Is there any point to putting hashtags in your Instagram profile bio? Will those be found in a search?
Can a posting's caption & info be edited after posting?
Also, I have a domain name, and I have that domain name as my IG username, but someone else has an account name with my domain name, for example, like so: #mydomainname can we both have #mydomainname or am I going to be stuck with just mydomainname (without the #)? Will it make that much difference when people are searching?
If I have the IG account just to give my web site some visibility, how would following others help with that?
Do you need to add nofollow links in your WordPress navigation menus?
Many website owners prefer to add a nofollow tag to external links, but beginners may find this tricky when adding a custom link to a menu.
In this article, we’ll show you how to add nofollow links in WordPress navigation menus.
Why Add Nofollow Links in WordPress Navigation Menus?
If you are running a WordPress website, then you may want to add a nofollow tag when creating external links. This lets search engines know not to pass any link authority from your page to the other website that you’re linking to.
When you link to an external website, search engines consider that as a ranking signal, and they will pass a small portion of your authority to the other website. As a general SEO best practice, you should add nofollow to all external websites that you don’t trust.
You do that by adding the rel="nofollow" attribute to the link like this:
In this article, we will show you how to add nofollow links in WordPress navigation menus. We’ll cover two methods, and the second method is for those using WordPress 5.9 or higher and a theme that’s compatible with the new theme editor.
Method 1: Adding Nofollow Links Using the WordPress Menu Editor
To get started, simply visit Appearance » Menus in your WordPress admin area.
First, you need to add the external link to your WordPress navigation menu just like you would add any custom link.
To do that, you need to click on the ‘Custom Links’ tab so you can see the URL and Link Text options. Simply enter the URL and link text of the website you are linking to.
After that, you should click the ‘Add to Menu’ button and the link will be added to the ‘Menu structure’ column.
To add the nofollow attribute to the link, you need to click the downward arrow on the right of the menu entry, as pictured in the screenshot above. You can now see the details of the external link you just added, including the URL and navigation label.
If you don’t see the Link Target and Link Relationship options, then you will have to add them.
To show those options, you need to click the ‘Screen Options’ button at the top right corner of the screen. Then check the boxes next to the Link Target and Link Relationship (XFN) options.
Now you can scroll back down to your expanded menu item, and you will notice two new options. Next, simply enter nofollow in the link relationship field.
We recommend that you also click the ‘Open link in a new tab’ checkbox when adding an external link. This is a great way to improve engagement and keep your visitors from leaving your website.
Lastly, click the ‘Save Menu’ button to store your changes.
You can now preview your site to see the new nofollow menu entry.
Let’s make sure that a nofollow attribute has been added to the link.
Simply right click the new link and select ‘Inspect’. Your browser window will split into two windows. In the bottom window, you will be able to see the HTML source for your link. It will display the nofollow attribute with your link.
Method 2: Adding Nofollow Links Using the WordPress Theme Editor
This method is for those who are using WordPress 5.9 or later and have a theme that supports the new WordPress theme editor. In that case, the Appearance » Menus page will not be available to you.
Instead, you should navigate to Appearance » Editor in your WordPress dashboard. This will open the WordPress theme editor.
Adding a New Link to the Navigation Menu
If you need to add a new menu item, then you’ll have to click the blue Block Inserter icon in the top left corner. Next, you should scroll down until you locate the Custom Link block and then drag it onto your navigation menu.
You can now type or paste the URL. If you want, you can also toggle the ‘Open in new tab’ option to the on position. After that, make sure you click the Submit icon at the top right of the popup so that the menu item’s settings are stored.
The link URL will be added to the menu, but you’ll normally want something more descriptive, such as the name of the website. Simply start typing to rename the menu item.
Adding the Nofollow Attribute to a Link
To add the nofollow attribute to a menu item, simply click it and a toolbar will appear.
Next you need to click the link icon on that toolbar. In the settings pane on the right, you need to enter nofollow in the link relationship (‘Link rel’) field.
If you like, you can also add a description and title for the link, and reorder the menu items using the arrow icons on the toolbar.
When you’ve finished, click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen. The new custom link will be added and you can visit your website to see how your navigation menu looks now.
