HOW TO DEAL WITH NEGATIVE PUBLICITY ONLINE

Now more than ever, you are defined by what people read online. The surge in Social networking, blogging and user review sites has created an avenue for both positive and negative reviews. The difference is, while you have the opportunity to leverage positive feedback to your advantage, negative reviews can put a dent in your online reputation. Most negative reviews cannot be completely eradicated, but there are solutions to dilute negative posts and influence positive publicity.

Restore a Damaged Reputation

Part of the process of recovering from bad publicity and re-building an online reputation is to divert attention from the negative reviews. There are many cases where disgruntled customers have plastered reviews about a company that continues to show up in the top search results even after the issue has been resolved. Outdated, negative reviews can tarnish a company’s reputation and need to be controlled. Sometimes, the website where the post is hosted will remove negative posts if you can prove they are untrue or were posted maliciously. If you cannot get the posts removed,  diffuse negative posts by highlighting positive reviews and media. Burying negative comments with positive publicity may take some time, but will eventually prevail. In order to prevent future damage to your reputation, it is important to implement a comprehensive Reputation Management Strategy.

Future Negativity

Restoring a damaged reputation is much more difficult than managing and maintaining a good one, which is why it is important to engage in a continuous online reputation management plan. Google, Yahoo and Bing want to deliver relevant and important information, so having a solid online reputation makes it easier to discredit negative posts. Here are some of the best ways to maintain a positive online reputation:

1. Prevent future issues by being upfront. Explain cancellation, return and company policies thoroughly to a customer, so there are no issues down the road. If concerns are circulating, put an end to them right away. An honest and open line of communication with consumers is the best way to prevent misunderstandings and anger.
2. Make yourself accessible. Contact information should be apparent and clear on your website so if a customer has a question or remark, they will not have any trouble coming directly to you.
3. Ask satisfied customers for a post. Your company’s name in a blog post can show up high in search results. Positive reviews by happy customers are some of the most influential publicity. It is important to make it easy for customers to post reviews by including links for user review sites or blogs.
4.  Track what is being said about your company. Using Google Alerts and creating listening campaigns on social media sites like Twitter can help you stay on top of posts about your company, so you can respond accordingly.
5. Be the first to respond. Counteract negative posts by being the first to respond and mitigate the issue. On the other hand, leverage positive posts and praises by reposting across your social media platforms.

The best way to have a positive reputation and keep good reviews circulating is to manage your online reputation constantly. A bad review that catches momentum can be devastating for a business. By practicing healthy business ethics and maintaining online publicity, the inevitable bad reviews will not be able to hurt your reputation.

To find out more about how to deal with negative publicity online or how to prevent negative publicity from damaging your reputation, contact your SEO Agency.

Submitted by Erica Machin, Titan Growth

Enhance your PPC efforts with 5 easy AdWords features that you can use today!

AdWords can be a great tool for attracting more traffic to your website and getting more brand exposure; but just running ads can be complicated enough, let alone trying to navigate all of the features that AdWords provides. At the end of the day, the most important factor is running successful ads that utilize your budget effectively, and these 5 features make it easier for you to do so. So whether you are running an AdWords campaign currently or just starting out, here are 5 features you should be using now.

1. Extensions – Extensions allow you to enhance your ads and provide a richer experience for users. They give searchers more reasons to click on your ad by offering additional information and ways to connect with your brand. Plus, they’re free to use. With extensions, you can add information about your location, give users the option to call your business from their mobile phone, connect with you on Google+ and much more. There are currently 8 different extensions that you can choose from and you can enable them on a new or existing campaign by navigating to the ‘Ad extensions’ tab of your campaign.

