A speedometer displaying the word "reputation" for effective reputation management.

Local Reputation Management

Posted by Rudy Labordus in Marketing Strategies Leave a Comment

New Study Shows that Reputation Management is on the rise.

Reputation Management is critical to business. 

UPDATE 14th July 2014: Updated 2014 version released last week: One great stat is that “88% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations” (vs. 79% in 2013).

Myles Anderson of BrightLocal recently released the 2013 Local Consumer Review Survey at SearchEngineLand. What's striking about the study is that there are precise and undeniable results about reputation management that we are able to see.

Four key takeaways from the study about Local Reputation Management:

  • Far more consumers are stating that they trust online reviews as much or more versus personal recommendations. A full 79 percent (up from 72 percent only a year ago!) answered by saying online reviews carry the same import if not more than a recommendation from people they know or trust.
  • The trust in online reviews is growing. A stunning 72 percent are of the opinion that genuine, positive customer reviews will make them trust a business more. This is up from 58 percent in 2012! It's very apparent that consumers are looking and taking note more than before and are placing their trust in reviews. Concurrently, only some 12 percent of consumers said they pay no notice of online reviews, down from 17 percent in 2012.
  • People are reading fewer reviews before they are making buying decisions. Now a full 67 percent of consumers read 6 reviews or less, up from 52 percent in 2012. Altogether far fewer consumers are reading more than 7 reviews – 22 percent now vs. 35 percent in 2012.
  • It's now more significant than ever before to make sure you manage your online reputation. Because the number or reviews read are shrinking, and the impact of the reviews heightened, it's imperative that you make sure you are monitoring your online reputation for all current activity. As the latest reviews are swinging the buying decisions, you'll want to know if anything negative comes along and act on it. Develop a policy for handling negative reviews in an open manner, and a concurrent system for generating new, reviews that are positive that will send those less than desirable reviews further down the page . Be sure that these are genuine, as consumers are getting better and better at ferreting out fake and corporate-generated “reviews”.

Take this study that shows that Local Reputation Management is on the rise and run with it!

This is the type of information that can make a major difference, both positively and negatively, for your business. Many thanks to Myles Anderson and the people at BrightLocal for this well-timed and informative study on reputation management.

 

 

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