Apache Kafka is the de facto standard for event streaming to process data in motion. With its significant adoption growth across all industries, I get a very valid question every week: When do I NOT use Apache Kafka? What limitations does the event streaming platform have? When does Kafka simply not provide the needed capabilities? How do I qualify Kafka out as not the right tool for the job?
This blog post explores the DOs and DONTs. Separate sections explain when to use Kafka, when NOT to use Kafka, and when to MAYBE use Kafka.
We’ve discussed a lot about the internals of using CSS in this ongoing series on web components, but there are a few special pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes that, like good friends, willingly smell your possibly halitotic breath before you go talk to that potential love interest. You know, they help you out when you need it most. And, like a good friend will hand you a breath mint, these pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes provide you with some solutions both from within the web component and from outside the web component — the website where the web component lives.
I’m specifically referring to the ::part and ::slotted pseudo-elements, and the :defined, :host, and :host-context pseudo-classes. They give us extra ways to interact with web components. Let’s examine them closer.
::part, in short, allows you to pierce the shadow tree, which is just my Lord-of-the-Rings-y way to say it lets you style elements inside the shadow DOM from outside the shadow DOM. In theory, you should encapsulate all of your styles for the shadow DOM within the shadow DOM, i.e. within a <style> element in your <template> element.
So, given something like this from the very first part of this series, where you have an <h2> in your <template>, your styles for that <h2> should all be in the <style> element.
But sometimes we might need to style an element in the shadow DOM based on information that exists on the page. For instance, let’s say we have a page for each zombie in the undying love system with matches. We could add a class to profiles based on how close of a match they are. We could then, for instance, highlight a match’s name if he/she/it is a good match. The closeness of a match would vary based on whose list of potential matches is being shown and we won’t know that information until we’re on that page, so we can’t bake the functionality into the web component. Since the <h2> is in the shadow DOM, though, we can’t access or style it from outside the shadow DOM meaning a selector of zombie-profile h2 on the matches page won’t work.
But, if we make a slight adjustment to the <template> markup by adding a part attribute to the <h2>:
Like a spray of Bianca in the mouth, we now have the superpowers to break through the shadow DOM barrier and style those elements from outside of the <template>:
But you can add a part attribute on that element and style it via its own part name.
What happens if we have a web component inside another web component, though? Will ::part still work? If the web component appears in the page’s markup, i.e. you’re slotting it in, ::part works just fine from the main page’s CSS.
But if the web component is in the template/shadow DOM, then ::part cannot pierce both shadow trees, just the first one. We need to bring the ::part into the light… so to speak. We can do that with an exportparts attribute.
To demonstrate this we’ll add a “watermark” behind the profiles using a web component. (Why? Believe it or not this was the least contrived example I could come up with.) Here are our templates: (1) the template for <zombie-watermark>, and (2) the same template for <zombie-profile> but with added a <zombie-watermark> element on the end.
Since ::part(watermark) is only one shadow DOM above the <zombie-watermark>, it works fine from within the <zombie-profile>’s template styles. Also, since we’ve used exportparts="copyright" on the <zombie-watermark>, the copyright part has been pushed up into the <zombie-profile>‘s shadow DOM and ::part(copyright) now works even in external styles, but ::part(watermark) will not work outside the <zombie-profile>’s template.
We can also forward and rename parts with that attribute:
Structural pseudo-classes (:nth-child, etc.) don’t work on parts either, but you can use pseudo-classes like :hover. Let’s animate the high match names a little and make them shake as they’re lookin’ for some lovin’. Okay, I heard that and agree it’s awkward. Let’s… uh… make them more, shall we say, noticeable, with a little movement.
The ::slotted CSS pseudo-element actually came up when we covered interactive web components. The basic idea is that ::slotted represents any content in a slot in a web component, i.e. the element that has the slot attribute on it. But, where ::part pierces through the shadow DOM to make a web component’s elements accessible to outside styles, ::slotted remains encapsulated in the <style> element in the component’s <template> and accesses the element that’s technically outside the shadow DOM.
In our <zombie-profile> component, for example, each profile image is inserted into the element through the slot="profile-image".
