May 14
1

Online Reputation Management for Executives & Professionals Critical

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Executive Reputation Management

Executive Reputation Management Experts

More and more professionals and executives are starting to hear the term “Executive Reputation Management” or “Online Reputation Management” but most are still wondering why online reputation management for executives and professionals is necessary or, as we put it, critical in today’s digital economy.

Here’s the really simple and short answer: 87% of people surveyed reported that the next thing they do after being referred to a business or a professional is…. you probably guessed it, they Google search the person’s name, the business name or both. What do they find about you is the next question? Can they find you on page one of search results? If they do, what do they find? Is everything they find strategically in search or are you relying on Google exclusively to show your prospects and customers what it thinks is best?  Is it positive, negative or neutral? You get the point.

Want another equally critical statistic to know if you are a professional? —90% of executive recruiters Google candidates before making a hire and 75% of all HR departments are required to search online about a candidate before a hiring decision can be made. 

Online reputation expert, Lane Houk, teaches the CSuite and executives on why they can no longer ignore this area of online personal brand management. “Buying decisions are made on trust. Namely, trust that the desired outcome will be achieved. In today’s digital economy, people search, scan and quickly arrive at trust-based conclusions simply using reviews and online reputation ratings as the basis for their conclusions,” says Houk, CEO and Managing Partner of Brand Equation, a brand consulting and digital marketing firm based in Tampa, Florida

With 90% of the US population owning smartphone, that’s approximately 270 million daily users with instant access to the internet and information on anyone and anything. Google’s search algorithm is very “brand-centric” and the algorithm looks to identify brand names, and yes that means personal brand names as much as company name.

Establishing Your Personal Brand Online

Managing your reputation online as an executive or professional certainly means doing business with honesty and within all ethical standards for your industry but to truly build a 5-star reputation online, your customer experience needs to be designed for a 5-star experience. This means strategy needs to be applied. Once you have a customer journey mapped out and married to proper delivery system(s) for your business, you can then shift to the effort of translating 5-star customer experiences to your online reputation.

Every executive and professional should have their own name, company name and variants setup in a free Google search alert. This would be absolute minimum for monitoring your online reputation. Companies like Brand Equation offer reputation management software which automates much of the reputation management process. Great reputation software will also help the user proactively build a 5-star reputation online with reputation marketing automation and social media integrations.

Company executives should have all C-level executives in a robust reputation management campaign. Quite frankly, companies can no longer afford to think of this as optional. The stakes are too high and the costs too insignificant comparatively to justify inaction.

How to Get Started with Executive Reputation Management

Getting started is fairly straightforward and simple at a high level. Develop a pro-active strategy to monitor, manage and market a 5-star reputation for your personal brand. Monitoring can be as simple as free Google alerts to more robust solutions. Managing means delivering a 5-star customer experience consistently and predictably as much as is possible. This does not happen by accident and many companies would be well-served in retaining the consulting services of a company like Brand Equation to identify gaps, weaknesses and opportunities in the customer experience (cX) journey and delivery/fulfillment systems.

Reputation management tools and software are largely ineffective unless they are married to a well-documented strategy. Each personal brand is unique and carries with it it’s own set of unique characteristics that should be accounted for in the executive reputation management strategy and mindmap.

If you are looking for a reputation management consultant or a customer experience consultant, contact recognized expert, Lane Houk with Brand Equation to setup a complimentary initial consult.

Executive Reputation Management

Jan 05
0
Raleigh Marketing Agency Brand Equation

Lane Houk from Brand Equation Marketing Agency in Raleigh Announces New Location

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 5, 2018 – Raleigh, NC

Brand Equation, a national brand consulting and digital marketing agency, has announced the opening of their new marketing agency location in Raleigh, North Carolina says Lane Houk, Managing Partner at Brand Equation. “We are excited about our expansion into the Research Triangle region as we continue our growth serving businesses throughout the Southeast United States with their branding and digital marketing needs.” With its new Raleigh location, Brand Equation will focus on serving the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, Cary, Garner, Knightdale, Triad and Charlotte markets.

About Brand Equation

Brand Equation is a full-service brand consulting and digital marketing agency with core competencies in brand creative services, custom software solutions, project management, digital analytics and reporting, executive reputation management, business reputation management; website development, mobile websites, mobile apps and full-scale e-commerce websites; local and mobile marketing, SEO, social media and online advertising platforms.

Brand Equation helps its clients maximize profits and grow their business by evaluating their customer experience, business systems and use of technologies, digital marketing, reputation management, sales funnels, and client conversion and retention processes. As subject matter experts, Brand Equation employs proprietary methods and strategies that produce measurable, predictable results.

