The impressions that your business gives to its potential customers are crucial for the success of your venture. With so many competitors out there, it’s important to stand out from the crowd with a unique brand image and marketing strategy. It may seem impossible at first, but there are many different ways you can do this. 

A great way to give your business an initial boost is by utilizing online platforms such as social media sites and review sites. From these websites, you can get an insight into what customers think about your company while also providing them with information on where they can find you if they want to visit your store or contact you directly with some questions. 

This blog post will explore why online reviews and discussions are important in a business environment and offer tips on how you can make them work for you.

What Are Online Reviews and Discussions

Online Reviews

A review is a type of content that is created by a user to show their opinion about a certain service or product. A review can be written, audio, visual, or even a combination of different formats. These can be found in many places on the internet including review sites, blogs, and even social media. 

Reviews are important because they provide information about a product or service to people who are looking for that information. A review can include information like what someone likes and dislikes about something, how well something works, whether or not it’s a good value for the price, and more. 

Reviews can come from customers who have had a positive or negative experience with a product or service, or from people who are just observing their surroundings and writing about what they see. Some people who write reviews will be casual consumers, while others are experts in a particular field that want to share their knowledge with others.

Online Discussion

A discussion is a great way to engage with potential customers, answer their questions, and solve any issues they may have with your products or services. This type of platform is great for all types of businesses, particularly those that have a lot of complex or technical products that might be difficult to explain to customers in a review or short social media post. 

By hosting a discussion, you can get as in-depth as you need to when it comes to answering questions, while also separating different topics into different threads to keep things organized. Discussions are often hosted on blog platforms, forums, or dedicated websites that are specifically designed for this purpose.

If your business is already established, it can be difficult to quickly generate a large discussion among your existing customers. However, you can start a discussion targeting potential customers by choosing a social media platform that your target audience is likely to be using.

Popular Online Review Sites

There are many different online review sites that your customers can use to leave feedback about your business. These platforms are generally free to use and allow customers to rate your services, leave comments about their experience, and even leave suggestions for improvement. Here is a short list of popular online review sites:

Yelp

This is one of the most popular review sites around, and it’s also very heavily regulated. If a business owner wants to leave a review for another business, they will be prompted to enter an email address and name so that the review can be verified and posted on the platform. This means that the reviews will be much more reliable than the ones on other sites. 

If you run a business and want to get reviews posted on Yelp, all you have to do is request them from your customers. The best thing about Yelp is that you can actively solicit reviews by providing customers with a link to your business page on the site. When you do this, you’ll notice that there are two parts to your Yelp page. The first is a description of your business.

The second is a request that customers leave reviews on your page. All you have to do is click the “Ask a question” button on your page and then click “I would like to invite guests to write a review” and then click “Leave a Review”.

Google

As we’ve said, Google is the most popular search engine out there. You can use it to find reviews for your business easily. To do this, all you have to do is go to Google and type in your company name followed by the word “reviews”. 

Particularly if you’re a small business, this is a great way to get reviews as it works for even the most obscure, local businesses. You can also do this for your competitors. This can help you to understand what customers are saying about their experiences with your competitors so that you can learn from their mistakes and capitalize on their shortcomings.

Amazon

As we’ve mentioned, Amazon is a hugely popular online shopping platform. If you’re in the retail business, you likely have a product or two listed on their site. If you do, you can ask your customers to leave reviews for your products. This is especially important if you sell your products at a low price. 

If your products get positive reviews, this can help to boost your sales and increase your online visibility. If you sell private label products, you can also leave reviews for them on Amazon.

Facebook

As we’ve discussed, Facebook is a great place to get reviews for your business. There are a few different ways that you can do this. The first is by posting a “Review us” message on your page. When you do this, you can select which type of customers you want to see this message.

 You can also select which day you want to post it so that you don’t have to worry about posting multiple times in a short period of time. The other way that you can ask for reviews on Facebook is by using a third-party tool such as Feedback Genius. This will allow you to ask for reviews from your customers directly through Facebook. 

It’s important to note that this is against Facebook’s terms of service and you could be banned from the site if you are discovered using this feature.

Reliable Reviews

Aside from the online review platforms, businesses may also engage with the help of Reliable Reviews which is a Software as a Service (SaaS) based solution that constantly adds and enhances features to grow with the internet and the industry. Small businesses, multi-location, and enterprises will find the right combination of features to drive your business up.

It is a robust resolution to cultivate and manage your customer feedback and online reviews. With dozens of options, and customizations, to satisfy your customer experience goals. Some of the options are:

  • Generating Review & Feedback
  • Reputation & Review Monitoring
  • Marketing & SEO
  • Gather up all of your customer feedback, reviews, data, surveys, and more
  • Measure & Report the way you want

Why Are Online Reviews and Discussions Important?

Customers will often look online to find reviews and discussions about a business before deciding to make a purchase. Social media posts, customer ratings, and discussion threads are all important factors in a customer’s purchasing decision. 

This is true even if the customer has already made a decision to buy something, as they may choose one product over another based on what they have read online. This means that your business could be losing out on sales or customers because your products aren’t as well reviewed as they could be. If your business is fairly new or you don’t have many reviews or comments posted on your review sites, it can be difficult to get your name out there. 

This is why it’s important to make the most of any posts and discussions you can get on these sites. These posts can help to drive customers to your website, host them when they are there, and encourage them to leave reviews and join the discussion.

3 Ways to Utilize Online Review and Discussion 

Here are three ways that you can use online review and discussion platforms in your business strategy.

Respond to Reviews

When you get customer reviews, don’t just sit back and let them sit on the page. Respond to them and thank the customers for the feedback, even if it’s negative.

Monitor Online Review Sites

If you use online review sites or social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram, you can get an insight into what your customers are saying about your business by looking at their posts. You can also ask your customers directly for reviews by posting a “Leave a review” message on your page.

Offer Incentives for Reviews

You can also offer incentives for customers to leave reviews for your business online. This can be either a discount or a gift for the person who leaves the review. You can also offer a small reward for customers who share your page or post on social media. This can help you to boost your online visibility and get more overall exposure for your business.

Benefit From Review Sites

Take Advantage of Review Sites on a Broader Scale. While it’s important to take advantage of review sites on a smaller scale, you can also use these platforms to increase the number of visitors to your site. 

There are many ways to go about this, but one option is to write reviews for other businesses on review sites. This is a relatively simple way to get more reviews for your own site while helping other companies in the process. 

Create Your Own Review Site. If you want to take advantage of review sites on a much grander scale, you can create your own site. This is an expensive and time-consuming process, but it allows you to control all aspects of your reviews and gives you the opportunity to monetize your site.

Final Words

These platforms are great for getting your business name out there and engaging with customers. By engaging on these sites, you can quickly acquire new customers and improve your reputation in the process. 

There are many different review and discussion sites you can use, but you have to make sure that your business is showing up and that you are actively engaging on these sites. If you follow these tips and take advantage of these online platforms, you’re sure to benefit from increased business.

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