<zombie-profile>
<img slot="profile-image" src="photo.jpg" />
<!-- rest of the content -->
</zombie-profile>
That means we can access that image — as well as any image in any other slot — like this:
Similarly, we could select all slots with ::slotted(*) regardless of what element it is. Just beware that ::slotted has to select an element — text nodes are immune to ::slotted zombie styles. And children of the element in the slot are inaccessible.
The :defined pseudo-class
:defined matches all defined elements (I know, surprising, right?), both built-in and custom. If your custom element is shuffling along like a zombie avoiding his girlfriend’s dad’s questions about his “living” situation, you may not want the corpses of the content to show while you’re waiting for them to come back to life errr… load.
You can use the :defined pseudo-class to hide a web component before it’s available — or “defined” — like this:
:not(:defined) {
display: none;
}
You can see how :defined acts as a sort of mint in the mouth of our component styles, preventing any broken content from showing (or bad breath from leaking) while the page is still loading. Once the element’s defined, it’ll automatically appear because it’s now, you know, defined and not not defined.
I added a setTimeout of five seconds to the web component in the following demo. That way, you can see that <zombie-profile> elements are not shown while they are undefined. The <h1> and the <div> that holds the <zombie-profile> components are still there. It’s just the <zombie-profile> web component that gets display: none since they are not yet defined.
The :host pseudo-class
Let’s say you want to make styling changes to the custom element itself. While you could do this from outside the custom element (like tightening that N95), the result would not be encapsulated, and additional CSS would have to be transferred to wherever this custom element is placed.
It’d be very convenient then to have a pseudo-class that can reach outside the shadow DOM and select the shadow root. That CSS pseudo-class is :host.
In previous examples throughout this series, I set the <zombie-profile> width from the main page’s CSS, like this:
zombie-profile {
width: calc(50% - 1em);
}
With :host, however, I can set that width from inside the web component, like this:
:host {
width: calc(50% - 1em);
}
In fact, there was a div with a class of .profile-wrapper in my examples that I can now remove because I can use the shadow root as my wrapper with :host. That’s a nice way to slim down the markup.
You can do descendant selectors from the :host, but only descendants inside the shadow DOM can be accessed — nothing that’s been slotted into your web component (without using ::slotted).
That said, :host isn’t a one trick zombie. It can also take a parameter, e.g. a class selector, and will only apply styling if the class is present.
:host(.high) {
border: 2px solid blue;
}
This allows you to make changes should certain classes be added to the custom element.
You can also pass pseudo-classes in there, like :host(:last-child) and :host(:hover).
The :host-context pseudo-class
Now let’s talk about :host-context. It’s like our friend :host(), but on steroids. While :host gets you the shadow root, it won’t tell you anything about the context in which the custom element lives or its parent and ancestor elements.
:host-context, on the other hand, throws the inhibitions to the wind, allowing you to follow the DOM tree up the rainbow to the leprechaun in a leotard. Just note that at the time I’m writing this, :host-context is unsupported in Firefox or Safari. So use it for progressive enhancement.
Here’s how it works. We’ll split our list of zombie profiles into two divs. The first div will have all of the high zombie matches with a .bestmatch class. The second div will hold all the medium and low love matches with a .worstmatch class.
<div class="profiles bestmatch">
<zombie-profile class="high">
<!-- etc. -->
</zombie-profile>
<!-- more profiles -->
</div>
<div class="profiles worstmatch">
<zombie-profile class="medium">
<!-- etc. -->
</zombie-profile>
<zombie-profile class="low">
<!-- etc. -->
</zombie-profile>
<!-- more profiles -->
</div>
Let’s say we want to apply different background colors to the .bestmatch and .worstmatch classes. We are unable to do this with just :host:
That’s because our best and worst match classes are not on our custom elements. What we want is to be able to select the profiles’s parent elements from within the shadow DOM. :host-context pokes past the custom element to match the, er, match classes we want to style.
Well, thanks for hanging out despite all the bad breath. (I know you couldn’t tell, but above when I was talking about your breath, I was secretly talking about my breath.)
How would you use ::part, ::slotted, :defined, :host, and :host-context in your web component? Let me know in the comments. (Or if you have cures to chronic halitosis, my wife would be very interested in to hear more.)
