Online Presence Management Defined + 5 Tips

Online presence management is the process of creating and owning a professional online brand and driving traffic to the business’ various online channels. 

Multi-location brands must manage their online presence in these areas:

• Web design
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Content creation
• Advertising 
• Social Media
• Reputation management
• Link-building

Many online users will find your business on platforms such as Google Search and Maps, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and others, emphasizing the need for a strong reputation across channels.

It’s a tall task, but once your baseline strategy and benchmarks are in place, it’s a continual evaluation and optimization process.

Below are five elements of online presence management and tips for each.

1. Website Management

Your brand’s website is extremely important. Think of your website as a digital storefront that needs to capture visitors. It’s where online users learn about your business offerings and services, then assess if they want to choose you or a competitor. Your website should be easy to navigate, contain inviting design and imagery, and include clear calls to action (CTAs).

Key tip: Multi-location businesses need local landing pages to improve local visibility and make it easier for local users to find information about a local business.

2. SEO and Content Creation

Search engine optimization (SEO) means improving your site and brand’s visibility on search engines such as Google and Safari. Multi-location businesses must focus on both general search and local SEO.

You can increase general SEO by creating keyword-driven blogs, guides, and other resources, while also getting backlinks to said content. In contrast, local SEO includes optimizing your Google Business Profile, local landing pages, and on-page SEO.

Key tip: As a multi-location business, include product keywords in your national website and local landing pages.

3. Online Advertising

Online advertising means running search or display ads promoting your business. Search ads appear on the search engine results page (SERP). Display ads appear on other websites as banners, videos, or clickable interactives.

Key tip: Search ads are often tied to keywords, so they go hand-in-hand with your SEO strategy, while display ads are based on targeted pages or personas. 

4. Reputation Management

A multi-location business’s online reputation directly affects customer trust. Therefore, multi-location businesses need a strong online reputation. Reputation management means addressing online reviews, public inquiries, or comments across social media platforms, and review sites, at scale.

Reputation management also requires updating your products and services to meet your customers’ needs and creating content to share these updates.

Key tip: Multi-location businesses should use a tool like SOCi’s reputation management software to manage the reviews across 100s or 1,000s of local stores.

5. Social Media Marketing and Management 

Social media marketing uses social media platforms to create bonds and long-lasting relationships between businesses and people. Social media marketing is based on the interaction between the brand and people. Effective social media marketing contains two primary components. 

The first is creating content that resonates with or educates your target audience, driving engagement. The second component is managing the branded content and responding to inquiries or comments from potential and current customers.

Key tip: Have a process in place with designated team members assigned to quality control all social media posts and responses before they’re published.

You need the right software to elevate your online presence management. SOCi can help. SOCi has nine products that can help you create and manage your local pages, social media content, online reviews, local ad campaigns, and more, across all business locations. For more information, request a demo today!