Your business’s online reputation isn’t just your star rating on review sites. Overall, your online reputation lives anywhere where someone can find information about you online: this means not just what you post, but what others post as well.

We recently teamed up with Yelp to chat about improving your online reputation by boosting your online presence and customer engagement.

Here’s how you can get started raising your rating today.

Take Advantage of Tools on Review Sites

Review sites aren’t just a place for people to give you stars. You can also use the tools available on these sites to increase traffic to your business and to show off what your business has to offer.

A few ways that you can optimize your Yelp listing include:

Class schedules: Connect your class schedule with Yelp using their Singleplatform integration. You can show off what classes you offer, what times they’re available and who’s teaching them.

CTA Buttons: Use CTA buttons to send new customers to your class schedule (if you’re not already using Singleplatform) or to prompt them to view your services.

Offers: You can use check-in offers through the Yelp app or deals on your Yelp website page. Check-in offers prompt customers to leave a review after visiting your business, while Yelp deals incentivize new customers to get started at your business.

You can learn more about specific tools on Yelp in the slideshow below.

Boost Your Online Reputation with Perkville & Yelp from Taylor Micaela Davis

Seek Out Feedback from Your Most Loyal Customers, and Use It

Your most loyal customers are often those with the most insight into the positives (and even negatives) of your business. Because of this, asking them for honest, private feedback can often help you address concerns that other customers are expressing on review sites.

Ask your loyal customers – in person or online through a service such as Listen360– what they like and dislike about your business. Chances are, other customers are feeling similarly, and you can use this information to make changes in your business. Once those tweaks are made, head back to your review sites and let those customers that have expressed concerns about that component of your business know that you’ve listened to them and have made some changes. This can help reverse any bad reviews you may have on Yelp, Facebook or Google Reviews.

Find Ways That Your Customers Can Help Promote You

Your customers’ social accounts are sometimes more important than your own when it comes to shedding a good light on your business. Keep an eye on what they’re saying about you brand, what kinds of content they’re posting about you (Photos? Check ins? Videos?), and whether or not they’re using social media as a referral tool.

Hosting a referral program or using a rewards program like Perkville with a referral component cooked into it can help you incentivize your customers to spread the word about your business. You can think of referrals as another type of five-star review for your business – if your customers are sending their friends to you, chances are they like spending money with you.

Another way that you can leverage your loyal customers is to incentivize them to spread the word about your business. Since 81% of people are influenced by their friends’ social media posts, getting your business onto the newsfeeds of your customers’ networks is key to bringing in new customers and getting more eyes on your online brand.

With a rewards programs, you can offer points to your members and clients for checking into your business on Facebook and Twitter, and also for contributing their photos to any Facebook campaigns you have set up.

On top of that, you can use your rewards program to discover who your social media advocates are. These are those customers who go above and beyond and show off how great your business is to their friends. Developing those relationships and even offering them the chance to take over your Snapchat, Instagram or Twitter for a day can further grow your online audience and show off your connection with your members.

Share Out the Good Stuff

When you have great reviews, comments and member photos across the web, it makes sense to put that positivity in as many places as you can.

On Yelp, you can share out your positive reviews on your social channels. Thank your customers for writing such a glowing review and share it out to your different audiences. Your other customers just might feel prompted to leave a review of their own.

Another thing worth sharing online is any photos that your member contribute to social campaigns you have set up with your customer loyalty rewards program.

Once you’ve racked up some of these photos, ask your customers if you can share them out on your Facebook page, much like you shared the positive reviews. This can help act as a testimonial or marketing tool to show off what it’s like to be a customer of your business.

How are you bettering your online image? Let us know in the comments below.