In the world of online media and social networks, your reputation has as much impact on your business marketing as what you actually do.  It has more impact on your marketing than what you say about yourself.

What was once word of mouth is digitally amplified and retained.  This means that early opinions and assumptions about you stick – and can be hard to change.

You can think of managing your reputation is two ways:

1. Do work you’re proud of and that earns positive comments from your customers.  Forge a reputation you’re happy to have.
2. Use reputation management software and communication tactics to sway sentiment in your direction, taking an element of control over consumer generated material about your business.

Now, of course, we all set-out to make number one happen.  Every business has an ideal notion of doing only the very best work and earning a consistently sterling reputation.

However, your business serves the public sphere.  And the public sphere is a fickle, unpredictable, often unfair place.  Reputation is built off perception, not strict reality, and perception is subjective.

That’s a fancy way of saying that if you’re a business who deals with the general public, your reputation is going to take some hits no matter how hard you work at avoiding it.  Take a look at the online reviews of a favorite restaurant or high volume service company.  Nobody avoids the occasional one star bomb.

Shawn Gold of JustFab Inc. did a nice job of explaining the online reputation issue when he talked about how 2% of their clients hate them.  He notes how 65% of their customers love them, but because they have over 6 million clients, the 2% (120,000 people) make a loud chorus of detractors.

In JustFab’s case, the main problem came down to customers not grasping the membership agreement.  Look at the reviews of a popular restaurant, and you’ll find somebody who didn’t like their server, ordered a spicy dish then decided it was too spicy, or found a suspicious hair in their soup.   One star, I’ll never be back.

As Shawn notes, detractors tend to be a vocal group.  In fact, they are far more vocal than promoters; feeling ripped off clearly motivates people to write more online reviews.

This is were the idea of reputation management comes to play.  The main goal of this management is to highlight positive comments and not let the low percentage of yelling detractors bring your entire online reputation down.  It’s a legitimate practice most business need to plan for.

Manage Your Reputation’s Perception

The main task of reputation management is to encourage promoters to be more vocal with online reviews and comments.  You often need to request and incentivise happy customers to make these comments, as they are less likely to do this of their own accord than an displeased customer.

You can also use reputation management software to help you with this process and allow for some editorial discretion with comments.

Your online reputation is ultimately a matter of perception.  And perception is something marketing is designed to control.

Because online consumers put a lot of weight on what other consumers say about a company, this perception has as much impact on your business as the actual value you offer.  A poor reputation that becomes widespread is difficult problem to overcome.

So take step one.  Do work you’re proud of and treat people right.  That keeps the ship moving in the right direction.

And manage the way you’re perceived through online comments.  You don’t have to be perfect. In fact, if you sound too perfect people will assume you’re fake.  By now, most people realize even great businesses get hit with an occasional tirade.  A few negative reviews means your review profile is real.

But also make sure your best customer’s comments are featured and findable.  You’re looking to earn people’s trust, so authentic comments from your best advocates becomes some of your most powerful marketing content.

There is nothing 100% fair about how we judge each other.  The best you can do is to be the reputation you envision.  Ingrain it in your business practices.

In the long-run – with a little management – that’s what you’ll become.  There is no more valuable asset to your small business marketing.