Online reputation management means controlling your online image to protect the growth and success of your business. It's how you "bury the body" in terms of negative comments, reviews, materials, and feedback people can find about your business online. Whether you like it or not, people will talk about your business. Most people have heard the quote, “there’s no second chance to make a first impression.” Business brands, through their marketing efforts, influence other people’s perceptions daily. However, a simple mistake, negative review, or a bad story can ruin a reputation that’s taken years to build. According to recent research, 78% of online shoppers said that before making a buying decision, they research more about a business to check its reputation. Additionally, 74% of the respondents said they wouldn’t purchase goods and services from a company that has negative reviews against it. Based on these statistics, for a brand to continue making profits and attract new customers, it needs to know how to manage its reputation. This article highlights some online reputation management practices that can enable brands to maintain a strong online presence. What’s Online Reputation Management? Online reputation management (ORM) is when, in order to address any negative or false comments, you actively monitor mentions of your brand on websites and social media. ORM mainly works by responding to negative customer comments online and reacting to stories in the media (both social and traditional) that paint your company in a bad light. For example, you might release a public statement addressing the content of the story or publish a social media post in response. Why Businesses Need an Online Reputation Management Strategy Most customers make buying decisions based on reviews of previous consumers. If one’s website is beautiful and has excellent SEO optimization, but has negative comments such as – the worst customer service-, it will not convert readers to buyers. That’s why business owners need to take time and effort to build their reputation. Research by psnewswire.com revealed that 90% of consumers make purchasing decisions based on user-generated content. A brand with positive reviews gets more customers, while that with negative reviews gets few customers. A brand owner, therefore, needs an online reputation strategy that addresses customers’ concerns to generate reviews that strengthen the brand’s online presence. Things That Negatively Impact Online Reputation Here are some negative things that can impact a business: Ignoring consumers comments For brands to establish an excellent online reputation, they need to reply to their consumers’ comments. This shouldn’t be a difficult task. If customers post positive comments, all they need to say is thank you. If they post negative comments, they should try to address their problems. Ignoring consumers’ comments would equal losing potential buyers because they make buying decisions based on those comments. Zero presence on social media Though most brands have already established a social media presence, others are yet to register. Apart from searching on Google about a brand and its products, most buyers also like to visit a brand’s social media pages. If the brand is not on any social media platform, most prospects would question its credibility and instead buy products from its competitor. Rogue Online Staff A brand’s staff should be their best ambassadors. If they speak about the business positively, prospects will take that as the company’s position. If they talk about it negatively, they negatively impact the business. Brand owners, therefore, need to address any dissatisfaction among staff members to enable them to speak positively about the company. Negative Press Releases Negative press releases from popular and respected publications, just like negative customer reviews, can adversely affect the reputation of a business. Though an individual may not stop it from being released, he needs to immediately address it before it spirals out of control, to save the image of the business. Poor Content When consumers visit a brand’s site, they expect to find useful information that addresses their problems. But if the site has poor grammar, a lot of jargon, and many acronyms, they’ll not only be irritated and bored but will also leave the site without buying anything. Businesses should ensure that the content that they post is informational and impeccable if they want to sell anything. How to Manage a Brand’s Online Reputation. To successfully manage a brand’s online reputation, the owners need to have strategies. The strategies may vary depending on the industry, size of the business, and the available resources. The following methods can help to manage any brand’s reputation effectively. 1. Auditing a Brand’s Online Reputation Companies need to know how people see them online and how that influences their sale of goods and services. They can do this by monitoring their brand in the following ways;
After conducting a reputation audit, the next step for brand owners should be to establish a strategy that can enable them to manage their reputation. Here are some things to consider when setting up a strategy. Policy document When a business begins a reputation management project, they’ll be alerted when a review, comment, or mention comes up. The company needs to have a document that defines what’s urgent, what can wait, who to respond to, and how to respond to those feedbacks. If customers frequent Reddit and post damaging comments about their brand, they should list that as urgent and address it immediately. While handling such a concern, the owner should also check the profile of the individual who wrote the comment. If he or she is influential, the owner may need to contact him or her immediately to sort out the issues before the message goes viral. On the other hand, a comment that can wait can be one that’s positive or that doesn’t cause so much damage. Though not so urgent, brand owners should still set aside some time to address them. Blacklist Every business has people who hate its products and services for no good reason. So, instead of trying to convince such people to act reasonably, an owner can have a document that highlights things that may warrant a comment or review to be blacklisted. That document should be made visible to the customers to enable them to flag off any inappropriate comments. Response templates Just like the blacklist document, a brand also needs to have response templates having FAQs about their company. In that template, they need to write down most questions asked by customers and how to respond to them politely. 