Consistency Is The Key To Success
We have mentioned in our comments elsewhere that consistency is important online. This makes perfect sense as the same applies in the offline world. But there are areas on the internet where inconsistencies can arise without your knowledge and this is where the importance of monitoring comes in.
One area we have mentioned is citations where your unique identifier may not be consistent in which case the citation fails to add value. Or one citation may say that your business is “X” and another that it is “Y”. Citations become particularly difficult to manage when you move premises as some may remain online with your old name, address or phone number for months and years. Another area we have mentioned it is in content marketing and the importance of keeping up with your posting schedule.
The real issue is that you just don’t know where someone will come across you online for the very first time. It may be on a site that you didn’t know that you were listed on. We have already stated that “You only get one chance to make a first impression” and if that impression is not what you want then you have most likely lost that potential sale. That is why bigger businesses spend a lot of time on their branding. We have all heard the horror stories of a new logo costing millions while we are left wondering what was wrong with the old one. But all they are doing is trying to create something instantly recognisable that conveys the right impression.
So you need to ensure that what people read about you does not differ in one place from another. If you have a Facebook business profile it needs to look like your business looks elsewhere online such as your website. So you need a logo that fits into the profile image that Facebook provides. The same goes for Twitter and Google My Business and countless other online profiles.
Most places where you are listed online use “categories” to group your business with similar businesses and to help people to find businesses that meet those criteria. The categories available are usually prescribed by the platform and will not necessarily be the same on each. But we have often seen a business categorised completely differently on one platform from another. So you need to check this sort of thing and get them all aligned. Consistency will help you get to places where you would have never thought of.
We have services which can help with this sort thing, both correcting the inconsistencies and ongoing monitoring to find new inconsistencies as they arise. If you would be interested in talking to us about this, get in touch.
