monitoring brand mentions<\/a> and online reviews about your company, you can miss out on an opportunity to change the narrative before long-term unfavorable perceptions take hold.<\/p>According to a Khoros 2022 survey, 83% of customers are more loyal to firms that respond to and resolve their issues.
Consequently, not only may quick response keep new consumers from leaving, but it may also allow you to keep angry existing clients.<\/p>
#2. Knowing Your Clients<\/h3>
If you don’t have your finger on the pulse of online brand conversation, you could be spending thousands of dollars on new marketing campaigns that fail at the first hurdle because you didn’t address greater issues sooner. The message could be in striking contrast to client concerns, coming across as inconsiderate and potentially disrespectful rather than having the desired positive impact.<\/p>
#3. Getting Ahead of Problems<\/h3>
Remember that your online reputation is permanent.
Numerous firms and people have discovered this the hard way.
Remember the viral interview with then-BP CEO Tony Hayward days after the Deepwater Horizon accident that killed 11 people? When actual death had occurred, his comment, “I just want my life back,” did not land well.
A wave of criticism surged through BP’s online platforms, with former President Barack Obama claiming he “wishes he could dismiss him.”
You might rapidly find yourself in a lose-lose situation if you do not control your online reputation.
Yet, with proactive efforts, you can maintain control of your brand’s story in search results and plan ahead for any potential issues.<\/p>
What Is the Difference Between Online Reputation Management and Public Relations?<\/h2>
While the terms “reputation management” and “public relations” are frequently used interchangeably, they actually mean completely distinct things.
Both can be used effectively as part of your overall brand strategy, but it’s critical to grasp the distinctions before investing in one or both.<\/p>
Whereas ORM focuses only on the needs of the brand and maintaining a positive online image, PR fosters a more mutually beneficial relationship between a brand and other organizations, particularly the media.<\/p>
Public relations initiatives can and should strive to improve a brand’s public perception.
Yet, the purpose is usually to convey information about something more specialized, such as a new product or service.<\/p>
Public relations, like other forms of advertising, is a direct marketing channel that firms may utilize to boost their presence both online and offline.<\/p>
Although ORM and PR can function alone, combining the two will assist a company handle both behind-the-scenes brand creation (ORM) and public-facing marketing (PR) (PR).
When your business confronts online hostility, even if you have a robust ORM program in place, PR can be utilized to distribute essential updates or remarks through the media to assist address the issue.<\/p>
Brands have almost no control over online reviews, and nowhere is this more evident than on social media.
Indeed, dominating search engine results pages (SERPs) with good brand stories is an important aspect of ORM.
But, efficiently managing and responding to comments elsewhere on the internet is also important.<\/p>
It is critical to remain active and engaged in social dialogues about your business.
There is lots of software available to assist you in staying on top of this, including Mention, BrandWatch, Sprout Social, and BuzzSumo.
Many of these have sentiment analysis tools, allowing you to readily track if your mentions are skewed more positively or negatively.<\/p>
You may also track your brand’s branded hashtags, mentions, and direct tagging across numerous platforms.
With strong monitoring in place, you’ll be able to reply promptly to any comments that come in and refer these individuals to the appropriate internal sources to fix any issues as swiftly as feasible.<\/p>
Techniques for Online Reputation Management<\/h2>
Let’s take a look at the most crucial things you can do to improve the reputation of your online company.<\/p>
#1. Do a brand audit<\/h3>
A brand audit is an important first step in developing an online reputation management strategy. Take stock of and evaluate your complete online presence, which includes your website, blog, social media profiles, and third-party business profiles.<\/p>
Examine the results of your Google searches as well. What comes up when people search for your brand name and relevant keywords? Are there any off-brand or undesirable outcomes? Are there too many news pieces and not enough brand assets under your control? Recall that positive articles are excellent until something negative occurs. Then, overnight, those positive mentions will be replaced with negative mentions.<\/p>
#2. Track brand mentions<\/h3>
Actively monitoring brand mentions on the web is an efficient strategy to manage your brand online. Set up notifications for your brand name and associated keywords, and then respond swiftly to any mention, positive or negative. This covers social media mentions as well as any mentions of your brand in blog articles, forums, videos, and so on.
The sooner you detect and eliminate bad references, the better. Most consumers are willing to accept honest mistakes if the company makes an honest attempt to correct the situation.<\/p>
#3. React to unfavorable feedback<\/h3>
You may be tempted to disregard poor online reviews in the hopes that they would go away, but this is a bad idea. Negative reviews provide an opportunity for your brand to address issues head-on, exhibit customer care, and establish a more honest connection with future customers.
Reply to all reviews, whether positive or bad. Thank customers for their comments, no matter how negative it is. And always provide genuine solutions to challenges.<\/p>
If a customer has a negative experience, they don\u2019t want a discount of 20% off their next purchase. There will be no subsequent purchase with that strategy. Go above and above to demonstrate to clients that you stand behind your brand and that they can rely on you to make things right.<\/p>
#4. Invest in SEO <\/h3>
SEO is an important aspect of online reputation management, although the technique differs differently.<\/p>
Most frequently, we utilize SEO to rank multiple pages on a single website for a variety of search queries. In terms of ORM, however, we employ SEO to rank a variety of websites for a few brand-specific queries. As a result, you’ll be able to push unfavorable search results to the bottom of the page and replace them with positive information that you control.<\/p>
Your branded SEO plan should prioritize optimizing as many controllable web pages for brand-related keywords as possible.<\/p>