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Are you looking for the best credit monitoring service for your small business?
Credit monitoring is an important topic of discussion among website owners and entrepreneurs because of all the recent data breaches that’s been happening. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), there were 4.7 million identity and credit fraud incidents reported in 2020.
In this article, we have hand-picked some of the best credit monitoring services for your small business that you can use along with your WordPress site.
Why Do You Need a Credit Monitoring Service?
With everything going on in the digital security world, it’s absolutely critical that every small business owner and entrepreneur have a credit monitoring service, so you can quickly detect and prevent identity theft and digital fraud.
A good credit monitoring service allows you to do the following:
Track your credit reports from all 3 major credit-bureaus and get near real-time alerts for suspicious activities.
You can setup bank account monitoring from a single dashboard. Their AI-powered algorithm helps you avoid becoming a victim of bank / credit fraud.
The dark web monitoring reports alert you if any of your passwords, social security number, or bank accounts were compromised as part of any data breach, so you can act fast.
You get device & wifi security which helps you browse safely wherever you are, and some services also gives you secure password management tools.
Easily get help from trained professionals with fraud resolution in case an unfortunate event occurs where any of your financial accounts are compromised.
Most credit monitoring services will also offer up to $1 million dollar in insurance to help protect you and your business.
If you are running an online store or a small business website, then adding a credit monitoring service can help you protect your business and bring peace of mind.
Credit theft can significantly hurt a small business’ ability to open bank accounts, borrow money, get a credit card, and even accept online payments.
While it’s easy to think this would never happen to you, in 2020, WPBeginner founder Syed Balkhi, nearly lost $1.4 million dollars due to a digital fraud.
After months of stress and countless hours, he recovered vast majority of the money with the help of Department of Homeland security, but all of that could have been prevented if everyone involved was using a comprehensive online security solution.
That being said, let’s take a look at the best credit monitoring services for small business owners & entrepreneurs.
Aura is the best credit monitoring and identity theft protection service when it comes to features, ease of use, and price.
They offer an all-in-one financial security platform with an easy setup and reasonable pricing. Their user interface makes it easy for small business owners to setup credit monitoring, manage their identity protection, financial protection, and device protection from one single app (mobile or desktop).
Their credit monitoring service includes near-real time credit report monitoring for all three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) which allows you to get instant fraud alerts sometimes up to 4x faster than competition.
The dashboard also includes the ability monitor your credit score, ability to lock your credit profile, financial transaction monitoring, bank account monitoring, 401k & investment account monitoring, and more.
Aside from their credit monitoring service, you also get all the powerful security features like A.I. powered dark web monitoring, identity verification monitoring, personal information and social security number (SSN) monitoring, criminal and court records monitoring.
All plans include a $1 million dollar identity theft insurance policy to cover eligible losses and any fees due to credit fraud or identity theft. Their expert resolution team is U.S. based, and they work 24/7 to help you recover your identity and assets if you’re a victim of fraud.
Pricing for Aura’s credit monitoring service starts from $9 per month for the Individual plan. Their Family group plan costs $25 per month for up to 10 people, and it includes all credit monitoring features as well as VPN + antivirus. These are special pricing for WPBeginner readers and let you save up to 50% off.
Note: We use Aura on WPBeginner as our credit monitoring service. In our experience, Aura is the best credit monitoring and identity theft protection service in the market from both features and pricing point of view.
As a small business owner, we really like that Aura offers a free VPN and Antivirus software to boost our device & wifi security. This really makes them a comprehensive credit monitoring service + digital security solution.
Their VPN (virtual private network) helps secures your internet connection with military-grade encryption wherever you are. It’s very useful when you’re traveling or working from a public place like Starbucks.
Expert Review: We believe Aura is the best overall credit monitoring service and identity theft protection solution for small businesses with affordable individual and family plans.
Identity Guard is another popular credit monitoring service for entrepreneurs, individuals, and families.
Their credit monitoring and identity theft protection platform includes all the standard functionality you would need in their Value plan such as data breach notifications, dark web monitoring (powered by IBM Watson AI), risk management report, high risk transaction monitoring, safe browsing tools, and $1 million insurance with stolen fund reimbursement.
