Isn’t all you want for your brand is for it to have a good reputation in the market? A well-managed reputation of a brand can be very beneficial in enhancing your conversion rate. A brand with a good image in the eyes of its customers also fosters customer loyalty.
It is not just important for a brand to work towards a good reputation but also to showcase its reputation to attract more users.
We will be digging deeper into the field of online reputation management (ORM) and understand what importance it has for a brand.
What is Online Reputation Management (ORM)?
Online reputation management (ORM) is a process that helps a brand manage its general opinion of the public on the internet. ORM includes various responsibilities such as creating appropriate responses for negative reviews, attracting more positive reviews, and managing brand mention online.
Managing online reputation can change the way the customer sees your brand and can increase trust in their mind. ORM has 4 main channels including Paid media, earned media, shared media, and owned media. Brands use these channels to ensure that their reputation online is monitored properly and they are relevant in the market. Let’s understand these channels and how they affect online reputation management.
Factors That Contribute to ORM
- Paid Media: Paid media consists of the media channels that require payment in return for creating and posting content helping in building a good brand reputation. Some of the major examples of paid media are Google ads, social media ads, influencer marketing, and sponsor posts.
You can have complete control over the narrative while using paid media, but this channel is quite expensive. Paid channels also significantly increase the overall reach of your brand making more people see the content you create or want to showcase.
- Earned Media: Earned media refers to a media channel that covers your brand without any payment. These are third-party media channels that cover your brand and express their own opinions about it.
Brands do not have complete control over what these channels can write. Press coverage, forums, and blogs on other websites are some of the prominent examples of earned media. Review platforms like Google Reviews and Yelp are also examples of earned media.
- Shared Media: Any content about your brand posted online on social media is an example of shared media. It refers to the media channels that are used majorly for social networking.
The content posted on these channels can be from your account or someone else and hence can consist of negative comments as well. Having more conversations about your brand on shared media can majorly impact your online reputation.
- Owned Media: These are the media channels that are owned by the brand. This includes the brand’s blogs, website, etc. Just like paid media, brands can control the complete narrative of owned media as well.
Brands must always work on enhancing the reach of their owned media with appropriate SEO techniques. This will make the content on these media channels, visible to more people. This can be done by various techniques such as creating relevant and useful content, using targeted keywords, adding backlinks, etc.
Why Is Online Reputation Management Important?
Now that we have understood the factors that contribute to ORM, we must explore why a brand needs to manage its online reputation.
- Business Decision: Having a well-managed digital front can significantly affect the decision-making of a potential customer. When people see a good reputation of a brand in the market, they tend to trust it more.
As 99% of people check for online reviews before making a buying decision, already having a well-managed impression among people can be highly beneficial.
- Deal With Negative Reviews: A lot of brands take negative reviews as a setback and hence do not reply to them. However, with appropriate online reputation management practice a brand can convert a negative review into an opportunity to create a better image for themselves.
Therefore instead of running away and ignoring negative reviews, brands must respond professionally to them to showcase that they are committed towards customer satisfaction.
Ways to Improve Your Online Reputation
The following are the points to consider to improve your online reputation. These are some of the best ORM practices that can help you foster a great reputation in the digital market.
- Conduct a thorough online audit of brand mentions.
- Maintain positive, active social media profiles with consistent branding.
- Use tools like Google Alerts to track online mentions and addresses promptly.
- Establish a professional website, optimizing content for search engines.
- Prompt satisfied customers to leave positive reviews and testimonials.
- Respond professionally to negative feedback and work on issue resolution.
- Consistently share relevant content showcasing brand expertise and values.
- Actively manage the brand’s online image to ensure a positive and authentic representation.
