Cashing Out on Your Business Reputation
By Nina Kaufman, Esq.
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Building a ‘presence’ for your company is key to attracting clients, influencers, and buyers for your business. But many small business owners are guilty of keeping their business a secret. Or of merging their business and personal reputation. How can you separate the two?
In this episode, communications expert Sherry Goldman shares the tools and tactics to make your business seem bigger than you … even if it is just you working in the trenches.
Cash Out on Your Business Reputation… 
- Separate yourself from the business. Create different media accounts for yourself and your business. Use the third-person case (as in “our Sherry Goldman spoke at XYZ event ….”) when updating as your business. Key words like “we” and “our associate” will imply that you have a great team at your company, even if that team consists of only you.
- Make sure your brand and your reputation are synonymous. While you control what you – as the business owner – say about yourself and your company, “reputation” is based on how other people perceive your business. Do Google searches for your company to see what people are saying. .
- Use Google Alerts to stay on top of your game. Set one up for your business. Set up one fore yourself. And set up alerts for your competitors. This will help you stay current with trends and anticipate what people are going to want from your industry.
- Be part of the conversation. Check out competitors and key influencers in your industry. Use photos and links, and connect with other teams and businesses in your industry to show you are active and directly involved in the conversations that are going on around you.
- Participate, but listen, too. Facebook and Twitter can show you how your reputation is building (or breaking) your business. As you listen in, you have the power to change the way people think about and interact with you, and you can use this to your advantage to build up the reputation you need to cash out big with your business.
Sherry covered a wide range of tactics that will give potential buyers the comfort level of knowing your business can function–and customers will keep coming–even if you’re not there. Make sure you block out time to listen to this episode of Cash Out BIG.
Sherry Goldman is president of Goldman Communications Group, an award-winning public relations/ marketing communications agency, which she started 20 years ago after having held senior management positions in some of the largest international public relations agencies and also working in both print and broadcast media.
Sherry develops and implements communications and community relations programs for businesses and non-profit organizations, including Municipal Credit Union, Olsten Health Services, Writers Guild of America East, LRC Properties, Women in the Arts and Media Coalition, the Writers Guild Initiative, Yona New York Fashions, and Workmen’s Circle. Her focus and expertise is on helping them and their leaders create, communicate, and control their message and reputation to key audiences, stakeholders, and influencers in today’s 24/7 world. Sherry has twice been awarded the prestigious Silver Anvil Award (the PR industry’s Oscar) from the Public Relations Society of America and her work is featured in the textbook Public Relations Cases (Ninth Edition.) She is also an adjunct professor in public relations at LIU-Post.
Favorite Quote:
“Perception is reality.” ~ Famous public relations maxim
Learn more about Sherry Goldman:
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