Reputation management is the process of identifying what other people are saying or feeling about you or your business; and taking steps to ensure that the general consensus is in line with your goals.
Different activities are performed by individual or organization which attempt to maintain or create a certain frame of mind regarding them in the public eye. Many people and organizations use various forms of social media to monitor their reputation. To start with online media platform, first build your strategy! Sometime you may come across negative comments about your company. By having a plan in place, you will be able to effectively handle the situation and any potentially negative feedback.
Why Reputation Management is Important?
ORM is important to your company because potential customers change purchase decisions when they see bad reviews, negative blog posts and comments which can spread in various channels such as in search engine results and in social media networks. These can severely affect your brand and your business. That’s why it’s important to have your online reputation monitored and have these negativity mitigated, while proactively building positive reputation.
Unlike online brand management, online brand monitoring is something you can consider outsourcing to a vendor such as a digital agency or public relations firm. The core difference between management and monitoring is that, through monitoring, you will gather the necessary information that educates you on what is being said about your brand.
How to Start with Online Reputation Management (ORM)?
Online reputation is your brand image on the Internet. Online reputation management (ORM) is about improving or restoring your name or your brand’s good standing. ORM is panning, implementing and controlling online reputation of brand. This is by countering, weakening or eliminating the negative material found in the Internet, defeating it with more positive material to improving your credibility and customers’ trust in you.
It is important to understand that online reputation management not only includes the strategy on how to manage online buzz, sentiment and feedback, but the implementation of that strategy through engagement.
As with most social media efforts, it is critical to be honest, transparent, and engaging. These efforts are really something thatshould not be outsourced to a vendor, but done in-house through people who understand the “core” of brand, not just the messaging.
Monitoring – What’s being said about your Brand
By using online monitoring tools you can review key aspects that are essential to maintain online reputation such as,
- The engagement in online conversation/ campaign
- Nature of sentiments
- The extent of customer/ user engagement
- Position of brand versus competitors
- Brand’s reputation on social medium
By utilizing the online conversation, you may be able to improve customer satisfaction, gain insights on competitors, engage with your current and potential customers more effectively, and ideally reduce costs while increasing return on investment. Through analysis of the data provided during monitoring, you will be able to properly implement your engagement strategy. In other words, monitoring facilitates management.
There are various monitoring tools available online Which I use for Online monitoring of my clients brand; like –
- Hootsuite
- Social Mention
- BrandsEye
- Radian 6
- Trackur,
- Google Alert , Topsy etc… are good available options!
You may choose one or few depending on your need for online monitoring. Ultimately, by using proper tool and action your brand will shine in media!
Deepak Kapure (LIPS Student) : Project Executive – ORM Social Media
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