Nowadays just about every consumer searches for a company online before using their product or service. This can range from a consumer looking up your products and services for purchase to a potential employee looking for reviews of the interview process on a site like glassdoor.com.

For this reason, it’s important to build an online reputation and keep it positive. But what are the best ways to do that? Here are four ways.

Actively Review Your Online Presence Regularly

There’s no substitute for knowing what your online presence says. Some of this you’ll know, because you create it! But an online reputation is a two-way street. Users of your goods and services also have plenty of places to post their opinions. For that reason, it’s a good idea to actively review your online presence regularly.

If you see positive comments, that’s great! But if negative comments have crept in, deal with them openly and honestly. Fix anything that may genuinely need change. Don’t be defensive: if you’re doing a good job, people will notice.

Make It Easy to Find You

Your email signature should always contain an online business card with your email address, your organization’s website and your LinkedIn profile URL.

Not only does that make communication easy, it eliminates any chance of you being mistaken for another person with a similar name, or your company getting mixed up with another company with a  similar name.

Be Active on Social Media

Social media — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat — can do a lot to influence your online reputation. Whether you are promoting a brand or a company culture that’s exciting to work in, all of these can be used to give the public positive information about your company.

Social media channels can have related information. If you have a video about your corporate softball team winning a championship, for example, it can be posted on both Facebook and LinkedIn. Snippets of it can go on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat as teasers for the longer version.

It’s a good idea to post several times a week on social media. Otherwise, the accounts will start looking inactive.

Post Valuable Content

To give your company a positive online reputation, it’s important to post valuable content. All the social media channels will work for this, with LinkedIn especially valuable. Articles on issues related to your company can be posted there.

Think that sports and good teamwork in corporate culture go together? Time an article about to be posted during the World Series. Promote it on all your social media channels.

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