Online reputation management’s purpose is to clean up, protect and improve what people find about you online.

That process is not simple; negative reviews, unflattering news, and algorithm updates are all par for the course. No one can control those problems, however businesses on the trail toward a clean digital presence will typically makes self-destructive mistakes that makes routine challenges into long-term consequences.

Are you falling into any of these traps? Here are four of the most common online reputation mistakes business companies are still making these days.

Leaving Listings Unclaimed and Profiles Unreserved

One way to take charge of your business’s first impression is to update your company information on all platforms such as Google and Yelp. Those listings are mostly on of the first things to pop up in a Google search, and consumers will go there to confirm business information like hours of operation and company addresses.

Incredibly, many business owners are still leaving this opportunity on the table. A study from 2017 found that 56% of native retailers still haven’t claimed their Google my Business listing and 66% haven’t claimed their Yelp listing.

Unfortunately, Yelp and Google’s automatically-generated local listings will typically prove even more disastrous than a missing one. You can’t compare what data is correct and what isn’t. Potential customers, who take the listing as gospel, may be stunned and annoyed to find a business closed when it said to be open on the listing.

Ignoring Social Media Notifications

When consumers have a query, how do they let the business know? On the phone? Through email? In person?

Not any longer. Nearly 60% of the Millennials use social media to voice out their concerns, issues and complaints. Even non-Millennials vent their frustrations online: 47% of consumers across the board address customer service problems through social media and second to in-person complaints.

Taking care of your consumers online is very important for brand perception, however it also makes an impact in a business’s bottom line. Customer care is not only to solve issues and complaints, but it is also an opportunity to create a relationship with your customers.

On the other hand, brands risk losing customers on social media whenever they ignore customer complaints. Once a customer complaint and didn’t get any response at all, more than ⅓ will never gonna buy that brand’s product or service again.

Using an automation tool like Buffer or Hootsuite for scheduling out posts can be helpful, however always remember that social media is not a one-way street. Make time to frequently check back in to know how people are responding and audit notifications for consumer queries and issues.

Forgetting About Online Reviews

Picture the scene: a business starts to invest heavily in its digital marketing program. The content team writes dozens of articles and creates videos to expand and increase brand awareness. They share all of their content on social media channels, launch various pay-per-click campaigns to drive leads and begin to build up an engaged audience.

The only problem? As soon as your potential customers tries to look deeper and research the company, they will find the company’s negative reviews online.

Having a few negative reviews is completely normal, but the real problem comes once there are no any positive reviews from happy customers to balance the score. All customers are left with at that time is an unrepresentative sampling of negativity to tell their purchasing decision.

That’s a problem that needs to be taken seriously: 86% of customers read online reviews before visiting a business.

Handing Responsibility to the Under-qualified

What does happen when a business realize that they need help with their digital footprints? Usually, they either hire the right employees internally or partner with a company that specialize in digital branding and online reputation management.

But there are times that they make the decision to start assigning tasks internally -- mostly to people who don’t have the necessary experience.

It is not uncommon, for instance,  for CEOs to give social media responsibilities to interns or executive assistants. 

Unfortunately, that’s when mistakes are made. Those mistakes can waste months, or even years of hard work spent on building up a strong brand and a loyal consumer base.

Online content has many forms, but regardless, one thing is certain : The content needs to represent your brand.

There are many challenges on the path to a clean and positive online reputation without making embarrassing mistakes along the way. Do yourself a favor and leave management to the professionals.