Friday, October 26, 2012

Maintaining a Positive Online Reputation With Good Reviews

This is a guest post by Jim Kelly

In the modern world, your reputation is at the fingertips of all of your current customers or potential new customers. All that they need to do is a quick Google search of your name and they will see all of the information, both good and bad that has been written by you, for you and most importantly, about you. All of these online reviews and other bits of information should be considered your online reputation and how you manage and protect it can have serious repercussions to your long term successes.

The Positive
Everyone, from the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker has an online footprint. Even professionals are branded, which might seem strange to many people. For instance, students in med schools across the country are learning more than just how to diagnose and treat illnesses. Along with their anatomy and other medical lessons, they are learning how physicians can manage online reviews and other issues with branding their name that may arise. Review sites, including those specifically geared toward professionals are a reality. And while a doctor cannot hope to please all of his patients all of the time, nor should he want to, he absolutely cannot ignore the fact that the reviews are out there.


The Negative
Even the best person in their field will eventually fail to please someone. A restaurant will meet up with a picky customer who complains about everything from the decor to the shape of the ice cubes in their drinks. A doctor may provide stellar care to his patients but that may not always be enough. Negative reviews do not always have to relate directly to the doctor to have an impact on him. Perhaps the review will say something about having to wait in the waiting room for longer than usual. Or, the parking will be less than convenient. Neither of those things are technically about the doctor or his care, but will still have a negative impact on his perceived online reputation. It still becomes a major negative.

Dealing With Both
Monitoring your online reputation starts with monitoring any mentions of your name from all sources. Positive reviews and comments can be acknowledged, however, you should be focusing more attention on negative reviews. You can address the concerns that are brought up, but it must be done carefully. The way that you handle these reviews can have just as much impact on your reputation as the words themselves.

About the author:

Jim Kelly is an online blogger focused on education, career, science, and research. He has found online writing to be a passion of his due to the ability to write on numerous topic to numerous audiences. Kim has been reading and writing on those topics for years and you can find some more of Jim's writing at theeducationupdate.com

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