Are you concerned about your online reputation? If so, you’re not alone. Many brands and businesses are worried about what others might think of them online. And rightfully so! Your online reputation is one of the most critical aspects of your brand. It can make or break your business.
At the end of the day, your business works hard to keep your customers happy by connecting with them one-on-one and developing new products that will address their needs.
However, even the best customer service can’t stop a company’s reputation from being tarnished now and then. An angry customer could post a review for the world to see, or a less-than-flattering media story might spread, causing more damage than intended.
This is where ORM, or online reputation management, comes into the picture.
But what is online reputation management (ORM)?
ORM (online reputation management) is the process of monitoring, influencing, and shaping your online reputation. This can be done through various activities, such as online PR, content marketing, and social media engagement.
ORM is important because your online reputation can majorly impact your business. That being said, numerous digital channels are involved in online reputation management. Creating a positive impression of your brand requires actively managing all of them.
And that even includes responding to positive reviews. The channels can be broken down into the following categories.
Owned media
Owned media is any online platform you control, such as your brand’s website, blog, or third-party pages.
Search engine optimization plays a crucial role in this area. For example, if you can rank higher on search engines for your controllable web pages, you’ll have more power in managing your online reputation.
Major owned media channels include:
- Blogs
- Email marketing
- Forums
- Apps
- Social Media presence
- Self-hosted videos
Earned media
In comparison, earned media is your brand’s free exposure and coverage from platforms not affiliated with your company. An example would be:
- Any Press coverage about your company
- Articles or blog posts mentions on other websites
- Third-party forums (Quora, Reddit, etc.)
- Listings on sites like Capterra, Glassdoor, Trustpilot, etc
- Review sites like Google, Yelp, etc.
Positive brand mentions from other websites (earned media) are crucial for online reputation management. They help build trust with your audience, and Google also takes notice.
The more positive signals Google sees about your brand from other sources, the higher it will rank you in search results.
Shared media
Shared media is content your brand creates and promotes, but others can also contribute. A great example is social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter. Even though you create the profile and individual posts, other users can reply with their comments- good or bad.
Seeing how people interact with your brand online is crucial, especially on social media. If you have a lot of bad reviews on Facebook or negative comments on Twitter, it can hurt your brand’s reputation.
So keep an eye out for any mentions of your brand in real-time and get help from online reputation management services to deal with negative feedback.
Paid media
Paid media is advertising where you have to pay to feature your brand. This can include Facebook or Instagram ads, Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, LinkedIn-sponsored content, display ads, native ads, and more.
Though paid media can bolster your desired message, it’s not nearly as helpful as earned or owned media. As a result, people are more likely to trust organic positive or negative search results over ads.
How Is Reputation Management Different From PR?
Now that we’ve answered the question, “what is online reputation management,” it’s important to understand how it differs from public relations. While both are essential for managing your brand’s image, they have different goals.
The main difference between ORM and PR is that ORM is focused on digital platforms, while PR traditionally uses print media.
PR is also about building relationships between a company and its public. This can be done through media relations, event planning, and crisis management. While ORM still involves some relationship building, the focus is more on creating positive content and messages to improve your brand’s online presence.
Another way the ORM is distinct from public relations is that ORM’s primary goal is to control what appears on search engine results pages instead of improving how the general public sees a company or individual.
In other words, ORM firms keep track of and react to negative customer feedback and take charge of making sure their client has a good reputation online.
Why Do You Need to Manage Your Online Reputation?
In today’s digital age, your brand’s online reputation is vital. With a few clicks, anyone can say anything about your company on the Internet- good or bad.
And because social media dominates our world, those negative reviews and comments can spread quickly, potentially ruining years of a positive reputation you’ve worked hard to build.
Therefore, you must manage your online reputation. By constantly monitoring what others say about your brand and diffusing negative feedback respectfully, you protect your good name and turn customers into loyal promoters.
By frequently monitoring their online reputation, companies can safeguard against the negative consequences of an uninformed digital marketing strategy.
