timely and relevant, have meaning and add value to your brand.
2. Monitor
People are talking about your business. Do you know what they are saying about you? Monitoring what is being said about your business and where, is the second step of online reputation management. It is not enough to simply post. To gauge how effective your content is you have to track engagement with your content. Who is engaging? When? Where? And most important, what are they saying?
To effectively manage your online reputation you have to know where your audience is and what channels they use most frequently. You can set up alerts in the major search engines to be notified when something new about your business appears on the internet. You should also proactively monitor appropriate review sites (Amazon, Yelp, Trip Advisor, Yahoo) for your business.
3. Respond
Monitoring leads to the third step in online reputation management: responding. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, social media is a two-way conversation. Not only do you have to know what people are saying about your business, but respond to it. Say thank you, congratulate, ask for feedback—establish a relationship. The same is true with negative reviews and comments. How you handle negative comments can actually be a boost to your reputation provided you:
- Acknowledge the customer’s/reviewer’s complaint.
- Thank them for their feedback.
- Show empathy for their situation.
- Provide options for addressing their issue.
- Reaffirm your business cares about their perspective and welcomes feedback
4. Listen
Step four of online reputation management is about listening. Once you have established your online presence and built relationships, you can foster business growth by listening to and acting on what your customers say they want, need or would like to see improved about your product or service. Listening can help drive your content with in-depth responses to customer questions or ideas and encourage user generated content and shared experiences. Listening can help shape the future of your company, product development, strategic affiliations and community engagement. Listening demonstrates your company is walking its talk and enhances reputation overall.
Take it One Step Further
Understandably, finding the time and resources to not only develop and post content, but monitor and manage online engagement and reputation, can be challenging. Whether you need help with your online reputation management or a digital strategy to enhance your reputation, Millennium can help. Call 877-873-7445 ext. 201 or connect via email at [email protected]
Benefits of Blogging for Your Brand
It may seem ironic to blog about blogging, but it exemplifies the very benefits of using a blog to build a stronger brand for your business:
- Positioning yourself as an expert in your field.
- Keeping abreast of industry trends.
- Commenting on noteworthy topics.
- Focusing your content development.
- Building relationships and driving traffic.
Blogs have increasingly become a pivotal tool in the public relations toolbox to connect directly with consumers and journalists alike. The more conversational style of a blog cuts through the traditional “PR speak” and enables the writer to showcase the business personality, develop rapport with readers and enhance the online relationship. According to HubSpot, 60% of businesses that blog acquire more customers. Let’s take a closer look at how blogging can help your business build a stronger brand.
Establish Your Expertise
From airlines to finance, healthcare to zoology and every industry in between, businesses are blogging to share their stories, control their narrative and position themselves as experts in their field. Blogging is one of the fastest and most cost effective means of putting your story out there in the way you want to tell it. Your blog enables you to not only share your news, but also the personality behind the brand.
Blogs tend to take on a more conversational tone because they are written for the end reader, not a gatekeeper. A blog can help your business build a stronger brand through personalization, and position you as an industry leader through focused, timely and relatable content.
Focus Your Strategy
Once you establish your business blog, it will become the focal point of your content strategy fueling your social media and web traffic. Writing a blog forces your business to answer the important questions like who you are writing for and why. Committing to a blog also requires you to develop a regular posting schedule of topics that are relevant, relatable and responsive to your readers’ wants and needs. Remember, it is a two-way conversation and what you blog about today may just be the answer to a new client’s question months from now.
Build Relationships
One of the biggest benefits of blogging to build a stronger brand for your business, is that you speak directly to your target audience(s). Your blog can open up a whole new world of engagement not possible through traditional public relations and marketing. Through those that comment, follow and share your blog, you can build relationships and expand your reach. That dialogue not only allows you to share industry insight and a look behind the scenes of your business, it also helps you discern how consumers are using your product or service. By gaining awareness of questions, concerns or ideas consumers might have about the user experience enables you to be responsive and help build out your content strategy.
Media is another key audience. Increasingly, editors and journalists look to blogs for insight on trending topics and ideas for news and feature stories. Due to the more open and conversational writing style, your blog can “cut through the clutter,” so to speak, build trust and place your business front and center for the next big journalistic scoop.
