Most people who start their own business on the Internet simply do not think about such things as PR, company reputation, word of mouth or information security, believing that these issues can be returned to later when the business grows and matures. But if you completely avoid battles for reputation on the Internet, then this will most likely lead first to a noticeable decrease in profits, and then to the possible closure of the enterprise. But without special preparation, you can take a number of steps, thanks to which the reputation of an online store can be protected.
How to deal with ill-wishers?
"Promoted" online stores are periodically subjected to ddos attacks and black PR. Most often they use negative reviews of fictitious buyers or non-existent employees of the company, articles with compromising information may appear. From such attacks, only monitoring of mentions can serve as a preventive measure, with the help of which the problem can be quickly tracked and its consequences eliminated.
And we need to deal with the consequences. In this case, you can use SERM methods that allow you to replace negative results with neutral ones. For this, they are usually used:
- profiles in social networks;
- blogs;
- media commentary feeds.
More difficult is the preventive counteraction to negativity, when an information background with a neutral and positive color is created in advance and constantly maintained around the name of the company and the name of the head, which pops up during the search for relevant queries. To do this, you need to work with:
- commentary feeds;
- thematic sites;
- publications in the media;
- blog posts.
What should an online store do to improve its online reputation?
If you have already created a positive image of your online store on the Internet, do not forget to maintain it at the same level and even increase it. And you can do it in the following ways:
- There are two main platforms for online stores – Torg.Mail and Yandex-Market. Most orders come from these sites, so they should be given special attention. The correct response is here:
- A negative review should never be deleted, as this can cause a wave of negativity, which will only enhance the impression through word of mouth.
- After completing the order, you should send out a request to customers to leave a positive review on Yandex.Market (a link with the address of the review must be attached to the letter). The site manager should be informed about the upcoming campaign among customers so that he is ready for an increase in the number of reviews.
- Having made a direct request (reviews + stores), you need to select 3-4 sites from the top twenty search results, register a store on them and from there call customers for discussion, answer critical reviews, questions, etc.
- Even biased, unfair or erroneous negative reviews or those fabricated by ill-wishers and competitors cannot be ignored. If they cannot be answered according to the rules adopted on the publishing site, then you should request their removal from the site administrator. If deletion is not possible, then you will have to respond from your sites. The opinion of potential buyers is formed in half of the cases by the work of search engines. Therefore, if someone through the search came across a negative review about an object of interest, then he will be able to immediately see the answer to it, if, of course, it was published.
How to check the reputation of an online store?
If every time before choosing you think about how to check the reputation of an online store, then the surest way is to contact the specialized Yandex.Market site. About 41% of respondents use this resource to check the reputation of an online store. There are many options on Yandex.Market for making the right choice: filters by the functionality of specific products, a gift advisor, prices for a model in different stores, reviews for specific models and online stores themselves. The disadvantage is that if you go from the opposite direction and enter the same query into the search engine, you will not be able to immediately check the reputation of the online store, since the search is possible only through the product.
In search of reviews, 15% of respondents enter the network address of an online store into a search engine. This effective method cuts off custom reviews, helps you not to miss bad reviews, and makes the right decision regarding the integrity of this store. But it is very tedious, because it takes too much time to get the result.
The same number of respondents use the MyWOT service to check their reputation – a fairly quick and easy way to check their reputation on the Internet. This service is similar to another 4Trust service designed to safely navigate the web and automatically warn you when you enter fraudulent sites. The only difference is that MyWOT is made in Finland and "sharpened" for English-speaking users, so its interface is full of English terms. But 4Trust was immediately made for Russia, so it uses technologies for tracking unreliable resources, adapted for Runet. In addition, in its coordinate system, one user means one vote, which does not give privileges, and the result is more accurate.
14% of respondents use specialized forums to search for reviews about chain stores. True, this verification method is as labor-intensive as working through search engines. The thing is that forum sites are rarely equipped with functionality for a simplified search for material of interest. Often this is just a poorly structured "information dump". But on such sites there are almost no custom reviews.
Finally, 12% of respondents prefer the top search engine rankings. Therefore, this audience falls only on the most promoted online trading platforms, although the best price with the same quality is usually offered by stores that are not included in the coveted hundred.