Because Brand Equation’s proprietary approach is so targeted and effective, Lane Houk reported that they intentionally limit the number of clients taken on in any given industry niche and geographic market.

Multi-Location Specialists

Brand Equation has special expertise with multi-location systems, franchises and businesses. With our unique multi-location knowledge, strategies and digital marketing technology stack, we help multi-location health systems, businesses and franchisees get found online by their target audience(s) in local searches including Google search, Maps search, Mobile search and Social Network searches along with Display Ad campaigns driving new business and the bottom line.

Business enterprises that operate multiple locations have specific challenges in properly managing their location data, also referred to as the NAP, short for business Name, Address and Phone Number, and the location’s online reputation. Lane Houk reported that over 90% of all multi-location business owners he meets with have moderate to significant issues with their website, online NAP consistency and online reputation for most if not all of their locations. “Most businesses do not have their website properly setup and coded with their locations and each location’s specific NAP data set plus it’s related online reputation,” reported Houk. “We counsel our clients that ignoring the location data and reputation of each location can and will have incredibly negative consequences. The problem is that these business owners are not aware of how much these issues are really costing them” said Houk. “It comes down to an issue of they don’t know what they don’t know” he said when referring to the fact that business owners don’t know and can’t quantify how much business they lose to the competition when their own business location(s) are not doing well online in local desktop and mobile searches by their target audience.

About Lane A Houk

Voted as one of Florida’s top business leaders by Gulf Shore Business in 2008, Lane Houk is the Managing Partner of Brand Equation. Lane is also a Level 6 Google Local Guide and a frequent guest speaker to small and large groups of business owners, health system executives and other professional groups on various branding and digital marketing principles and strategies.

Being found online with a 5-star reputation is likely the most important factor to sustainable growth year over year in the new digital economy. 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business and 74% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more. Brand Equation has proprietary reputation management and reputation marketing software which helps its clients proactively build a 5-star brand and leverage that five-star reputation to grow through increased conversion rates.

This press release was also published at: http://www.fox8live.com/story/37200010/lane-houk-from-brand-equation-marketing-agency-in-raleigh-announces-new-location

Nov 21
0

Brand Equation At Forefront in Online Location Data and Reputation Management

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This release was first published on https://marketersmedia.com/brand-equation-at-forefront-in-online-location-data-and-reputation-management/267274

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Tampa, FL United States – November 21, 2017

Brand Equation, a Digital Agency based out of Tampa, Florida, has been recognized as being a front runner and industry leader in Online Location Data and Reputation Management.

Brand Equation has been operating in the digital marketing agency industry for 10 years. Brand Equation is a boutique digital agency with a consultative approach to helping its clients grow using the leverage of an optimized, five star brand and online presence along with proprietary software and strategies.

Lane A Houk, Brand Equation’s CEO and Managing Partner, and recognized industry expert, spoke about expanding on some of the decisions and motivations that led to the focus on online reputation management 6 years ago which now also encompasses location data management especially for multi-location franchises and companies.

“When Brand Equation was founded, it was made abundantly clear we wanted to be the kind of company that was known for its authentic mission which is to give its clients the advice, knowledge, and innovation to help them to stand out from the crowd locally, digitally, and with a stellar, five star reputation. “We produce results that are measurable, keep incoming leads on the rise, offer tangible ROI, and most importantly, give our clients the chance for a more predictable and profitable business.” One of the biggest challenges our clients face is managing their location data and their online reputation effectively and staying out in front of building a 5-star brand online across the directory, social and review ecosystem. Moving from one office to another or changing locations, getting a new phone number, or expanding and adding a new location to the business are just a few reasons that Lane Houk cites as reasons that most businesses are way behind in properly and accurately managing their online reputation and their online location data in directory listings and online business profiles such as Google MyBusiness, Yelp, Insider Pages, Citysearch and many others in this greater online ecosystem. In fact says Houk, “the sheer growth in the directory listings and social media platforms has exponentially grown both the opportunities and the need for executing best practices in Online Location Data Management and Online Reputation Management for all companies, big and small.”

Lane Houk also mentioned Brand Equation’s primary focus involves companies and franchises in the Home and Auto Repair Services industries reach their target audience leveraging new digital channels and traffic sources unknown to most companies and other PR and digital agencies. Brand Equation will use its deep industry experience in the home and auto repair services niches along with its own proprietary internal strategies and software to achieve even better results and a better overall customer experience for new clients in these niche industries.

Brand Equation plans to maintain its position at the forefront of Online Location Data and Reputation Management for years to come, building on its success to date, and finding new ways to serve its business customers in the Greater Tampa Bay region including businesses in Brandon, Apollo Beach, Sun City Center, Bradenton/Sarasota, St Petersburg/Clearwater, Plant City and Lakeland.