3. Monitoring Brand Mentions Brand owners need to monitor online conversations about their brands proactively. These conversations can help them know how their audience views them and allow them to react to the comments. Most brands prefer to monitor conversations using tools. By following what others are saying about a product, brand owners can address the problems and give solutions. 4. Dominating SERPS For a brand’s online reputation management strategy to work well, customers need to find them and read their comments. That’s why brands need to ensure they do their SEO well to make them discoverable. Also, by optimizing their sites and social media pages, they can know the negative keywords working against their brand and fix them. 5. Encouraging Positive Online Reviews Because more than 86% of people think twice before buying a product from a brand based on its reviews, it’s essential to work on getting positive reviews. 49% of buyers, according to a study by Dimensional Research, expect businesses to have a four-star rating before buying from them. Apart from that, Google also ranks sites based on what other people say about it. Here are some ways businesses can get customers to leave them a positive review: Asking their customers for a review Brands can ask for reviews from their customers through emails, newsletters, or in person. Even if the reviews are negative, brand owners can use them to improve their services. Creating pop-ups on their websites Apart from using emails and newsletters to collect reviews, brand owners could also use pop-ups. These pop-ups need to be simple, have relevant links, and a thank you note at the end. They should also not send prospects to sites that require signups or personal details as that may put off some buyers. Creating review hashtags Hashtags can be an enjoyable way for a brand to collect customers’ experiences through social media. The hashtags should refer to the products and services offered or thank buyers for promoting a brand by making purchases. Motivating customers who leave a review A brand can motivate its customers by giving them points when they leave a review. These points could be used to give them discounts when they buy the brand’s products. That way, many buyers will be encouraged to leave comments. This should be done whether the customer gives positive or negative feedback. The Bottom-line
Online reputation management can be a powerful way that brands can use to get their customers’ views about their products and services. A good management strategy is one that allows an owner to track customer conversations and give solutions to problems raised. Though it may not be easy to establish a strategy, having one can be the savior of a brand that’s on the verge of collapse because of negative feedback. You work hard to manage your business to keep your customers happy. You manage your staff to connect with customers one-on-one and tirelessly develop new products and features to meet customers’ needs. Despite giving your best customer service, your business is bound to see its reputation take a hit once in a while. A customer posts an angry review for the whole internet to see. Or a less-than-flattering media story spreads far beyond what you expected. That’s where online reputation management comes in. The use of online reputation management is to strengthen the positive image of your brand that you have worked so hard to build. Respond to questions and negative feedback and you'll show current and potential customers that your company is there to resolve any problems they might have. By actively managing your reputation, you can minimize negative customer feedback and keep your online presence as positive as possible. O R M, mainly works by responding to negative customer comments online and reacting to stories in the media (both social and traditional) that paint your company in a bad light. For example, you might release a public statement addressing the content of the story or publish a social media post in response to a negative review. Managing your online reputation is critical for businesses to maintain a positive brand identity in the eyes of consumers. Growing businesses choose to devote more time and energy toward monitoring their brand online. A good reputation management can easily help a business to gain trust. Hence, positive reviews can lead potential customers to trust the business even more. A good reputation means that the business is more credible than their competitors. It is necessary to Manage Your Online Reputation The hits a brand takes online can be numerous, but they’re often small attacks—a negative comment here, a low star rating there. You need O R M to take care of each of these little “fires” before they amount to serious damage. O R M is also important for maintaining transparency—a vital ingredient of brand loyalty in 2020. While there is certainly still a place for orchestrated PR campaigns, consumers today are also looking for organic interactions with companies. They want to hear directly from businesses in personalized conversations, such as a direct message or an Instagram comment. With online reputation management, your business combats negative claims by addressing them directly and openly. Online Reputation Management Strategies You Can Use Here are some sound strategies that will help you in managing your brand’s online reputation Answer Promptly and With Empathy. When customers ask questions, whether by messaging you directly or posting on social media, you should respond right away. Prompt responses prevent frustrated users from posting negative feedback and show the customer you place a high value on helping them. Equally important is answering with empathy. Let the customer know you are invested in solving their problem and that, ultimately, you are there to help. If you don’t respond to customer questions quickly, it can cause a private message to turn into a negative public statement. An example : This is what happened to the clothing company American Eagle. The customer privately messaged the company to ask a question, but American Eagle never responded. The frustrated customer then publicly posted about her bad experience. With careful online reputation management, American Eagle could have avoided an unhappy customer—and a very negative piece of public feedback. Fortunately, it’s easy to prevent this kind of publicity. A well informed/experienced dedicated staff should be appointed to handle such matters. Responding quickly and with empathy to questions is a simple way to satisfy customers and build a positive online reputation. Address Negativity Up Front. It can be tempting to discount negative comments