Internet Marketing By Leslie Carothers

Over 78% of all consumers research their furniture purchases online prior to making a decision. That’s why online reputation management is fast becoming an indispensable part of retailers’ marketing budgets as they seek to build and maintain a positive online reputation for their brand, products and services.

What, exactly, does the term “online reputation management” refer to, and why is it so important?

Online reputation management refers to tracking all social media websites, blogs, pod casts, wikis, videos and other online content that mentions a company’s brand, products or services. Once the tracking is in place, monitoring sites for both positive and negative content is done on a continuous basis. Marketing strategies are then developed to maximize the value of positive content and minimize the damage from negative content.
Consumers enjoy sharing their shopping experiences online and many consider it their “duty” to help others find the “good” stores/brands/products and avoid the “bad” ones. Creating a blog, shooting video to post on www.youtube.com and creating content for online consumer opinion websites such as consumersearch.com or www.buzzillions.com, about any experience they’ve had, good or bad, with your store, gives them complete power over how your brand is perceived.

Even though you may never have posted a comment or review online, how many times have you looked at reviews or ratings before planning a trip, moving to a new city, buying a new car, technology gadget or major appliance? Chances are you’ve wanted to see what other consumers are saying prior to making a large investment for two reasons. First, you don’t want to waste your time. Turning to the opinion sites and ratings to make sure you’re on the right track as you begin to narrow your options is a smart time management move. Then, once you’ve narrowed your options, you may return to the opinion sites for closer scrutiny to save yourself money and, also the aggravation of buying an inferior product from a poor retailer.
Smart investors have already caught on to the revenue potential in consumer opinion sites and are actively soliciting and paying consumers to post their detailed positive or negative opinions online.

Now, here’s the kicker... and why online reputation management is so critical: Online content is almost impossible to remove once it’s posted. Your online reputation is yours-forever.

Yes, it’s very difficult if the comments are unfairly negative, but this is the new reality and all businesses now have to actively monitor and, then, react to what is being written about them in the online world.

If you would like to see real world examples of how this operates, go to www.buzzillions.com and search under “furniture brands.” As of this writing, there were 48 reviews on “Kathy Ireland” alone. You will notice that not all of the brands listed have a lot of reviews. That’s because www.buzzlions.com  is a relatively new site but their search features are very powerful and the site’s content will grow. If you sell mattresses, make sure to look at www.epinions.com. You will be amazed at the level of detail consumers provide. These online consumers will either be the best “sales” team your brand will ever have, or they may destroy you. Unless you monitor your online reputation, you will never know for sure if a review is causing your sales to skyrocket which could then be used to generate more sales or, conversely, cause your sales on a particular product to lag behind expectations and be cause for action.

If you’ve not already done so, sign up to receive Google Alerts by going to www.news.google.com and click on the “News Alerts” link. Enter your company name and email address and Google will send you an email whenever it finds mention of your company on blogs, news items, websites, etc. You can also do this for your own name and anyone else who may impact your store's reputation. Many consumers and businesses investigate the people who own or manage the companies they do business with, so make sure that everything being said about you is factual. A site that you definitely need to check in this regard is www.zoominfo.com. Zoominfo aggregates data about you from the entire web-without your permission. So, something that was posted about you ten years ago is just as likely to show up under your name as something that was posted yesterday. Unless you go in and actively take control of your personal online reputation, this is what anyone looking your name up will see. And it's all free.

You may also want to check out www.complaints.com. Enter a few store names and you may be amazed at the volume of complaints as well as the amount of time that customers, who feel that they have been wronged, invest in posting online comments.

Why is the furniture category so ripe for consumer opinions? Because we, as an industry, don’t make it easy for consumers to get at the information they really want in order to make intelligent decisions in a timely manner. There are comprehensive product comparison websites for other expensive consumer durables such as cars and electronics, but none for furniture. As an industry, no one has stepped forward to create this and many furniture retailers and manufacturers are still not in favor of it. However, this attitude is backfiring and now consumers are writing a stunning amount of content about furniture and, because of this, they are the ones really in charge of how your brand/product/service is perceived by other consumers.

Given this fact, it is imperative to either hire a service to start monitoring all content being created by consumers about the brands, services and products you carry, or create a full time, in-house position. If you fail to monitor the online reputation of the products you buy, offer or manufacture, you simply won’t know if influential consumers have already decided against you… that is until your products and services fail to sell.

So, what can you do when negative reviews appear?

1. Hire an outside expert or designate an in house person to create as much positive search engine optimized content as possible. This way, eventually, if the content is honest and non-manipulative, it should come up higher than the negative information in organic search queries.

2. If the opinion is unfairly negative, email the writer and request a face-to-face meeting where possible to find out why they posted the grievance and if there is anything you can now do to make it right. But be careful. Anything you email is in the public domain and can easily backfire. Do not use aggressive language or make threats as these letters can easily be scanned and sent to anyone the recipient chooses. So, once your unhappy consumer is completely satisfied, ask them if they would be willing to go back to the consumer opinion site where the negative comments first appeared and post a follow-up comment explaining how you took care of them so brilliantly. This can be very, very effective from an advertising standpoint. It may cost time, but it is well worth the end result. Customers don't expect you to be perfect, but they do expect you to communicate in a timely fashion and act with the highest ethics if a dispute arises.

3. If the website where the negative review appeared has a “terms of engagement” statement, have your attorney look at it carefully. Many times, this statement will contain language about how people are not allowed to post defamatory remarks that negatively impact your business. If you can prove that a group of comments has hurt or is hurting your business, you can ask the Webmaster if they might be willing to take down the post. They have the right to say no, but if you have documentation, you might have a chance. Even if the content is removed, the negative posts may still pop up for a time on consumer search engine queries. Don't believe anyone who says they can get them off the web right away-especially if you are paying them money to do so. It may be true that the webmaster of a particular site will take them down immediately, but Google still has them indexed and, until they re-index that page, the comments will still appear.
As you can see, all of these strategies are resource intensive-and completely necessary in today's business climate.

There is a flip side to this. Some companies have extremely positive reviews. For a real world example, go to www.yelp.com and search under “San Francisco” and then “Room and Board.” You will see how positive reviews on a consumer opinion site can easily drive more business into your store.
Room and Board gets it right. They have an outstanding website, an excellent catalog, products priced appropriately relative to quality and superior customer service. They have worked diligently to create a positive brand image and it is paying off for them online.

The next step, if you have an excellent online reputation, is to advertise it in traditional marketing channels and on your own website. It is free publicity and as trustworthy an endorsement as any retailer could ever hope to receive.

In addition, with the rise of consumer influence made possible by Web 2.0 technologies (blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networking sites, etc.), it is important for all retailers to closely examine every operational area that "touches" the consumer.

Look at these areas objectively to minimize the possibility of negative online comments, and change the processes and people that are likely to cause them.

And, if you have a great operation, leverage this fact by encouraging positive online comments so you can benefit from the trust and loyalty your customers have placed in you and your employees.

Ask yourself this question, "If my husband/wife/partner made a purchase in my store, what would he or she come home and tell me about their experience?" Look at this question from every angle. Consider any interaction he or she might have with an employee, a contractor or a process in your store. Whatever you come up with is what your customers may be saying to a huge audience about you online.

Consumers will continue to seek out online opinions prior to major purchases. Why? So they can have more of the two things money can’t buy- PEACE OF MIND AND MORE TIME. Investing in your online reputation will be the best marketing move you can make-now and in the future.