There are multiple pieces to the online reputation management puzzle which should not be ignored. If you don’t incorporate all of the essentials, then there’s a high probability that your campaign will fail. Some of these pieces include content publishing, social media marketing and search engine optimization.
But the key is to have an online reputation management strategy built, which can be done with the assistance of professional services. If you’re gearing up to start building your online reputation, then these tips will be beneficial to you.
Have Negative Links Removed
This should be a top concern for your brand, especially if you have negative posts on review sites like ripoffreport.com. This site has tarnished the reputations of many brands, particularly because they are impossible to delete. On other sites, you can contact the author of the post or the webmaster of the site, and professionally tell them what the problem is and ask whether the post can be removed. You can work with a local online reputation management services to help make this process quicker.
Build a Website
If you already have a website, make sure that it has a responsive design. This will ensure that both mobile and desktop users can access it with ease. This will offer a better user experience, which will translate to increased sales. If people enjoy the shopping and browsing experience on your site, then this will help out your reputation.
Don’t Respond to Negative Comments
This doesn’t go for legit complaints you receive from customers. These should definitely be addressed – the sooner the better. However, the reviews on sites like ripoffreport.com should be avoided. Telling your side of the story or trying to rectify it rarely works, and actually sometimes makes matters worse. It pushes up the negative comments in search engine results, which is exactly what you don’t want to happen. Just continue focusing on pushing out your own content using brand name keywords to help push it down.
Make a Wikipedia Entry for Your Brand
You can write a Wikipedia article for your brand, which is pretty much an objective profile of your company. You’ve probably noticed that Wikipedia is frequently in the top 10 results on Google, so you can also see why this is recommended. Just make sure that the entry is noteworthy and has sufficient amounts of verifiable third-party sources to back it up. For this reason, you should consider hiring a Wikipedia expert to write it for you, so that it has a better chance of being accepted.
Write and Release a Whitepaper
If you want to showcase your expertise in your industry, then you must showcase it. One way to do this is to create a whitepaper that’s available for download from your site or a landing page. This should be detailed and informative, so that it’s actually useful for your audience. Choose a topic that you’re well-versed about and that your customers care about.
Start a Blog
Having a blog is great for getting your audience to engage with your brand, which makes it the ideal method for your company’s online reputation management. You can work on this yourself, or hire a content marketing service to do this for you. It’s best to work with a professional SEO service that specializes in both content writing and ORM.
Representing yourself comes easier when you have an ORM strategy in place. Don’t underestimate the power of working with an expert in ORM!
Today a successful business means putting the best ideas together and working out marketing strategies that will help you stand out in the crowd. With Google being the most widely used search engine over the planet it is very important to list your business at the top in the search results as it will increase your visibility and bring you greater enquiries for your business.
Google being the most popular search engine currently with a net market share of 77.43% (Google Net market Share March’17), acts as a medium for potential customers to know about service or businesses available.So it is extremely important to be visible in Google and rank as high as possible. This will avoid business to be lost to competitors.
Whenever you make a Google search, it shows list of search results. Most people are inclined to visit websites on top of search results as they are perceived to be most relevant. Only a few people will go through next Google search pages. Google shows some 9-10results on the first page as users search results for a specific term. If yours is the first among 10 it’s more likely that your business gets more revelation and greater authenticity. According to Search User Data the website listed on top gets 42% of the traffic while the second gets 11% and the third just 8%. So it’s needless to say that for your business to gain higher visibility, it must have to feature in top of search result.
Now the question arises, how website rank can be improved?
And the answer to this is your website has to be optimized for search engine, commonly known as Search Engine Optimization or SEO. It attempts to make your website rank higher than other websites when a specific phrase (Keyword) is being searched. It therefore provides the best possible chance of being found by prospective customers. It’s not only about being on the top Google rank, but also to sustain your position. SEO technique ensures your website stays relevant.
How SEO add value to the Website
There are numerous companies providing affordable SEO services for small business and as entrepreneurs we choose what suits our marketing budget. Below are the top five reasons why your website needs SEO.
– To get your brand/ business recognized
– To stay relevant and reliable as per customer’s view
– Attract more traffic and prospective customer
– Better growth in terms of business and brand
– Ensuring word of mouth publicity
Conclusion
Yes, Google matters to business, as it provides the best platform to your business to grow and find new clients. Even if you own an old established business it is high time to take your business online. In this era of dominance of social media marketing your business could sustain loss from relatively new but digitally aware businesses. It’s better to be present online to ensure your business presence offline.
