Having a positive image on the web is more than just a passing trend for professionals. It has become essential to ensure the development of the company and the projects it undertakes. However, building your digital reputation remains a real challenge. Following these steps is crucial.
1.Evaluate Your Digital Reputation
First and foremost, it’s necessary to assess your digital reputation. To determine the popularity of the company or brand on the web, simply enter its name into the search engine. Professionals can also use online tools to determine the level of their online reputation. The strategy to adopt must take into account the result obtained.
2.Define and Develop the Message to Convey to Internet Users
The professional has multiple tools to shape their digital reputation. They must establish a methodical and organized strategy based on the company’s objectives. The characteristics of the messages vary depending on whether they aim to position the company as an expert in its field, recruit new employees, or provide advice and tips.
3.Protect Your Name
To prevent a name similar to that of your company from occupying the top pages on search engines, it’s important to protect your name. To do this, reserve a domain name and choose an unregistered pseudonym. Before choosing a domain name, it’s essential to determine its availability on all networks. Asserting your digital identity is crucial to prevent a namesake of the company or brand from hindering its reputation.
4.Cleanse Viruses
To avoid compromising your digital reputation, the professional must remove disadvantageous content (if any) from their site, especially those that are defamatory and misleading. However, it’s important to avoid deleting constructive criticism, as it allows the company to correct its mistakes and improve its offerings. To conceal negative content on the web, the company can drown it out with positive content and links. To do this, it’s essential to ensure a very active presence on forums, blogs, and social media.
According to the CNIL, “French and European law provide citizens with a range of rights that allow them to erase embarrassing traces left on the internet. There are even ‘reputation cleaning’ companies that offer paid services to help internet users delete or obscure certain embarrassing information from the internet.”
5.Ensure Presence on Social Networks
The advent of social networks represents a significant turning point for the web world. Essential for professionals, social networks offer excellent SEO for the site. LinkedIn, one of the typical professional social networks, allows the company to directly contact potential partners or easily find new collaborators. In France, as of 2023, LinkedIn has more than 28 million members and an estimated 13.5 million monthly active members (and 9,900,000 average monthly active users from January to June 2023 according to LinkedIn’s Transparency Report, making it the 6th social network. 500,000 companies have a LinkedIn page. Apart from this, the company must ensure its presence on other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+.
6.Consider the Needs of Internet Users (Prospects and Clients)
Being in contact with internet users, especially customers and potential customers, allows the company to understand the nature of their demand. In this context, it can provide them with offers tailored to their needs. With such a strategy, the company can ensure the loyalty of internet users who can no longer do without its site, as they find everything they need there.
