What is ORM or Online Reputation Management
As the technology and internet are at our fingertips, we try to search and see everything that we want to buy online. If we want to buy something we first go to our favorite search engines like google, yahoo, or Bing and then we try to find out everything before we make a purchase. The purchase can be any products or services of any brand whether it is a local brand or international brand.
People first try to know everything about the product and the brand on the internet. First, they will try to find your website to know more about your brand and products or services and after that, they will search online places like forums, blogs, etc. to know others’ opinions about your brands and products or services. People will also try to find every detail about your brand through social media, ratings of your products, and social conversations about your brand.
What is online reputation? And what is Online Reputation Management (ORM)?
Source: Neil Patel
Basically, online reputation is a public opinion about your brand, products, or services that people express through online platforms and Online Reputation Management (ORM) is the process of managing and controlling everything that people talk about your brand, products, or services. Online Reputation Management (ORM) also means handling online negative comments or influencing others’ opinions by interacting with them.
Many digital marketers say that ORM is the combination of traditional marketing and public relation in the digital world. ORM’s main goal is to avoid any negative effect on the brand’s reputation.
Benefits of Online Reputation Managements
It increases brand awareness by engaging with potential customers.
It improves the relationship with the existing customer by communicating with them.
It reduces the cost of advertising by interacting with customers.
It helps to know more about your customer’s needs and helps us to meet their expectations.
It also helps to solve any problems with some unhappy customers.
Online Reputation Monitoring
Online Reputation Monitoring is the process of watching or monitoring online conversations about your brand, products, or services. We can use alerts like google alerts so that we get to know when someone is mentioning our brand, its slogan, its spokesperson, its products, or services. Online reputation monitoring is a part of online reputation management.
Where to monitor our online reputation
Source: Guest Touch
To improve your online reputation you will first have to check how good your brand’s online presence is and for that, you will have to monitor the following:
Search engine
The first and easiest way is to search your brand name on a search engine like Google, Bing, or Yahoo and see if your website is coming on the first page or not. If not, then you will have to work on SEO. If yes, then check what people are mentioning and what are their views on your brand image. If there is any other website that is ranking on your brand keyword then check what they are mentioning about you.
Google My Business
Check your GMB or Google My Business if you don’t know what GMG is then you should know that whenever we search anything on google or google map and if we see any listing on the google map that is Google My Business.
GMB is highly recommended for offline stores, if you have your GMB then check the reviews and analyze all the reviews and overall ratings, you will have an overall idea about how is your brand is working in the market.
Social Media
Check your brand’s social media handles and see how people are commenting, messaging, and mentioning your brand’s social media accounts. Check the insights and followers if they are increasing then that means your online reputation is improving.
Reviews
Check reviews of others’ blogs, websites, and social media pages and see what the people are saying about your brand, products, or services. You can also check on a website like trust pilot, glass door for reviews and ratings of your brand. You can also check forums like Quora and Reddit for public opinions.
What to monitor for online reputation
Your brand
The first and most important to monitor for online reputation is your brand or company’s name. Because this will be the most important for anyone who wants to be in the business for the long term and to make sure that your brand is represented well in the online world.
Company’s Products or services
After your company’s image, your products or services should be your priority because these will be the only offerings that your company offers. So make sure that your company’s products or services have a good reputation in the online world.
Company’s Slogan
The company’s slogan and tagline are also important as it is a sweet reminder of what your company is offering to its customer. So make sure that your slogan represents well in the customer’s mind.
Your competitors
Keep an eye on the competitor’s website, social media handles, blogs, or any news that is mentioning your competitor, because knowing your competitor will be as useful as knowing your own company.
How to improve online reputation
Have online presence
In order to improve online reputation, you will have to present in the online world and make sure that you present in all the online platforms where you think your potential customers will see your brand. For example, create Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat account if your targeted audience is under the 30s but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be present on other platforms. Claim your business on Yahoo, Bing, and Google. Create your LinkedIn and Facebook business page
Setup reputation monitor
Setting up a reputation monitor will alert you to any potential reputation damage before it happens. So it is highly recommended to use monitors like Google alert so that you get an alert if someone is negatively affecting your company’s online reputation.
Public Relations Events
If your online presence is not that good or no one is mentioning you then you should definitely consider online public relations like you can ask any blogger or influencer in your niche to mention your brand and to gain high-quality backlinks so that it will help to rank the website and exposure of your company.
Hire an online reputation management expert
If your customer services are too small to handle customers or they are not being able to manage online reputation then this is the time to hire someone who is an expert in online reputation services and can easily handle online reviews as online reviews are worth more than you can imagine. As too many negative reviews can severely damage your brand image.
Hire a digital marketing expert
Hiring a digital marketing expert will not only save your online reputation but also will help you to grow your online presence. They will help you to rank your website, grow social media organically, pay online campaigns, and many digital marketing services that will help your company grow.
Failures of online reputation management
As you know that how important the online reputation but still there are many companies who ignored this and faced huge loss and in the age of social media and internet any bad news spreads like fire you will have to stop it as soon as possible, otherwise it can destroy your whole brand no matter how big your brand is. So, Below are the names of the company that failed to manage and monitor their online reputation.
Nestle
In 2010, Greenpeace initiated a video campaign online that was targeting nestle for involving in harmful environmental practices. And the supporter of Greenpeace was encouraged to change their profile picture into KitKat’s modified killer photo. They also wrote on nestle Facebook page. But Nestle not only neglected their efforts but also warns them to change the profile picture and also tried to delete their comments.
As a result, people became very angry as Nestle was not being able to handle angry customers and were not ready to apologize. When the issue rose Nestle faced a huge loss.
KFC
In 2018, when KFC ran out of chicken at around 400 stores in the UK. KFC is known for its delicious chicken but at that, they had no chicken left because of some delivery issue, but they knew the power of online reputation and they quickly used it to apologize to their customer in a very unique way.
As a result, people accepted their apology and also appreciated its way of apologizing. They didn’t only go online but also advertise through newspapers and other offline platforms. They advertised with their empty chicken bucket in which they have written FCK instead of KFC and below they apologize for the unavailability of foods.
Summary
In this blog, I mentioned what is reputation management, why it is so important, and how to manage and monitor online reputation. Managing online reputation sometimes become very hard so if you ever feel that my company needs any expert then it is highly recommended to never take this thing lightly as online reputation can severely damage your company
In research, we found that around 9 out of 10 online buyers read at least 3 reviews before buying anything online. So if you are still wondering about having an online presence or improving your online reputation then don’t think twice because an online presence can help your brand to grow.
If you are thinking that my customer service team will not be able to manage or monitor online reputation because of any reason then Aimsmark can help you to reach your online goals. We are a Digital Marketing agency in Thane and we provide every digital marketing service from SEO to Email Marketing we provide many services not only digital marketing services we also provide traditional marketing services. If you are in need of any marketing services then feel free to contact us we would be happy to help.