and reviews from customers. After all, why would you want to draw attention to them by responding? But the truth is that you’re doing your company a disservice by ignoring unhappy customers. By responding correctly to negative comments could put the company in a better light. Addressing negative reviews is a way to show customers that even if they have an issue with your company, you will be there to take care of it. So when customers leave negative comments and reviews, always respond. Address their issue with patience and determination. (Of the 82% of consumers who read online reviews, 97% also read the business’s responses.) Peloton, an exercise-equipment company, follows this mind-set by consistently responding to negative reviews posted on their website. See below. With these comments, Peloton lets dissatisfied customers know their concerns have been heard and offers a way for the reviewer to directly contact the support team to have their issue resolved. Lack of response on your part can come across as a confirmation of bad press. Everlane, a clothing company, received numerous questions and comments regarding a news story about the unionization of their workers, and the company never responded. Everlane’s silence led to public speculation that the company fired their customer service employees. Simply addressing the negative feedback would have helped diffuse the negative comments and protect Everlane’s reputation. Own Up To Your Mistakes. If your company faces scrutiny for a real or perceived scandal, it always helps to apologize. Showing remorse diffuses tense customer situations and strengthens relationships with consumers. It also shows shoppers that your company is honest and transparent. Craft your apology with a genuine intention to own up to and resolve the issue. Directly address the main concerns raised by consumers and the media, and describe what you are going to do to resolve the situation. Consider the medium for your apology as well. If the bulk of negative feedback is through a social media platform, for example, then that channel would be the appropriate space to post your statement. Coffee giant Starbucks released a public apology on Twitter after two African American men were arrested in a Philadelphia store. Their direct apology was accompanied by a policy review and, ultimately, they closed all stores nationwide for a day of racial-bias training. Unlike Starbucks, Pepsi delivered a public apology that only hurt their reputation further. It started when the soft-drink brand received tons of negative feedback about their 2017 ad. In the ad, Kendall Jenner diffused a standoff between police and protesters by handing the police officers cans of Pepsi. Consumers were outraged by what they felt was a belittling of protesters who had been arrested, particularly since the ad directly evoked an image from a protest against police brutality in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Pepsi’s apology focused on the wrong “who,” apologizing to Kendall Jenner and not addressing the issues people had with the ad. They never mentioned the photo consumers felt the ad evoked, and they barely commented on the idea that the company was making light of serious protests. Though they did remove the ad, their response left customers dissatisfied, and Pepsi’s rating among young consumers continued to be low a year later. Everyone makes mistakes—even companies. Stating what you will do to fix the issue or prevent it from happening again shows consumers you are an honest company that will own up to its mistakes. Stay on Top of Your Search Results. Most marketers think of SEO as a way to keep their brand visible. But it’s also an essential tool for minimizing visibility of negative press and content associated with your brand. Ideally, you want your company’s page to show up first when your company’s name is searched. After all, the number one result on SERPs gets more than 31% of all clicks, and customers are 10 times more likely to click on the first search result than on a page 10 spots down. Use an incognito window to monitor your brand’s search results so you see what customers see. Competitors can bid on your branded keywords to make their information show up first, so you may have to bid on your own keywords to retain the top spot. For example, when you Google Taskade, the top results are all directly related to the company, including their business page, main page, social media, and positive reviews. On the flip side, when you Google Trello, the first result is a paid ad from a direct competitor, Monday. Even though a potential customer starts out searching for Trello, they may decide to go with Monday instead because it is the very first search result. Another way to improve search results is by encouraging happy customers to submit positive feedback on ranking review sites. This improves your average rating, which is what potential customers see before clicking in to look at individual reviews. Automate Online Reputation Management. Instead of manually combing through websites and social media on your own, save time by using software that automates ORM tasks. One of the simplest monitoring tools is Google Alerts. Simply enter your brand name in the tool, and receive notifications of media and news stories that talk about your company. That way, you will know right away when your company is being talked about, and you can quickly respond if necessary. The tool Brand24 goes one step further. Instead of just crawling news stories, it also monitors social media for mentions of your brand. It can even perform a “sentiment analysis,” looking at key emotion words in reviews to let you know how people feel about your brand. SEMrush helps with search ranking analysis by tracking the SERP positions of your brand and competitors. It goes beyond simply crawling sites and compiling mentions of your brand by performing site audits to show you how to make your company-managed pages rank higher. With these automatic tools, you’ll have more time to do the high-level work of ORM—repairing and strengthening relationships with unhappy customers.
Uphold Your Brand’s Image with Online Reputation Management Shoppers judge your brand by what they hear and see about it on the internet. Use online reputation management to strengthen the positive image of your brand that you have worked so hard to build. Respond to questions and negative feedback and you’ll show current and potential customers that your company is there to resolve any problems they might have. By implementing O R M strategies, you’ll have more control over how consumers view your company. |
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