What Is Online Reputation Management?
Having an excellent brand reputation is critical if you’re operating a business and want to succeed online or in a brick-and-mortar setting. Obtaining this valuable asset is a must when selling a service or product.
Getting your online reputation right has to be completed or potential customers thinking about buying from you will go elsewhere with their wallets. If they see your company has a bad online reputation, they’ll have a negative perception, persuading them not to make a purchase.
This element is why it’s so important to manage your online reputation. Otherwise, your sales numbers and online engagement will likely not meet your expectations.
Other drawbacks of having a bad online reputation can include the following:
● Loss of employees
● Bad search performance
● Rise of skepticism
What Is Online Reputation Management?
Online reputation management monitors and manages how customers feel about your brand. When customers view a brand positively, they’ll leave reviews showing their appreciation to your business. Negative reviews will surface if this isn’t the case and may persuade a potential customer to go elsewhere.
The main objective of online reputation management is to ensure that your brand’s reputation remains positive. You can take this action by managing and improving it when needed. Doing so helps create trust with existing and potential customers.
Getting Into Trouble – What Shouldn’t Be Done When Conducting Reputation Management
Being honest is essential when managing your online reputation. Faking reviews or concealing the truth will likely get you into trouble with customers, creating a path toward lower sales and lost profits.
Sometimes, it can be even worse, crashing reputation so much that it ceases to exist. This outcome occurred with the brand Von Dutch as pictured in The Curse of Von Dutch, playing on Hulu + Live TV. As a top brand worn by famous people such as Paris Hilton, the brand failed to manage its reputation and went the opposite way, creating a negative spiral that took the company down.
Advantages of Having a Positive Reputation
The success of your business has become increasingly dependent on how your reputation is seen in the online world. Having a positive reputation is critical if you want to generate leads and sell more services or products.
If your company has negative reviews, potential customers may avoid conducting business with your company. Having a poor reputation online makes it challenging for you to persuade new customers to spend their money.
By improving your online reputation, it can lead to the following benefits:
– Helps build brand loyalty
– Creates positive credibility
– Improves search engine rankings
– Boosts sales and revenue
– Improves employee morale
Ways To Manage Brand Reputation Online
Ensuring your online reputation is trustworthy can be done by having positive reviews. This action helps potential customers make decisions on products and services to utilize.
With the rise of social media and its role in assisting customers with their buying decisions, managing how your brand is seen on these sites is imperative.
The following methods can help ensure your online reputation is managed correctly:
Deciding How You Want Your Brand To Be Seen by Customers
Do you know how you’d like customers to see your brand? For example, would you like to be known for having excellent customer service or being an authority in your field of business?
Choosing this element is essential when managing your online reputation.
Evaluating Your Current Online Reputation Is a Must
If you’ve never thought about your online reputation, getting started is a must. You can determine your current online reputation by asking customers what they think about your company.
This action can be performed by utilizing Google’s brand marketing tools and other online tools.
Designing a Social Media Policy
Deciding how your business should interact online with customers and potential customers should also be completed and written down in a document.
Once done, employees in your business will understand the content needed to help your company portray a positive image. This policy provides a direction and creates engagement that should help support your reputation goals.
Creating a Social Media Strategy for Content
Designing a social media content strategy can help you focus on the areas where your business wants to improve socially. When taking this action, you want to decide what you want to achieve, such as acquiring followers or increasing sales online.
After doing so, you’ll choose the type of media you want to use, such as articles, videos or podcasts and decide which employees are responsible for producing each content form.
Choosing Online Social Media Platforms To Post Your Content
The next step is choosing an online platform to reach your ideal customer. Each online platform has unique advantages. Matching names with your goals can help you decide.
Considering the platform where competitors are active may inspire you. Examining the demographics on different social platforms can also be helpful.
Posting Quality Content on Your Chosen Social Media Platforms
Enhancing your online reputation can be achieved by posting quality content regularly. Engaging with your audience using blog articles can help generate traffic to your website and boost search engine rankings.
Utilizing high-quality images can also promote engagement.
Engaging With Your Audience
Engaging with your audience regularly can be critical in how they perceive you. Responding to positive and negative comments about your brand can be helpful when you receive them.
You should also reply to negative reviews about services or products you sell. For unsatisfied customers, you’ll want to propose solutions.
Setting Up a Schedule To Monitor Your Online Reputation
Once you start monitoring your online brand reputation, it’s essential to follow up regularly. Setting a schedule is the best way to proceed.
There are several tools available online, such as Google Alerts, that can help make this task easier and more efficient. With Google Alerts, you can monitor each time your brand, service or product is mentioned on the web.
Locating negative responses to your reputation using this and other tools should be highly beneficial. Encouraging feedback is an excellent way to receive positive reviews and increase your brand’s reputation.
Don’t be afraid to be proactive. Spending time seeking additional client reviews can help trickle down to your bottom line and create a positive result.
What To Do Next
As you can see, having positive reviews is essential if you want to meet your sales goals. Forming a strategy to ensure your brand is viewed positively online is a high priority.
Using a few of the online tools available can help you connect with customers and take advantage of the ability to create a positive online reputation that allows potential and current customers to view your brand positively.
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Helen is a freelance content marketer specializing in technology and entertainment.