Online Reputation Management Is a Must January 30, 2019 By Jackie Katz The internet has grown into a massive marketplace for just about any industry imaginable. The way businesses are perceived online has also become far more important than it used to be. Approximately 84% of consumers say they give online reviews just as much weight as a personal recommendation. Why is online reputation management a must for your business? Potential Customers Will Look for You With so many review platforms, websites, and social media profiles, more people rely mostly or entirely on the internet to gather information about companies. That means potential customers will look for you whether you have established your reputation online or not. The best way to give yourself a greater chance of earning new business is by building a solid reputation that sends a positive message. Establish Yourself as an Industry Authority Reviews are only part of your reputation. The content you put out is another. This is an opportunity to position yourself as an industry authority. When internet users trust you, they will be more likely to seek out and share your opinions and recommendations. It also boosts brand awareness and recognition. Become the go-to name in your niche. The Internet Reaches Across the Globe The internet is pretty much everywhere. It is a valuable resource when you want to tap into new markets. Putting out content, getting reviews, and building profiles will make you more accessible to people all over the world. Contact OMA Comp to learn more about managing your online reputation.
OMA Comp Continuing Education September 24, 2018 By Jackie Katz Last week, members of our OMA Comp team attended a webinar put on by Healthgrades to keep us on the cutting edge and to make certain we are on top of the current trends and recommended implementations regarding online reputation for our medical professional customers. OMA Comp continually challenges ourselves to be on the forefront and an industry leader so that we can provide the best services for our clients.
Why You Need to Manage Your Online Reputation June 21, 2018 By Jackie Katz There is no excuse for leaving your practice’s online reputation unmanaged. Consistent growth of a medical practice demands constant attention to online activity. Depending on how active your team is on social media, you might already be practicing certain parts of this public relations discipline. Are you responding to customer complaints with constructive answers? Congratulations – you are well ahead of the curve. Important Balancing Act Many managers and business owners fail to recognize the impact poor online reviews have on the bottom line. It may not be the most pressing task at hand, but it should fall high atop your list of priorities concerned with driving new business. Ask Patients to Write a Review There are many opportunities to convince a patient to leave a positive review. This is especially true after an excellent visit. There should be a mandatory practice that the final interaction be coupled with a specific request to the patient. By clearly asking a patient to leave a response on a specific site you can quickly build up a reputation online. What matters most is how this request is delivered, too aggressive and you will start receiving bitter reviews. Key Takeaways Leaving your practice’s online reputation unmanaged even for a short span of time can decimate search engine rankings. Take a moment to perform a quick audit of your practice’s online reputation by searching social media and sites across the web, chances are you will find some unsavory notes that are turning away potential patients. OMA Comp partners with medical practices to help them manage their online reputation and to keep new business flowing through the door. Our tactics focus on leaving a good impression on people when they read about your business. To learn exactly how we can help your online reputation or to provide a seminar to your team, we invite you to give us a call. #OMAComp #ReputationManagement #OnlineMarketing #MedicalReviews
You Can Change Your Online Reputation May 21, 2018 By Jackie Katz A business or medical practice’s online reputation is not a static, unchangeable record. Specific practices and tools can be used to change how a company is represented across the web on social media and consumer rating websites. Online reputation management is widely accepted as the best tool for thwarting online reputation threats and fostering new business and patient relationships. Communicating with consumers and/or patients who leave public reviews is one piece of managing your online reputation. Sites recognize when a business responds to an individual’s comment. Whether this interaction resolves the problem at hand or not, this is an excellent means for publicly accepting the account of a situation as unacceptable or making the record clear. Unfortunately, for medical due to HIPAA laws, there are only a few circumstances where a response can include detail, yet an adverse response can leave a serious mark when people are considering using you for their medical needs. Online reputation has internal consequences, too. Employees can feel the impact of a negative review. Who wants to apply for work or be part of a business that treats patients poorly or is shed in a negative light? Even if the review is not true, if it claims an undesirable experience, it can still diminish an employee’s professional reputation and damage the business. Resolving poor assessments and building up positive experiences will quickly instill confidence within your practice. A poor review can be embarrassing, but it shouldn’t ruin your new patient growth rate. Taking an active approach to managing your reputation will restore it to its original presence and likely improve response across major platforms. If you are actively encouraging reviews from happy patients, this will also improve conversion with different sites. To learn more about online reputation and how OMA Comp can help your business or practice, contact us today. #OMAComp #ReputationManagement #ReputationRepair #MedicalReputation #OnlineReputation
