In the age of Facebook, Twitter and smartphones, consumers can openly voice their opinions and share their likes and dislikes on public platforms. Research shows that Americans tell 16 people on average about a bad service experience.
Nearly 1 million people view Tweets about brands and customer service every day. Almost 80% of those tweets are about negative experiences.
Another study shows that 48% of people, in the last year, changed their minds about doing business with a company based on negative internet search results.
This can have severe consequences for a brand’s online reputation, and this is exactly why modern-day businesses need to have an online reputation management strategy.
What is An Online Reputation Strategy?
ORM is a strategic practice through which a brand takes control of its online reputation and shapes its public perception using a number direct and indirect activities. It aims to minimize negative propaganda by competitors, and portray a positive brand image using a combination of content generation and consumer engagement activities.
Components of an Online Reputation Management Strategy
There are several components of an ORM strategy, but they can be broken down into the following.
Objective Setting
Before starting reputation management activities, brands need to clearly identify their primary and secondary objectives. ORM companies also need to use this opportunity to educate their clients about ORM and manage their expectations.
In order to develop a targeted and effective reputation management strategy, brands need to monitor and evaluate their existing reputation. This helps in identifying strategy loopholes and problem areas. Monitoring primarily focuses on social media platforms and search engines.There can be several reasons behind an ORM strategy depending on a brand’s needs. It can be limited to just reputation monitoring or used for more advanced purposes like sentiment shaping, countering negative SEO and customer services.
Monitoring and Tracking Existing Reputation
Some of the key activities include:
- Setting up Google alerts for search engine monitoring
- Monitoring Twitter conversations, mentions and hashtags.
- Monitoring Facebook groups and conversations.
- Monitoring forums and other social networks.
Professional ORM companies use several automation tools in combination with manual monitoring to simplify this phase.
Creating Online Brand Assets
Online brand assets are the official platforms where a brand publicly engages with its target audience. This includes several steps:
- Optimized website development
- Blog creation
- Setting up social media profiles
- Joining forums and discussion groups
All online brand assets have their own objectives and roles in the broader ORM strategy.
Developing an Integrated SEO and Content Strategy
More than 90% of all online experiences originate from a search engine query. This is why search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the key components of an ORM strategy. But a reputation focused SEO strategy cannot succeed unless it’s closely integrated with a comprehensive content marketing strategy.
Great content helps an ORM strategy in two ways
- It helps brands rank higher in search results on their target keywords
- It helps brands push down negative search results, eventually making them ineffective.
This helps a brand counter negative propaganda by its competitors and protect its online reputation.
Audience Engagement and Relationship Building
ORM is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and close relationship building with consumers. Proper user engagement at the right platforms allows brands to build goodwill with their target audience, address their problems and enhance their credibility.