Online Reputation Management (ORM) or Digital reputation management is all about monitoring and improving the online view of your business. It means searching for and analyzing what a potential customer, reporter, or partner discovers about your brand, employees, or product/service when they do a Google search.
Before they hit your website or pick up the phone to call you, what will they find when they search for it? And will they like it? Simply put, is your online presence working for you or against you? This is the idea behind Personal reputation management.
What is Online Reputation Management?
Personal online reputation management is the practice of developing strategies that shape or influence the public perception of an organization, individual, or other entity on the Internet. It helps to promote public opinion about a company and its products and services.
By using ORM, a business can attempt to mitigate the effects of negative viral video, develop proactive marketing strategies for online consumption, or expand its domain inventory to increase online visibility.
A general philosophy at Online reputation management services is to use positive material to counter, offset, or “push” negative material. An example is an online content to influence Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). Because the first SERP page can only contain a limited number of results, some successful ORM projects involve generating large amounts of positive content about a business or entity. Other ORM campaigns involve multi-channel strategies, including email, social media, and website projects.
Reputation Handlers can create large website projects to distribute text, videos, or other items or use social media analytics to determine the status of a business before using reputable products on social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter.
Social Media Management has become an important ORM element due to the large number of users participating in the most popular social media platforms and features that rapidly contribute to significant changes in a company’s online reputation, whether you’re starting a new business and doing your best, or looking for a new job, your online reputation matters.
Almost all modern purchasing decisions are made after online research, so a negative or lackluster online presence can make or break a business. Even if you don’t own a business, people are looking for you online, whether they know it or not. Online reputation management (ORM) tactics can help individuals and businesses:
- request, respond to, and manage
- online reviews,
- remove or suppress negative content or spam and
- monitor social mentions and maintain a positive presence on social media.
Online Reputation Management (ORM) is the process of tracking and responding to conversations about your brand and product. Online, these conversations can take place anywhere and between many different people, and the mood won’t always be positive. To successfully manage your reputation online, you need to monitor your brand and deal with what’s being said.
Monitoring your online reputation involves collecting data from a variety of channels, sources, and media types. Tracking includes the collection of quantitative data (data that can be returned, such as the number of comments, page views, and likes) and qualitative data (myriad and subjective data, such as the mood in a comment or the tone of a question). There are many great tools online to help you manage this process.
Of course, you should monitor conversations on your platforms, including interactions on social media, comments on your articles, and emails.
Additionally, you’ll need to use specialized tools to find and rate your brand, product, and industry mentions online. The by-product of this process is that you find new marketing opportunities in your field because you know the relevant discussions.
How to Manage Your Brand’s Online Reputation?
Here are seven practical takeaways you can use to manage your brand’s online credibility.
1. Control your social footprint.
In today’s generation, Twitter and Facebook are the most popular social media platforms, but they are not the only ones. Conduct regular searches for your brand or product on each platform to get an idea of what people say about you. In addition to responding to issues (see below), you will also gain valuable insight into consumer sentiment towards your brand. Never forget to check all relevant platforms, not just the ones you are active on.
2. Respond quickly to people.
When you have a presence on social media, people expect you to be sociable. When your customers contact you on social media, they expect you to respond to their requests quickly. Even if it’s something you can’t figure out right away, at least take it into account. When posting content, you need to engage with the people who post comments to build lasting relationships with your audience.
3. Ask about Google and Yelp reviews.
Online reviews are really a powerful tool, especially for attracting customers early in the buying cycle. When you make your customers happy, ask them to post reviews to express their opinions and grow your review collection. In cases when you have a large customer base, create an email marketing campaign to encourage customers to leave feedback.
More people will leave a review when prompted. If you are having trouble getting reviews, you can use a giveaway or contest to promote the process in your campaign. Customers looking for products and services appreciate online reviews. Google Maps and Yelp reviews are the most popular because they generally appear first in search results, making your brand more trusted and valued by customers.
4. Promotion of the trademark lawyer.
You can use social media to build a base of strong brand advocates. You must give your audience a valid reason to follow and connect with you by sharing content they like, starting discussions with them, and running contests. Encourage your audience to share your content, too – User-generated content, such as reviews, is highly valued by customers and social media users.
You can also support the trademark attorney internally. A strong set of employee social media guidelines should openly and honestly describe the culture and nature of their online referrals to your brand.
5. Be transparent.
Transparency builds trust. Since anything you’ve said can be found by anyone online, trying to cover up the truth has great potential for backlash. Practice honest marketing and communication on social media. You must always admit your mistakes because if you try to cover up something, sooner or later, it will be found out. If someone complains to you on social media, do not delete or hide the comment; tackle it. Remember, millions of eyes could be watching.
6. Set goals.
When setting goals for your media exposure, the first thing to ask yourself is why are you present on social media? Your answer should not be “because everyone else is doing it.” While the overall purpose is to increase your brand awareness, your actionable goals need to be more specific.
For instance, let us say you want to increase Instagram responses to your product by 25% at the end of the second quarter. Remember, your goals must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound).
7. Know your audience.
Identifying your target audience is vital in any attempt to manage your social media profiles. Once you know the wants and needs of your audience, you will be better equipped to understand your own social media presence. You might know which all platforms are best for your brand and how to target your audience on each platform.
Careful maintenance of your brand’s online reputation can increase your sales and increase their positive sentiment towards your brand. Many people expect their businesses to start engaging with them on social media, at least to some extent, so getting it right is important. Avoid the traps because the world is watching!
Read Also: Tips to Improve Your Online Presence in 2022
Conclusion
It is quite an easy job for someone to judge you and your business based on what they find on Google. Around 90% of consumers read reviews online before visiting a store. Simply by looking for you on the Internet, they can develop different opinions about your company and your offer, good or bad.
A negative or no online presence can seriously affect the success of your business (or you as an individual) whether you’re closing a deal, creating a trade association, or speaking to journalists, your online reputation matters.
Social networks are a growing part of the positioning of companies in the digital space. Prospects, existing customers, and influencers review your social presence and decide whether or not they want to partner with you. If you don’t get involved and don’t respond to social media, you miss a great opportunity to grow your business as a business owner.
There you have it, everything ORM-related. How to track it and how to improve it. Now is the time to be vigilant. ORM is not a one-time activity. Like most marketing, it takes constant maintenance and frequent monitoring to see how you are doing. Keeping track of how your brand is represented online will only help your business in the long run. Thus, contact Cheenti for the Best reputation management services.