Increase the Bottom Line
So you’ve established a blog, invested time in researching and writing posts, and have a following. What is the payoff? Increased traffic to your website through social media and search engines, as well as generating leads via calls to action. According to HubSpot, every blog post results in another indexed page on your website increasing the opportunity to be picked up by search engines and increasing web traffic through organic search. And as mentioned earlier, your blog feeds your social media which can expose your business to new audiences while expanding your reach in established social circles. Add in the compounding effect of a blog, which is to say the post you write today can still be generating leads six months to a year from now, and your relevance in the marketplace continues to rise.
Ready to Breakout Your Business Blog?
Now that you are ready to add blogging to your business’ public relations strategy to build a stronger brand, Millennium can help. Talk to one of our digital experts to get started developing your content strategy and search engine optimization. Call 877-873-7445 ext. 201 or connect via email at [email protected].
It all starts with a headline, and according to PRWeb, a strong headline is key to making your press releases stand out, grabbing the right person’s attention, getting clicks and having others write about your brand. But before you have the right headline, you have to have news to share. Getting coverage relies on news that is presented as clear, concise content and optimized with data, keywords and photos that can be shared online, in print and on social platforms.
Make It Newsworthy
The purpose of a press release is for sharing company news, getting the media to cover and distribute it, and elevate brand awareness through:
- your events
- product launches or new services
- staff announcements
- awards/achievements
- sponsorships/stewardship
- expert commentary on issues in the news
You need to make sure you have genuine news to share to be viewed as a credible and reliable source to journalists. Your press release needs to be about a single topic directed at a target audience that elicits a desired response or ideal outcome. Keeping it real and noteworthy is critical as quality of news is much richer than quantity.
Get to the Point
The headline got their attention, the dateline indicates from where and when the news originates, now you need to make your point in the opening, aka the lead, sentence or paragraph. This is where you answer the classic who, what, when, where, why and how. These are the facts and you want them right up front so it is clear what your news is about. Or as one news editor once said to me: answer who cares and why.
Following the lead is all of your body copy with supporting information, the boilerplate, or information about your company, and contact information. Make sure you write your press release in such a way that is engaging to your target audience. How you write about your company’s sponsorship of a traveling circus and encouraging parents to bring their children is going to be different than releasing the latest financials aimed at investors. Regardless of the story you are telling, brevity is key. Keeping your press release to 500 words or less is ideal.
Have a Call to Action
In addition to the facts included in your lead, PRWeb says you also need to tell people what you want them do with a call to action. BusinessWire recommends highlighting key text—bold, italic or underline— so it is clear how readers can initiate the next level of engagement with your brand. It also cuts through the clutter, and gives visual clues to the most pertinent information, making it more easily digestible to information skimmers.
Optimize
Links, keywords and multimedia are all key elements of your press release, making them easier to share on various mediums, including news wires, website and on social. As noted by BusinessWire, links to additional information such as FAQs or backgrounds drive traffic and provide engagement metrics. Keywords associated with your news help maximize SEO with your target audience so that it gets read and shared through social media.
Additionally, photos and videos provide context for your content and, according to PRWeb, are more likely to get shared on a publication’s social media, which can have as much value as their printed and online pages. It should go without saying that all press releases include your company logo at the top of the release, but consider this your reminder, as it is the primary image associated with your brand.
Make Contact
Finally, make sure journalists know who to contact. Be sure your press releases have appropriate names, phone numbers and emails for follow-up. If you use Twitter, include that as well, but only if you are regularly responsive to it.
After your release has been sent, decide who you want to pitch further. Tailor your follow-up to these journalists with a more personal approach and by offering more detailed information, a unique angle or the opportunity for an exclusive. Journalists love a good scoop.
Start Spreading the News
Armed with the nuts and bolts of a successful press release, you are ready to get your company’s news out there. Need help with media contacts, news wire distribution or crafting a specific pitch? Millennium can help. Call to connect with us at 877-873-7445 ext. 201 or email [email protected].
About Millennium Agency
Millennium Agency is a nationally recognized, top woman-led boutique creative branding, storytelling/messaging and digital marketing strategy firm with a passion for accelerating your business growth. By uniting creative branding and data analytics, our expert teams combine your vision with our marketing expertise and methodology to deliver exceptional results. With offices in Boston and New Hampshire, and a worldwide presence, the professionals at Millennium Agency would like to learn more about your business. Visit www.mill.agency or book time here.