Their Total and Ultra plans include advanced credit protection features as well such as bank account monitoring, credit & debit card monitoring, 401k & investment monitoring, address change monitoring, social media monitoring reports, monthly credit score report, 3-bureau credit monitoring, and 3-bureau annual credit reports.
Identity Guard pricing starts at $7.50 per month for their Value plan and goes up to $25 per month for the Ultra plan.
As a small business owner (employer), you can also purchase credit monitoring services for your team members and make it part of your overall employee benefits package.
In our research, we found that Identity Guard is a very affordable credit monitoring service that also include premium identity theft protection on their higher plans.
However, they currently do not offer Device and Networking protection services like Aura does such as free VPN, antivirus, or a secure password manager.
Expert Review:Identity Guard is the best credit monitoring service for employers.
IdentityForce is a credit monitoring service by TransUnion which is one of the 3 major credit bureaus in the United States. They are consistently rated as a top identity theft protection service on TrustPilot.
As a major credit bureau, TransUnion have advanced credit monitoring and identity theft service solution for consumers, small business owners, as well as large enterprise and government agencies.
While they offer identity theft protection features in their UltraSecure plan, you need to get their more expensive UltraSecure + Credit plan to get the credit monitoring features which includes credit monitoring service for all 3-bureau, credit score tracker, quarterly 3 bureau credit reports and credit scores.
With Identity Guard, you get all the powerful identity theft protection features like smart SSN tracker, bank and credit card activity alerts, dark web monitoring, pay day loan monitoring, social media identity monitoring, medical ID fraud protection, identity threat alerts, and more.
They also have online protection tools to proactively help you fight phishing and keylogging attacks. Their mobile app gives you access to a secure VPN, so you always have a secure internet connection anywhere you go. Other digital securitytools include two-factor authentication, online identity vault, and a secure password manager.
All plans include a $1 million dollar identity theft insurance for stolen fund replacement, and white-glove customer service that can help you resolve any identity fraud case.
Expert Review:IdentityForce is the best credit monitoring service with FICO scores.
Norton is one of the most popular internet security companies in the world. In 2017, they acquired LifeLock, a well-known credit monitoring service and identity theft protection solution.
Since then they have created a bundle Norton 360 with LifeLock to include all the standard credit monitoring features like dark web monitoring, credit monitoring (across 3 bureaus), SSN & credit alerts, ID verification monitoring, data breach notifications, fictitious identity monitoring, ability to lock your identity, suspicious bank & credit card activity alerts, 401k & investment account monitoring, and more.
Along with credit monitoring, you’ll get the Norton AntiVirus and online threat protection software that includes smart firewall, cloud backup, parental controls, privacy monitor, and a secure VPN service.
Their plans include identity theft protection insurance ranging from $25,000 to $1 million depending on the plan you choose.
Norton360 with LifeLock select plan starts at $9.99 per month, but it offers credit monitoring for only 1 bureau. To get comprehensive credit monitoring service from all 3 bureaus, you’ll need the Ultimate Plus plan which costs $29.99 per month.
You could also purchase LifeLock as a standalone credit monitoring service, but it will cost $8.99 per month for one-bureau credit monitoring and $23.99 per month for three-bureau credit monitoring. Also these plans will not include any of the advanced device security features that Norton offers.
If you’re already a Norton user, then upgrading to Norton360 with LifeLock offers the best value for the money.
Expert Review: If you’re already a Norton customer, then LifeLock is the best credit monitoring service for you because you can upgrade for a small premium.
IdentityIQ is another popular credit monitoring service for small business owners that also include anti-virus software and VPN for online privacy.
Their credit monitoring service include all the standard features you would expect such as 3-bureau credit report monitoring, dark web & internet monitoring, lost wallet assistance, synthetic ID theft protection, up to $1 million dollar identity theft insurance to cover stolen fund reimbursement and offer coverage for lawyers and experts expenses.
The SecureMax plan also offers additional features like enhanced credit report monitoring, alerts on crimes committed in your name, credit score tracker, credit score simulator, and family protection with ID fraud restoration.
