There are tons of information about your small business available online. But how accurate is this data? And how is it working for your business?
If you’re not even sure what your customers see when they search for your business or related products and services, then you may need a digital knowledge management strategy.
A new webinar “What is Digital Knowledge Management and Why Should Small Businesses Care” from online brand management company Yext contains all the information you need about digital knowledge management and why it’s a strategy you should be deploying for your own business.
What Is Digital Knowledge Management?
Digital knowledge management consists of any activity where you manage and make your brand’s digital knowledge available to customers in the moments that matter.
This concept allows you to bring public facts about your brand together and puts you in control of your brand and your online reputation.
It’s especially important today, in the age of social media and apps where there are so many different platforms that contain information about your business. And going forward, voice search and smart speakers will make this concept even more vital to the success of businesses.
Here’s some more information about why so digital management is so important and how it can work for your brand.
Why Digital Knowledge Management Matters to Brands
The information that lives online about your business is likely to make a major impact on what customers think about you and how they interact with your brand. In fact, that information is likely to be in front of your customers in the precise moments that matter as they make their buying decisions.
What Digital Knowledge Management Means to Your Bottom Line
Local search is one of the most important aspects that you can consider within your digital knowledge management strategy. This is where customers who are likely to buy are going to go to find information about your business. In fact, 82% of local searchers follow up offline via an in-store visit, phone call or purchase. And 74% of internet users perform local searches, while 61% of those local searches result in purchases.
In addition, new technology like voice search is making it even more important for brands to appear as high as possible in relevant searches. Those devices only deliver the top result for an inquiry. And those customers are often ready to spend money when searching for local businesses.
Digital Knowledge Doesn’t Just Come From Your Website
In the past, businesses that wanted to add information about their brand could simply make a quick change on the company webpage. But now, 73% of high intent traffic is happening off of your website on sites and platforms like Yelp, Apple Maps, Foursquare and Instagram. So you need a strategy that includes adding relevant information to all of those different online locations and then also updating it as your business changes.
Get More Eyes on Your Business
Digital knowledge management isn’t just about making sure the right information is out there, but it’s also about getting that information in front of as many people as possible. Companies that are investing in digital knowledge management average 49% more views via search, maps and directories than those using the traditional approach.
That’s because search works by prioritizing three factors: relevance, distance and prominence. So by adding accurate data about your business to as many platforms as possible and prioritizing positive reviews, your business should start to show up in more relevant searches from customers.
Your Data Lives Online Longer
If you’re unsure about dedicating time and resources to digital knowledge management, think about your social media strategy for a moment. The half life tweet is approximately five minutes, while the life expectancy of a Facebook post is about five hours. So if you spend tons of time and effort crafting those posts, only to have customers try to interact with you elsewhere online and find inaccurate information, it could end up being a sunken cost. But if you prioritize online data and reviews, your information lives online longer and those social media posts can also have a larger impact.
Now that you know why digital knowledge management is so important, you have a few different options. You can update all of those platforms manually with information about your brand, and update all of them site by site as your information changes. There are also data aggregators that automate parts of the process, but they do so infrequently and can’t guarantee accuracy. Yext also offers a knowledge management solution with API’s and workflows that update your information at scale.
To learn more about the solution and data knowledge management, watch “What is Digital Knowledge Management and Why Should Small Businesses Care” from online brand management company Yext available here.
Image via Yext