Online reputation management is challenging, particularly when someone is saying nasty things about you online. Sadly, there are no laws stopping someone from writing a negative review about you no matter where it’s posted. Sadly, people can write anything they want, it seems.

A client of mine was concerned that negative reviews are impacting them so here’s what we did to take care of it.

• First, we began writing posts on their social channels asking for reviews and recommendations. When people responded with positive reviews, we shared them online (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). Positive reviews trump negative reviews so be sure to ask for them. There is a caveat, though: If you ask for reviews, you might get some more negative reviews, though, that’s not likely. People tend to complain about a company when they feel they’ve been treated unfairly; simply asking for a review will most likely not trigger a fan’s ire.

Please read my blog on The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Customer Reviews for more info.

Online Reputation Management

• Secondly, we had all of the employees add links to Google and Yelp to their email signature lines.
• Third: We decided not to reply to any negative comments because they would then bounce to the top of the page and more people would see them. Instead, we clicked on the commenters name and profile and sent them a private message attempting to resolve their issue.
• Fourth: We replied to all positive reviews. Replying to reviews builds customer trust. Your customers will notice that your business values their input and they might even recommend you to a friend or colleague. Reviews are only valid when they’re honest so never offer incentives to someone for writing a review. (This happens in Amazon all the time. A company promises a $10 gift card to someone to write a positive review. Don’t do this!)

Here’s what Google says about how to deal with reviews.

• Reply to reviews but don’t get into it with anyone. One reply is enough. If someone writes something nice, thank them heartily because most people only write bad reviews. Applaud the good reviews. I would reply to the most recent ones and any that were positive but I wouldn’t reply to anything more than a few months old, especially if it’s negative. But going forward, someone needs to reply to every review.
• If someone writes something defamatory on your Google profile and you feel it violates Google Review Policies, you can have it flagged for removal.

One of the very best ways to manage online reputation management is to keep your Google My Business profile updated. Google loves Google and since Google Plus died, be sure to keep a fresh profile, images and posts on Google My Business. If you’re not using Google My Business click and get started today!

Jules Marie is a social media strategist and manager at 33Words.