According to research, more than 40% of digital marketers check their company’s brand daily, while others do so hourly. Businesses that don’t proactively manage their online reputations risk losing new customers and sales opportunities.
Businesses must take their online reputation seriously and develop a strategy to monitor and improve it.
6 Online Reputation Management Strategies You Can Use
Your digital reputation is what people think of your company or organization after looking you up online. Content appearing online when your company’s name is searched will affect how people perceive you. That includes both negative and positive reviews.
Ultimately, providing outstanding service is the fastest path to a positive reputation. High customer satisfaction makes it easier to manage your digital reputation.
Here are the 6 best tips and steps you can take to deal with and improve your company’s online reputation:
Perform a brand audit
A brand audit is crucial to understanding your digital brand presence and how to strengthen it. For example, during a brand audit, you’ll assess what areas need improvement so that you can create a plan for moving forward.
Your brand’s digital footprint is everything that appears online when someone searches for your brand name. This includes your website, social media accounts, online reviews, and anything else related to your brand.
A brand audit will consider all these factors to show you how your brand is seen online. It will also help you locate any negative feelings or incorrect information that might harm your reputation.
A brand audit is pivotal for managing your online reputation properly. Afterward, you’ll better understand how to safeguard and strengthen your brand’s digital footprint.
Answer Promptly and With Empathy
An essential key to online reputation management has a quick, compassionate response. It doesn’t matter if you are an organization or an individual–if there is negative feedback about you on the Internet, the best solution is to tackle it directly.
It’s essential to answer complaints promptly, showing that you take customer satisfaction seriously. It’s also crucial to show empathy, as this demonstrates that you understand how the person feels and want to help resolve the issue.
Businesses should consider using online reputation management (ORM) tools like Maven HQ.
Maven HQ’s platform helps businesses develop and maintain a positive image online, handling complaints, feedback, lead generation, and monitoring conversations about the company in one place, making it easy for business to focus on their work.
Address Negativity Up Front
A single bad review of your business can cause irreparable damage to your reputation if you’re not careful. Ignoring bad reviews might seem the best solution, but that’s often not the case.
The first thing you should do is take a deep breath and go easy. Nothing productive or meaningful ever gets done when emotions are heightened. Then, you can assess the situation. Is the review accurate?
Are there any steps you can take to improve things? Can you stop similar problems from happening in the future?
As a brand, you should address the negative reviews as soon as possible. If they’re ignored, the situation will only worsen. Consumers read online reviews before making any buying decision.
Maven HQ is the perfect solution for those looking to take control of their online reputation. By immediately identifying negative reviews and ratings, Maven HQ puts you in a position to respond positively to them. And promoting positive reviews and ratings helps increase your company’s good name.
Furthermore, Maven HQ can even help you prevent negative reviews and monitor your online reputation so that any negativity is addressed quickly and efficiently.
Own Up To Your Mistakes
No one is perfect, and mistakes happen. The key is to own up to them and shows that you’re taking steps to fix the problem. So, for example, let’s say you run a restaurant and receive a negative review because the food was cold.
You could respond by apologizing and offering a discount on the next visit. This would show that you’re willing to take responsibility for the mistake and make it right.
Customers are more likely to do business with companies that admit their mistakes and work to fix them. Honesty is always the best policy when it comes to online reputation management.
Stay on Top of Local Search Results
Search engine optimization should be crucial to your online reputation management strategy. By ensuring that your website appears as high up as possible in search results, you can make it more likely that potential customers will find you before any negative reviews or ratings.
People increasingly use the Internet to research companies and individuals before doing business with them. Ranking in the top positions for branded keywords will increase the likelihood of new customers.
Your SEO strategy should aim to:
- Improve your visibility in search results
- Suppress negative content
- Promote positive content
- Engage with customers and clients
- Driving more leads and customers.
There are several ways to achieve these goals, but it’s important to remember that ORM is an ongoing process. It takes time, effort, and patience to see results.