One of the big reasons for credit fraud is lack of device & network security, so IdentityIQ includes Bitdefender premium VPN for up to 10 devices as well as Bitdefender total security anti-virus and anti-spyware to help protect your computers. They also offer a password manager for Windows OS, but doesn’t have it for Mac.
Expert Review:IdentityIQ the best credit monitoring service if you’re looking for Bitdefender total security software to be included. Their pricing is a bit on the higher end with SecureMax plan starting at $30.99 per month.
Experian is one of the 3 major credit bureaus in the US, and they offer a premium credit monitoring service called IdentityWorks.
Their credit monitoring platform has built-in dark web surveillance that does daily scans of over 600,000 web pages to detect if any of your information is stolen.
You will get near real-time credit fraud alerts through their system if they notice any suspicious activity around your social security number, financial accounts, payday loans, false identity validations, social network monitoring, and more.
As one of the 3-bureaus that issue a FICO credit score, Experian will send you daily FICO scores from Experian and quarterly credit score updates from the other credit bureaus. This makes it easy for you to track your actual credit score without any extra cost.
Experian credit monitoring service also makes it easy to lock and unlock your Experian credit file within few clicks. This is a huge time saver because locking credit file is the ultimate credit protection.
IdentityWorks Premium pricing starts at $19.99 per month, and it includes the $1 million dollar identity theft protection insurance which is underwritten by AIG.
You can also get a family plan for $29.99 per month that includes two adults and up to 10 children identity protection.
The downside of Experian is that it does not offer any device or network security features.
Expert Review: Experian’s IdentityWorks platform offer a reliable credit monitoring service with standard identity theft protection features. However they are lacking the modern digital security features that you get with Aura or Norton360.
Which is the Best Credit Protection Service? (Expert Pick)
After carefully research all the top credit monitoring services, we believe that Aura is the best credit monitoring service for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
They offer the most affordable pricing with the most advanced credit monitoring and identity theft features.
The best part is that aside from comprehensive financial fraud protection features, they also include robust device & WiFi security apps to better protect you against cyberthreats.
At WPBeginner, we believe that security is all about risk reduction. Using the Aura smart digital security app, you get military-grade encryption for your online data, so you can have maximum online security.
That’s why, we use Aura in our business, and rate Aura as the #1 best credit monitoring service in the market.
We hope this article helped you find the best credit monitoring service for your small business. You may also want to see our comparison of the best business phone services and best website builder for small business.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Source: We got our identity theft statistics from the U.S. FTC 2020 Consumer Sentinel Network report.
Want to jump straight to the answer? For the majority of companies, Brand24 will provide the most helpful features for improving customer experiences and for boosting the company’s online reputation.
A good reputation has always been a key component of success for a business or organization.
A couple of generations ago, word of mouth was extremely important in maintaining a positive reputation. Generating a positive reputation these days, however, involves monitoring what people are saying about the business online.
Companies can dedicate multiple employees to try to keep up with customer reviews and social media mentions. Or, they can rely on the best reputation management software to efficiently keep track of and respond to current and potential customers.
The Top 6 Best Reputation Management Software Tools
Brand24 — Best overall reputation management software
Brand24 has an impressive level of versatility to serve the online reputation management needs of any sized company. It can help one keep an eye on their own reputation online and monitor the performance of competitors.
Users can specify keyword searches for social media, blogs, message boards, customer reviews, and other outlets. The keywords can involve a slogan or the company name.
Brand24 will then search for any instances of those keywords and send alerts pertaining to them. In some instances, it may be helpful to search for keywords related to competitors, allowing the company to track competitor performance alongside their own.
With its system, Brand24 keeps track of all customer interactions, whether they’re negative, positive, or neutral. If desired, Brand24 will send alerts when it encounters a negative-tinted review or social media post, giving the company the ability to respond immediately.
Additionally, Brand24 can generate reports about the frequency of mentions, likes, and trending hashtags related to the company. This is a useful way to manage the penetration of a particular marketing campaign.
In fact, Brand24 offers a feature where a company can measure the performance of two or more of its marketing campaigns to compare them, measuring which of its brand-related hashtags is performing better.
