In the present world, reviews and reputation have a huge role in this competitive market. 80% of the people in the world check out the companies and people's reviews online before interacting with them. Most people will consider buying a product if it has genuine reviews or if their profile is positive.
This blog will give you insights of reputation management, its types, importance, how to manage online reputation effectively, who controls your reputation.
What is reputation Management
It is understood by its name itself that Reputation management is the public perception of you, your company, or your brand. Reputation management is all about maintaining the brand’s reputation which it has built over the years.
Public views matter because a good reputation is equal to the trust that the people have for the brand. For any company the main objective is to sustain that reputation and image which it has built over the years.
There are various methods and approaches to effectively handle negative reviews, publicity, and enhance public opinion.
Importance of Reputation Management
In a world full of judgement, reviews and perceptions, reputation is one thing which is held by the company as the topmost priority. Positive reviews of a company directly impact on the ROI.
Reputation is fragile and easy to damage because there are different platforms where feedback can be given. Maintaining reputation is the key in today’s world where other big brands are also in the competition.
People will be less excited to give a review if they are happy and satisfied with the service. Once they have a negative experience, it will circulate on every other platform.
These reviews are very important because otherwise a bad reputation will take away the potential customers before purchasing the product. Reputation management is pivotal for e-commerce platforms like amazon or eBay as well as for restaurants, shops, and real estate agencies.
Types of Reputation Management
There are several types of reputation management which companies adopt to maintain its positive impact. Here are some Common types:
1. Reactive Reputation Management
Reactive reputation management is employed when there is already a negative narrative surrounding your business or brand.
This type of management is concerned with addressing negative reviews, comments, or press. Reactive management involves monitoring mentions of your brand across several channels, responding to criticism, and promptly addressing negative publicity with accurate information.
2. Proactive Reputation Management
Proactive reputation management is concerned with creating a positive narrative around your brand before anything negative happens.
A proactive reputation can be backed by social media platforms where you can flaunt your strengths and positive points. You can also display your well-organized customer service. It focuses on the long-term nonmaterialistic investment that is trust and credibility.
3. Personal Reputation Management
Personal Management referred to as individual's reputation is vital for celebrities, politicians, CEO’s. This type of management focuses on maintaining a positive public image by monitoring what people say online and in the media.
Personal reputation management involves creating an online presence by publishing positive content strategy, responding to criticisms, and monitoring your digital footprint.
4. Crisis Reputation Management
Crisis reputation management is employed when a brand has suffered a significant reputational loss due to a crisis such as a data breach, product defect, or scandal. This type of management involves damage control by mitigating negative publicity, addressing false narratives, and providing updates to stakeholders. Crisis reputation management is a reactive approach that requires fast action, strategic planning, and crisis communication.
5. Employer Reputation Management
How employees perceive their employer is an aspect of employer reputation management. This style of management places a strong emphasis on fostering a happy work environment, attending to employee problems, and enhancing the company's reputation.
Employee engagement, employee satisfaction surveys via survey apps, fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace, and promoting the brand's values are all part of employer reputation management.
Bonus Read: What Does WSG Mean?
Benefits of Reputation Management
With millions of people having access to the internet, the power to influence opinions has shifted from brand managers to online users. The consequences of not managing your reputation can be disastrous for your business.
However, an effective reputation management strategy can provide many benefits to your business. Here are some of the benefits of reputation management which will help increase your brand name.
1. Increased Trust and Credibility
One of the leading benefits of reputation management is increased trust and credibility. A positive reputation is equivalent to trust that people have for their brand and products. By maintaining online reviews and comments, business can ensure that their online reputation reflects the brand and its values.
By implementing this effective reputation management strategy, you can monitor what customers are saying about your brand, respond to negative reviews and customer complaints promptly.
By Careful monitoring you'll be able to prevent negative publicity and maintain a positive image of the company or individual, which will lead to increased customer trust and loyalty.
2. Improve Customer Experience
A strong reputation management strategy can help you improve your customer experience. Listening to your customers, addressing their complaints carefully are some of the ways that can improve the customer experience.
On the company’s part is necessary to provide a digital portal for customer complaints and show them that you value your customers.Additionally, by monitoring and addressing negative reviews, you can identify areas for improvement and adjust your business operations that will result in a better customer experience.
3. Increase Brand Awareness
Another benefit of reputation management is that it can increase your brand awareness. By actively monitoring your brand's reputation with customer feedback tools and and responding to customer feedback, you can establish yourself as a reliable and trustworthy business.
