Tracking your online reputation

February 24, 2010 | Posted Carolyn Pikoulas
Did you know that 90% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know, but a whopping 70% of consumers trust opinions posted online from people they don't know. It's been shown that user reviews improve customer loyalty and even increase traffic. The big concern is how you can manage your online reputation and track what others are saying about you and your company.

It's true that peer reviews allow very little control over what people say about your company. On the other hand, even negative reviews don't seem to harm sales. It's also worth noting that most consumers are compelled to leave reviews by a sense of goodwill. In fact according to market research from Keller Fay Group, 87% of consumers tend to write reviews when they have something positive to say.

There are tools available that help you track what people are saying about you. Google Alerts, for example, allows you to create automated searches within blogs, news, groups, etc. based on keywords. This can help you discover reviews and testimonials about your services, monitor past clients, find Realtor events, and track competitors. You simply type in your keywords; select where you want to search for those keywords (through a comprehensive search, in blogs, groups, news, etc); set how often you'd like to search (immediate, daily or weekly); and have the results delivered to your e-mail.

Some Realtor success stories include identifying a competitor who had been plagiarizing; discovering negative reviews about a subdivision; finding problems with a Trulia feed sending leads to a competitor; identifying a buyer for a property. Other similar alert tools include SocialMention.com, Trackle.com, and SocialOomph.com.

Listening to your customers is important, and responding to their feedback is the best way to prove that you're on their side. Those who don't accept to the new standards in today's consumer-run market may soon find themselves struggling.