For those new to reputation management software, Brand24 offers a wide range of helpful features. It has multiple teaching tools and webinars to give customers the information they need to make the most of Brand24’s features.
Brand24 offers three pricing tiers ranging from $49 to $299 per month. Brand24’s pricing tiers allow for a different number of maximum keyword searches. Users can test the software for free during a trial period.
#2 – BirdEye — Best for Monitoring Customer Reviews
Online customer reviews are critically important to any business. Five-star reviews can boost the brand and increase sales. One-star reviews can sink the product quickly.
BirdEye has the ability to monitor customer reviews from more than 200 different sites, keeping an eye on what customers are saying. Companies can set up BirdEye to generate automatic responses to different types of reviews.
For the most positive reviews, BirdEye can link to them and highlight them on the company’s social media feed. It can also generate data from customer feedback, helping the company understand why its customers are responding the way they are.
As an added benefit, BirdEye allows a company to connect with customers who leave reviews on the company website. BirdEye supports messaging through text, live chat, social media contacts, or email. After connecting with the customers, BirdEye will encourage them to leave reviews on popular sites too.
BirdEye is an especially strong reputation management software package for large companies. Its features may work for some smaller organizations too, especially those that rely on online product sales. However, BirdEye’s cost is a little higher than some on our list.
BirdEye offers a free demo for potential customers. For those who want to receive price quotes, they’ll have to provide some information to BirdEye.
#3 – Podium — Best for Improving Customer Review Results
When companies receive five-star reviews, it rarely happens by accident. They have to work at it to make sure happy customers leave reviews. After all, satisfied customers don’t always take the time to leave reviews like unhappy customers tend to do.
Podium is a reputation management software package that focuses on encouraging customers to leave more reviews. Chances are high that this will generate a higher level of five-star reviews, boosting the overall reputation of the brand, product, and company.
As its primary focus, Podium helps the company respond quickly to customer requests and questions. These prompt responses will impress customers.
When customers let the company know that they have had a good experience, Podium sends messages that encourage them to leave positive reviews. Podium will even point the customers toward certain websites and social media channels where the company wants more positive reviews to appear.
Podium keeps the conversation lines open by offering things like a live chat button on the company website and a phone number for texting customer support. All of these communications from customers appear in the Podium dashboard, allowing for immediate responses.
Potential customers can request a demo from Podium. They will need to contact Podium for a custom price quote.
#4 – Reputation.com — Best for Understanding Reputation Levels
Companies that struggle to figure out exactly where they stand with customers can use the Reputation.com software to discover multiple insights.
Reputation.com uses its data monitoring about the company and its brand to assign a reputation score. This score provides insights on how customers are interacting with the company.
Those using Reputation.com will be able to use the score to determine areas where the company is having success with customers and areas where it could improve.
By using the Reputation.com dashboard, users can see all customer reviews in one place. This simplifies responding to both positive and negative reviews, making the company appear highly interested in its customers’ opinions and experiences.
Companies can use the dashboard to monitor any social media conversations regarding the company and brand as well.
When customers are mentioning the company, Reputation.com makes it easy to ask those customers for more feedback or to take a survey.
In helping the company generate improved responsiveness, Reputation.com aims to increase website traffic, social media hits, and customer conversion.
Reputation.com offers a demonstration version. To receive a price quote, potential customers will need to contact the company.
#5 – Yext — Best for Generating Success with Local Searches
When customers start finding your company through searches, Yext helps you manage the information they see. This enhances brand awareness by delivering a consistent message.
When using Yext, companies receive placement on more than 150 digital services and search engines. Yext then works to improve the brand’s reputation, helping the company appear higher on the page in all kinds of searches.
It uses special techniques to improve search results by trying to answer questions customers have. When a customer types a question as a search phrase, rather than generating a link, Yext tries to help the company answer the search question.
Additionally, Yext excels in generating results for the company in local and location-based searches. When a customer is looking for a specific item or a type of restaurant in the area, Yext works to place the company favorably in the search results for services like Google Maps, Amazon Alexa, Apple Maps, and Yelp.
Yext includes a service where companies can generate their own information pages. These landing pages provide all of the key information about the company, while also generating coupons or special offers. For companies with multiple locations, Yext can ensure the information remains consistent across locations.