2. Dynamic Keyword Insertion tool – This is a very handy tool that helps to make ads more relevant to a searchers’ query. When using the Adwords Dynamic Keyword Insertion tool, if any of the keywords you bid on match the searchers’ search terms exactly, that keyword will be automatically inserted into the ad. If there is a match, the keyword will also appear bolded in the ad, which helps to increase the click-through rate of your ad as well. To use the Dynamic Keyword Insertion tool, all you have to do is insert a small snippet of code where you would like the keyword to show up in your ad. The snippet you’ll enter is {keyword:default text} but you’ll replace ‘default text’ with a default keyword in case there aren’t any matches, or the match exceeds the 25 character limit for the headline. Just make sure all of the keywords you are bidding on would make sense if they were inserted into your headline or ad copy.

3.  AdWords Keyword Planner – The Keyword Planner generates keyword ideas and displays the respective traffic and competition for those keywords to aid in ad creation. The Keyword Planner also gives you estimates for the average CPC for each keyword so that you can estimate your cost for bidding on those keywords. Being able to gauge the competition and price for certain keywords can help you create more effective ads and set realistic budget expectations.

4.  Search Terms tool – While the Keyword Tool helps you to come up with new keyword ideas, the Search Terms tool gives insight as to which keywords and phrases have actually been used prior to clicking on your ad. The search terms tool is extremely helpful in determining the types of keywords and phrases searchers are using to find your ads, and may reveal new keyword opportunities that you had not been using previously. In addition, the Search Terms tool can also help you identify keywords that should be added to your ‘negative keyword’ list. You can find the Search Terms tool under ‘details’ in the Keywords tab.

5. Auction Insights tool – Wouldn’t it be interesting to see which companies are also bidding on the same keywords that you are, or even outbidding you on certain keywords? That’s precisely what you can find out with the Auction Insights tool, located directly underneath the Search Terms tool for any particular campaign, ad group or individual ad. The Auction Insights tool allows you to keep a close eye on the auction and gauge how your ads are being shown in comparison to your competitors.

While this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to AdWords features, utilizing these 5 features and tools can help you to create more effective and successful ads. For more information on AdWords or for a free assessment of your current AdWords strategy, contact us.

Submitted by Erica Machin, PPC Titan

To say that social media was big news in 2013 is an understatement.

While it has been a trending topic for a few years now, 2013 was the most notable. 2013 turned social media critics into supporters, brands into customers and marketers everywhere into advocates. Prior to 2013, many people and brands, Google’s Eric Schmidt included, underestimated the growth and value of social media.

Eric Schmidt admitted, “At Google, the biggest mistake I made was not anticipating the rise of social networking phenomenon. Not a mistake we’re going to make again.”

Social media has finally proven its stake in the marketing world, and brands have realized the potential it offers. It’s safe to say that social media is here to stay; at least for now. Here are 10 eye-opening social media facts for 2013:

• Facebook has reached 1.15+ billion users
• 23% of these users access their Facebook account more than 5 times per day
• 74% of marketers believe that Facebook is important to their lead generation strategy
• Twitter’s fastest growing demographic are users between the age of 55 and 64
• On average, 400 million tweets are being sent each day
• Google+ has exceeded 500 million total users
• 40% of marketers use Google+, with 67% planning to increase their Google+ activities this year
• LinkedIn now has 238+ million users. 50% of those users have a Bachelor’s or Masters degree
• Instagram has exceeded 130+ million users

Procrastinating and not participating in Social Media now comes at a great cost. There is not a fast track way to catch up.

Amazed? The sheer volume of social media users is not only incredible but also means that your customers are on social media sites. Here are a few tips on how to take advantage of it:

1. Get active on the accounts that make sense for your brand. If you were targeting a mostly male audience than Pinterest would probably not be the best platform for your business. Think about your audience, research their habits and choose social media networks that make the most sense.
2. Post consistent, relevant content. You must be committed to using social media for it to benefit you. If you want to leverage social media to your best ability, you must consistently post and maintain an active presence on your sites. Remember that your brand and audience are essential components to the topics you choose to post.
3. Take a stab at advertising. Advertising on social media offers great targeting features so you can dial in on your audience. It will also help to boost your brand and content, all while receiving additional exposure for your business.

If you have any questions about social media marketing or are looking to pump up your social media SEO strategy in 2014, please contact us!

Submitted by Erica Machin, Titan Growth