Identify where your brand name is mentioned and make a move on that platform to increase your visibility. This can help you attract new customers.
4. Strengthen SEO
Reputation management can also help strengthen your SEO efforts. By regularly monitoring your brand's online presence, SEO helps keep the first page of your website with full positive reviews.
You can identify and address negative reviews or comments that may impact your search engine rankings.
5. Protect Your Brand
Finally, reputation management can protect your brand from potential threats. By actively monitoring your brand's online presence, you can identify threats like negative reviews, online rumors and respond to them very politely.
By addressing these threats promptly, you can protect your brand from reputational damage and maintain a positive image online.
How does reputation management work?
In this digital world, businesses make a great impact on their consumers and users by building and maintaining their online image and reputation.
Reputation management is the process of safeguarding a brand's image, managing its online presence, shaping consumer perception, and dealing with negative reviews. Here, we will dive into how reputation management works and the steps the steps involved in it.
Step 1: Building a Strong Online Presence
The first and foremost step to effective reputation management for your brand is to have a strong online presence. An online presence can be built through your website, social media platforms, and other online directories.
Step 2: Monitor Your Online Presence
Every business needs to track what people are saying about them online. By managing online reviews and comments, businesses can quickly identify and address any negative reviews. Online monitoring tools such as Google Alerts, Hootsuite, and Brand Watch can be used to monitor the conversations surrounding their brand online.
Step 3: Respond to Reviews
The way businesses handle negative feedback and reviews online is crucial. Responding to reviews in a timely, positive, and professional manner can help win back disgruntled customers and show your commitment to them. When a negative review is left, businesses must respond to the customer’s problem with a solution and empathetic tone in mind.
Step 4: Address Negative Search Results
As reputation management involves maintaining and enhancing your brand's image, it is required to keep an eye on negative search results. An online reputation management company can work with your business to boost your website's search ranking and help to suppress negative search results.
Step 5: Promote Positive Online Review
Positive reviews can be equally powerful as negative ones and promoting them is key to building brand credibility. Give them such a wonderful experience of customers service that they themself feel motivated to write a positive review on your website, social media, and other online accounts. Displaying positive reviews prominently on your website and responding to them further will strengthen your brand credibility.
How to build reputation management strategy
Consumers now have very quick access to social media and the internet. With a click, anything can be done so simply that posting critical evaluations and comments is not a big deal. Information on the internet circulates like fire and this can destroy a company's image and deter potential customers from choosing your company over your competitors. The steps to build reputation management strategy are:
1. Find where people comment and mention your brand
Find a social platform where people comment on or like your product or service and mention your brand on that platform. This way you can increase your online brand presence.
These touch points on social media are very necessary to improve your brand reputation. Trustpilot reviews, local google reviews, professional forums are some places where you can check your brand mentions.
2.Choose monitoring tools
After finding your brand name, its reviews and mentions, the next step is to choose the tools through which you could monitor the reputation.
Through these tools you can stay updated with every social media platform where your brand is mentioned, positively or negatively. You can use Hootsuite or sprout social to monitor. They gather user feedback and real time reports, so you can deal with it more conveniently.
3. Choose your reaction to feedback.
Think of the tone of the message or reply to you will give on the feedback because this will show how much your brand values its customers. Choose your words wisely, especially negative feedback.
4. Appoint a responsible person
To monitor the reviews and comments on different social media platforms takes time. Appointing a responsible manager for this task can improve the brand’s reputation. One can respond to negative comments in a timely manner.
5. Choose social media platform
Choose or prioritize the platform which is important for your business and monitor them on a regular basis to ensure reputation is maintained.
Conclusion
In todays’ world it has become very important what other people perceive of you, especially in this competitive business marketplace. Reputation management is one of the most prioritized tasks of any organization. Reputation management is an essential practice for businesses of all sizes.
It is crucial that you work on maintaining and building a positive reputation on desired social media platforms and on google. This will help in improving your website ranking in google. With the help of reputation management strategy, the company can build a positive relationship with its customers. This helps in building trust among its customers’ company stakeholders. By keeping an eye on your digital information and having an updated website, rest is assured that your potential users or employers have a true image of who you are as opposed to any false claims.
Make sure you monitor your reviews, manage your accounts actively and build high quality links that will not only increase your visibility but have a direct impact on the company’s reputation. It is not possible for a brand to not have a single negative perception or review, but continuous improvements in this field will give positive results.