Companies can make use of a variety of analytics from Yext to make sure they’re hitting the types of customers they want. It also encourages customers to reach out, creating more leads and conversions.
Potential customers can request a demo from Yext. They will need to contact Yext directly to receive a price quote.
#6 – Mention — Best for Improving Social Media Presence
Having a strong social media presence can quickly build the success and popularity of a business. However, generating engaging social media posts over and over can be extremely challenging.
Mention works to enhance the social media presence that a company has, allowing it to connect with customers on a personal level. Mention can also help a company increase its marketing results.
With Mention, companies can generate a plan for posting on social media on a regular basis, including setting up a posting schedule. Having an editorial calendar in place to handle social media posts can keep the company focused on its messaging versus trying to generate ideas on the fly.
Additionally, Mention will monitor several social media outlets for mentions of the company. It uses this information to help a company understand what aspects of its brand are resonating with customers and which are not.
Mention applies filtering techniques to the social media information it monitors. These simplify the process of analyzing the data, giving companies more useful information about their performance levels.
Mention also can monitor a wide range of online information sources beyond social media, such as news articles, blogs, product review articles, customer reviews, and message board forums. It Mention can even generate automated responses to these posts or it can alert someone at the company to craft a personal response.
Mention offers a free trial period for several of its pricing tiers, which vary in cost from $29 to $199 per month. It has a free tier as well as a custom priced tier.
How to Find the Best Reputation Management Software for You
Reputation management software is not a one-size-fits-all prospect. Different brands of this software will provide specific features that may better serve the needs of a particular organization.
Think about areas where the business struggles to manage its customer engagements. These could be social media interactions, customer reviews, and general mentions online. Then, pick a software tool that fits those needs.
Customer Reviews
When customers are shopping for a particular product, they’re almost certainly going to consult online customer reviews for information. When a company’s product has a few one-star reviews, these can sink the product’s reputation very quickly.
The majority of reputation management software packages give companies the ability to keep an eye on customer reviews. The best tools will monitor reviews from dozens of websites. Less powerful tools will only monitor some of the most popular sites, like Amazon. This may be enough for some companies, though.
When the company receives a poor review, the software finds it and gives the company a chance to post a response or to ask the customer for more information.
Even if the customer who left the poor review doesn’t respond to queries for more information, showing a willingness to reach out has its own benefits. It shows potential customers that the company will attempt to make things right when customers are unhappy.
Some companies may set up the reputation software to respond to positive reviews as well, thanking the customer.
Social Media Interactions
Some of the best ways to respond to customers involve keeping an eye on social media. When a customer mentions the company or organization, many reputation management software packages will find that social media post and give the company a chance to respond.
With a powerful social media brand, an organization or company can generate new customers and promote desirable sentiments about the company.
Some reputation software packages will only monitor a few highly popular social media outlets, such as Facebook and Twitter. However, your company may want to seek out a younger customer base, which could be found on TikTok or Instagram. If so, seek out reputation software that focuses on these outlets too.
General Mentions
For larger companies and organizations, keeping an eye on everything customers are saying online is important. The most powerful reputation managing tools will scan the Internet as a whole, seeking mentions of the company or brand. These locations may include:
Video uploads
Podcasts
Message boards
Blogs
News articles
“Best of” listicles
Trending topics
Hashtags
Smaller companies probably don’t need to monitor their reputation across all of these venues. They can look toward a software package that has more of a focus on a particular area of online reputation, saving a bit of money.
Summary
Through our research, we found that Brand24 gives companies the widest range of options for managing reputation online. It combines accurate measuring of social media and other mentions for the company, while also generating helpful reports and analytics about the data it collects.
However, it may not provide the best results for every type of company. Mention’s particular strength lies in improving the social media presence of a company. BirdEye and Podium focus on helping companies generate more online reviews that paint the company in a positive light.
Improving online reputation is an area of running a business that can occupy a lot of time when owners try to handle it on their own. Using these software packages to increase the reputation of a business saves time while generating results.
Social media and other online sources provide a unique opportunity for businesses to reach potential customers. The software tools on our list can help businesses make the most of these opportunities in an efficient manner.
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