Leverage Public Relations
Public relations can be a helpful tool for online reputation management. One way to do this is by using an online reputation management service. This service can assist you with identifying and monitoring online reviews and taking steps to maintain your positive image on the web.
PR is an excellent method for offsetting any unfortunate online reviews of your company by focusing on creating relationships with impressive industry leaders.
If you’re able to get these people to speak positively about your brand, it’ll reflect much more highly than a few bad apples’ opinions ever could.
Suppose you have a negative story or review receiving attention online. In that case, you can use tried and true public relations strategies, such as media relations and crisis communications, to help mitigate the fallout. Reaching out proactively to bloggers and other media outlets can help lessen the blow of bad publicity.
- Quality guest posts on popular websites
- Executives interviewed by the company
- Press releases
- Branded events
- Charitable occasions
Automate Online Reputation Management
Online reputation management is not the job of one person but the entire company’s responsibility. Therefore, it is essential to have a system that monitors and collects customer feedback from various online channels such as social media, review sites, blogs, and forums.
Although there are many online reputation management tools, Maven HQ is one of the best. It can automate online reputation management tasks such as reputation monitoring, review collection, SMS and email marketing campaigns, social media posting, and calling and texting customers for feedback, insights, and reports about your reputation.
For example, a local physiotherapy clinic recently collected 651% more reviews and generated 21x more leads within just one month using Maven HQ. You can read the case study and learn how they did it here.
Maven HQ was designed to help businesses of all sizes with their online reputation management needs.
8 Benefits of Automating Your Online Reputation Management
- Saving time and resources
- Reducing the risk of human error
- Increasing efficiency
- Improving customer satisfaction
- Allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business
- Easy customer relationship management
- Brings all your business conversations in one place (with Maven HQ)
- Booking and scheduling appointments on autopilot (with Maven HQ)
- Helps you collect reviews in bulk and become the obvious choice
Wrapping it up
Online reputation is a crucial element of doing business in the digital age; ORM manages what pops up when your business is looked up online. In today’s world, it’s more important than ever to have a sound reputation management system because anything can appear on a search engine results page — news articles, blog posts, comments from forums, and social media posts included. Therefore, ORM is essential in making sure only positive outcomes show for your company that accurately depict it.
One of the most critical aspects of an online reputation management tool is to monitor your online presence and manage your reviews. This means staying on top of sites like Yelp and Google My Business and encouraging happy customers to leave reviews. Bonus points if you ask for referrals immediately after a positive review (Maven HQ does that too!). If you do receive a negative review, don’t panic! Responding professionally can turn a negative into a positive — make sure not to delete the review, as this will only worsen things.
ORM also involves managing your social media accounts and ensuring you put your best foot forward. This means creating informative and exciting content, engaging with customers and followers, and monitoring what others say about you online.
ORM is all about taking control of your online presence and ensuring you put your best face forward. By monitoring social media accounts and managing reviews, you can create a positive online reputation that will serve your business well.
Maven HQ is the best online reputation management software that can automate all these tasks for you, making it easy to protect and improve your online presence. Online reputation management is included in all the plans at no added cost. You can learn more about how Maven HQ’s online reputation management system works here.
With Maven HQ, you can focus on running your business while automating most, if not all, of your ORM needs. Book a free demo today!
What you should do now
Whenever you’re ready… here are 3 ways we can help you grow your business:
- Book a Free Demo Session. If you want to generate demand, increase customer loyalty, and become the obvious choice – look no further. Maven HQ is a powerful marketing & sales automation CRM that can help you increase online visibility, collect reviews, generate leads, book more appointments, and tons more. Book your FREE Demo Session to see how Maven HQ can grow your business fast. First, one of our growth experts will understand your current marketing challenges, then we’ll show you how Maven HQ can solve those problems and help you grow fast.
- If you’d like to learn the exact demand, loyalty, and reputation strategies we use for free, go to our blog or visit our resources section, where you can download playbooks, templates, and tutorials we use for our most successful clients.
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