It’s as true in investment planning as it is in physics: What goes up must come down. For fixed-income investors, though, the more pressing fact is that what has gone down must come up.
Interest rates have reached record lows in recent years, and the largest share of the credit goes to the Federal Reserve. Under U.S. monetary policy, the Fed controls the federal funds rate, an important benchmark in financial markets, and by extension, exerts heavy influence on short-term lending rates. Since the 2008 financial crisis, these rates have been kept extremely low; as economic improvement continues, however, they are expected to rise. No one knows when or how fast, but it is safe to say that interest rates have nowhere to go but up.
This is a concern for fixed-income investors because bond prices have an inverse relationship with interest rates. The prospect of rising rates represents risk. All bonds have maturity dates, when the lender-investor is due to receive the bond’s principal amount. The duration of a bond is a calculated figure that represents the average time in years a bond will take to repay the initial investment. How much risk rising interest rates pose to a particular bond’s value largely depends on a bond’s duration; the longer it takes an investor to recoup his or her investment, the more likely the bond is to lose value because of rising rates. As an estimate, the percentage change in value can be expressed as the bond’s duration multiplied by the change in interest rates.
Yet fixed-income investors are not powerless just because a rise in interest rates is inevitable. Nor should investors abandon fixed-income assets; since these assets have a low or even negative correlation to equities, eliminating them from a portfolio increases other risks.
As with any investment plan, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy. The techniques described here are not the only options, and any plan should be tailored to an individual portfolio based on the investor’s risk tolerance, liquidity needs, investment horizon and personal goals. It is also worth noting that the best way to assess various strategies is total return: This includes both the bond’s stated yield and any capital gain or loss arising from the sale of a bond (or bond fund). Further, rising interest rates are not the only risks of fixed-income investments. Credit quality, or the risk of default, stands as the other major risk factor for bond investors, who should evaluate the probability that the borrower will fail to make payments as promised.
Reduce interest rate risk. Perhaps the most straightforward strategy for dealing with the potential for rising interest rates is to reduce the overall duration of a fixed-income portfolio. This is a rather conservative approach, since short-term fixed-income investments generally offer lower yields in exchange for minimizing interest rate risk. Low-duration options include mutual funds, individual bonds, certificates of deposit (CDs), money market funds and government securities.
An investor can match the maturity of many of these investments with short-term liquidity needs, since they offer a full return of principal as long as the issuer does not default. However, most of these options bring their own risk: minimal or even negative “real” returns when taking inflation into account. When held individually, these options also generally offer less diversification, another risk for the holder.
The exception is bond mutual funds. Bond funds will typically include a benchmark average duration to which the manager adheres. This provides for added control over the fund’s role in the investor’s fixed-income portfolio without the need for constant maintenance. An investor mostly concerned with interest rate risk should steer clear of fixed-income funds with long-term duration targets, whether actively or passively managed. An actively managed fixed-income fund not constrained to a specific duration can invest across different products with a variety of maturities, and is likely to adjust its investments according to fluctuations in interest rate expectations. As with any actively managed fund, an investor gives up some control, so it is important to research and trust the manager’s strategy.
With either a passive or an actively managed bond fund, an investor can secure much greater diversification than is possible with individual holdings. Further, costs are often lower as a result of the efficiencies created through bulk purchases unavailable to most individual investors.
Optimize fixed-income yield. For investors who believe that reducing interest rate risk alone is too conservative, maintaining yield will involve looking to other products, increasing credit risk or both. An investor should carefully consider both yield and duration for fixed-income investments in the context of balancing investment goals with risk tolerance.
Many investors may find a role for floating rate or bank loan funds. These funds purchase loans made by banks to companies with below-investment-grade credit ratings, which are typically priced at a certain spread above the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor. The underlying loans’ yields generally rise along with broader market rates, protecting investors from most interest rate risk. And, unlike high-yield bonds, floating rate loans have safeguards built in, including collateral, performance-based covenants and a senior position within a company’s capital structure. Many have provisions that do not adjust the coupon, or periodic interest payment, lower than a set floor should interest rates fall. These funds are beneficial when interest rate risk is a greater concern than the credit risk of the underlying investments.
Other options can be useful, depending on an individual’s tax situation. For example, tax-free bond funds can provide more attractive after-tax returns than taxable fixed-income funds for investors in certain tax brackets, depending on the yields they offer. Since they involve municipal securities, such bond funds also add diversification. However, municipal securities are not immune to default, so it is important to evaluate the municipality’s current financial position and future prospects.
