Last Updated on February 15, 2021 by Bright Past
Nowadays, businesses have to have two personas to keep up in today’s’ world. The two personas they have to keep up with are their online and real life identities. While a real life identity is easy to control, the identity which most practices struggle with is an online identity.
In this time and age, online reputations hold more value than word of mouth reputations. The internet is the first place people go to find out anything about any business or current events.
Online identities are also what people look for most, as people learn all their information about businesses online. An online identity is something that can drastically affect how businesses come off to prospective employees and clients.
People will search reviews about companies on how they treat their employees or how their services. Ultimately that determines how a person will determine if they should spend their time at a business or not. If a business receives a 1 or 2 star rating, they fail to convert 90% of their potential customers to long-term customers.
Another determining factor of how people see companies, is by Googling them. Google controls 90% of all search engine traffic putting it at an advantage compared to Yahoo and other search engines. Another statistic that affects how much an online identity matter is that 92% of all Americans read reviews regularly.
Americans use Yelp, Google Reviews, and various online feedback sources to determine their opinion of any business. These online reviews determine how much trust a client can put into a company without knowing anything about them.
People are also becoming more knowledgeable about when businesses seem to put up fake reviews too. When companies partake in these measures people can also become distrusting of the company no matter how good their reviews are.
Wikipedia is also a leading source where people find out information about businesses because people view it as a reliable source. That’s also why businesses should look into how their information is given to everyone through Wikipedia.
Online reputation can also affect how many people apply to jobs, as 11% of job seekers would reject a company offer based on a negative Glassdoor review.
However, when it comes to job seekers, the same could be applied to a potential employee as now 54% of recruiting is done online. Any negative or incriminating information about a person can hinder their chances at a job as well. An online presence can either help or weaken a business or person’s reputation based on what people find out about them.
According to Pew Research, now social media influences over half of the population in buyers decisions. Consumers will make decisions based on what they hear from social media. People will base their choices on what they hear from public figures or from friends on social media.
As now 65% of adults are using social media to gather their information and that number will continue to rise in the future. Keeping a social media presence is essential for businesses in order to remain relevant in the public eye.
Removing negative content alone won’t help a business. Businesses also need to remain engaged with consumers as well as put out positive content. If a business fails to engage with customers or remain relevant, it will have a negative impact. The most important thing a business can do is stay engaged with their audience.
While creating a positive online image can seem difficult BrightPast can assist in making it easier. BrightPast ensures to make sure your goals of having an online image that isn’t damaging comes true.
We use online reputation management tools to make sure that your past doesn’t have any impact on your future. We will also ensure that you have an online presence that benefits your company or your personal brand. Contact with us, we can help you not only lose negative press but promote a positive future.