How Online Reputation Affects Patient Opinion May 15, 2018 By Jackie Katz Selecting a medical provider to care for yourself or loved one can be a daunting task. Who can I trust to take care of my family? It’s a question worth posing when we think about the online reputation of a practice, since its likely to be the only source for information on a specific provider. Depending on your field, patients may learn about your practice by word of mouth via a current patient or doctor referral or come across your team online when searching for local providers. When a prospective patient begins to select a medical practice, they often will complete an online search to learn about your practice. Online reputation will influence both prospective and current patients. Quick Scan of Search Engines Similar to shopping for physical goods, people will type your medical practice’s name into a search engine and hit enter. This broad inquiry can highlight some unforeseen links and images, some of which may be improperly tagged to you. No matter the relationship, what appears on the screen is likely to influence what people think about you. Consumer protection and advocacy sites work hard to make every review public and most critically, searchable. These results often show inflammatory reviews with little to no context. Social Media Interactions and Conversations Tech savvy individuals recognize social media sites as an excellent means for seeing how patients are treated. In certain cases, patients will take to these sites to vent feelings of frustration or positivity following an appointment. It is ultimately up to the individual whether they trust your practice, though there is plenty you can do to influence this feeling. To learn about how to manage your online reputation and increase your positive reviews, contact OMA Comp. #OMAComp #ReputationManagement #OnlineReputation #PatientReviews #MedicalReputation
How One Bad Review Can Affect You! May 7, 2018 By Editor Having an online presence is a necessity for the modern business and medical practices. As a key driver of organic patient base growth, an up-to-date website serves as a marketing platform and tool for communicating with patients. Being on the web also presents certain challenges, such as managing your online reputation. Individuals are quick to search online for reviews of everything, from the products they buy to the individuals they request services from. General Ratings Sites like Google, Facebook, Healthgrades, RateMD, and Yelp allow individuals to review the organizations and medical practices they interact with. These raw, unfiltered accounts of person to business interactions can prove useful in generating interest yet can also drive people away with a single poor review. A 1-star review can drastically reduce the average rating, especially when a practice has just begun the journey of building an online presence. A patient can write whatever they want, no matter what occurred during their appointment. A great visit can be portrayed online as a hostile and costly interaction. No matter how hard you try, people will eventually leave a sour remark on your online reputation. Reputation Management OMA Comp helps businesses thrive online. We understand that it is not enough to launch a website and hope for it to drive business. Actively managing a site and the associated online profiles is critical to making an impact on the practice’s bottom line. By scanning the internet for poor representations of your business’s quality of service, we can actively prevent malicious reviews. Our deep understanding of content management practices enables us to rapidly respond to these incidents. If your practice or business needs help managing its online presence, we invite you to contact us for a free consultation. #OMAComp #ReputationManagement #OnlinePresence #WebsiteDesign #OnlineReputation
How Small Businesses Leverage Online Reputation Management November 6, 2017 By Jackie Katz Why Online Reputation Matters More companies have entered the digital marketing space and are using services to display advertisements and content on the internet (website, social media). Even companies that are slow to move to the digital age have consumers that are on these online platforms to offer their reviews of products and services. Online reputation is a general term for the overall impression and opinion users across the internet have for a person or brand. A poor online reputation will discourage individuals from doing business with you, whereas a positive reputation might push a decision maker over the line into deciding to purchase or make an appointment. Online reputation will clearly continue to grow in importance as consumers continue to transition to the internet for gathering information and purchasing items and services. Consumer Confidence With the invent of sites like Google Reviews and Yelp, consumers have an opportunity to speak about the companies they do business with. Web savvy customers will search the internet to consider these reviews as well as other unfiltered commentary across social media. Consumers take online reputation seriously and you should too! It is important for small businesses to deploy online reputation management initiatives to learn exactly what is being said about them and to correct or respond when sites allow. Thank consumers when they take the time to provide a positive review and reach out to those that leave negative remarks. Taking corrective action can include responding to negative reviews and posting high-quality informative content. Contact OMA Comp to learn more about our Reputation Management Monitoring & Repair services to help ensure that your company maintains a high standing in the cyber world. #OMAComp #OnlineReputationManagement #ConsumerConfidence
Managing Your Digital Footprint February 1, 2016 By Jackie Katz Your company puts time, money and effort to establish your presence on the Internet. You share information to increase your digital footprint through many online sources including your website(s), blog, social media, images, content, and video to increase your online presence. You are getting noticed. Now you have learned that there is negative feedback about your business through online reviews or comments reflecting negatively on your image. It is not only your own actions that create your digital footprint but it is what others say and post about your business that makes up your reputation. Online reputation is a complicated business and the methods to manage are continually changing with the rapid advancement and changes in technology. OMA Comp understands and can help manage your digital footprint (online reputation). Contact us to learn more.