Some investors may also wish to consider alternative products that act similarly to fixed-income investments. Various absolute return or hybrid strategies that may not actually hold fixed-income securities can produce similar risk and return characteristics. One example is merger arbitrage, which entails a hedge fund strategy achieved by, in its simplest form, purchasing shares of a merger acquisition target at a slight discount to the expected value upon completion of the deal. This price difference is known as the arbitrage “spread” and is captured as long as the deal is completed. If it falls through, other protection hedges leave investors virtually where they started before the investment was made. Merger arbitrage strategies are often offered through fund companies, leaving many of their intricacies to experienced managers rather than to individual investors.
The damaging effects of inflation on a fixed-income investor’s purchasing power should also be of concern. Many investors make the mistake of believing that Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) provide a risk-free source of true inflation protection. But “risk-free” is hard to come by, and TIPS are no exception. Long-term TIPS carry significant interest rate risk similar to that of other long-term securities. Further, if actual inflation significantly deviates from expectations, TIPS’ value can slide. Hybrid strategies that incorporate inflation swaps alongside short-term fixed-income holdings are an effective way to mitigate the effects of inflation while keeping interest rate risk low. An inflation swap generally involves one party paying a fixed rate on the swap amount in exchange for a floating-rate payment based on actual inflation.
When attempting to optimize yield, high-yield bond funds initially may seem attractive. High-yield bonds are issued by below-investment-grade corporations, and so must pay a higher coupon to attract investors. These “junk bonds” can pair a short duration with the high coupon, leading to less sensitivity to interest rate changes, too. However, the risk of default may be high enough to largely offset the cushion provided against interest rate changes by the higher yield.
Reduce reinvestment risk. An often-suggested method for mitigating the risk of rising interest rates is the “laddered” bond portfolio, consisting of individual bonds with staggered maturities. As shorter-term bonds mature, the investor reinvests the proceeds into the longest-term “rung” of the ladder, providing a higher yield as long as interest rates are increasing. The staggered maturity payouts also create flexibility, so the investment can be redirected to more advantageous strategies if interest rates suddenly fall. This concept is known as reinvestment risk, or the risk of future coupons and maturity payouts being reinvested at rates lower than the initial bond purchase.
For more than 80 years, people have wanted to allocate a piece of their portfolio – even just $10k – to a compelling, high-risk/high-reward venture. The problem was, until the JOBS Act was passed a couple of years ago, and the rules were written even more recently, you had to be a venture capitalist or private equity firm to even see those groundfloor deals (that is, unless your cousin hit you up for cash on his new social media startup). The game has changed, and you can now see private deals offered under Regulation D, Rule 506(c) if you are accredited. Companies that qualify for the exemption can now conduct a general solicitation of accredited investors.
The progressive startups will win, and must adjust quickly to take advantage of the new law. If a startup can get their deal in front of the average investor, the chances of winning at completing a fundraise — even faster than a venture capital group could fund the same company — will be very likely. Venture group used to get all the action, and the average investor missed out. Missing out was the norm. But the norm has changed. Groundfloor level positions used to be exclusive to those who were “in the know.” Not anymore. The average investor is now at par with the big boys.
Some startups to avoid are those that do not offer risk mitigation. If a startup offers risk mitigation, the chances of private ‘untapped’ investors underwriting the fundraise increase dramatically!
Company after company are now launching their private fundraise to support their growth using Rule 506(c). Unique deal structures are, therefore, being demanded. Unique deal structures, for example, that provide a “wait and see” option to convert to an equity stake in the company at the investor’s discretion will become more popular. Such structures allow investors to enjoys an interest rate while they wait and see if the startup skyrockets or gets acquired for a premium. And if it doesn’t, well, that’s where the unique structure would apply.
To be clear, startups must provide risk mitigation to investors in order to really stand out in the crowd. Investors want deals that are designed to stand out in the crowd. Effectively, deals that provide a hedge for investors in a best-of-both-worlds scenario: enabling investors to jump into a high-potential tech investment, but without the typical risk exposure. Knowing that there are millions of investors in America, the key for any startup is generating traffic and being able to quickly monetize it. This means that online gateways are needed that:
· qualifies prospective investors,
· provides complete disclosures of the offering to investors,
· issues serialized offering documents to investors,
· provides for investors to complete subscription documents, and
· accepts investment transactions.
In an era where private capitalization has been unshackled, those who ‘know how’ to take advantage of the new law can help blaze a trail for compliant general solicitations. But without an online gateway, it’s impossible!
The future is now – and for those previously blocked investors from deal flow, there simply isn’t a smarter way to invest. It’s like a modern day gold rush for both sides: investors and fundraisers.