Whether you’re tackling negative publicity or encouraging positive feedback from customers, there’s always a need for constant vigilance and proactive online reputation management.
Creating an online reputation management strategy can help your brand deal with or prepare for negative attention.
But beyond safeguarding your business from negative feedback, reputation management also allows you to build trust and strengthen your brand’s credibility.
Let’s explore why online reputation management is so important and how to create a strategy that ensures your business remains resilient against potential threats to your brand image.
Why should you have an online reputation management strategy?
Effective online reputation management (ORM) is essential for any business looking to compete in the online or digital landscape. Why? Because it helps brands maintain control over how consumers perceive them online.
Having an online reputation management strategy can also help:
- Mitigate the impact of negative content
- Cultivate a positive digital presence
- Enhance search engine visibility
- Attract customers and clients
- Retain existing customers
- Recruit top talent
- Stay competitive
These outcomes directly influence trust, credibility, and success in today’s interconnected world.
Not convinced? Consider these statistics:
- 94% of customers say they’ve avoided a business altogether due to negative feedback.
- Marketers who invest in online reputation management see more leads and conversions.
- 4 out of 5 customers will change their mind about a business if it has negative reviews.
- 98% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase.
7 Proven Ways to Manage Your Online Reputation in 2024
1. Conduct an online reputation audit
Auditing your online reputation lets you get insights into how people perceive your brand online.
This gives you an idea of what areas to focus on when implementing your ORM strategy.
To audit your online reputation:
- Open an incognito window in your browser. This will ensure your browsing history or personal preferences don’t influence your search results.
- Search your brand name on Google.
- Look at your Google Business profile. Analyze your ratings, reviews, comments, and images.
- Look at page one of the search results. What do you see? If you see your brand mentioned on third-party sites, what are they saying? Are customers providing their feedback? If so, is it positive or negative? Or is it a mixture of both?
- Note which sites you have control over (social media profiles) and which ones you don’t (third-party sites).
Use the same method for other platforms, such as social media, online communities, forums, and review sites.
Let’s look at an example. Apple, Inc. has a strong online presence. When you search for the brand’s name on Google, you’ll see results that point to its homepage, news from its website, and top stories from third-party sites.
By looking at the top stories in the screenshot, you can see that there’s no negative news. You can only see neutral stories like “Don’t dry your damp iPhone in a bowl of rice, Apple says.“
There are also some positive ones, like “Apple releases free new sports app for iPhone“. However, with further research, you may find more negative content. It’s important to do thorough research to check any brand mentions, no matter the sentiment.
When you conduct an online audit like this for your brand, you can look at the different things people are saying about your business, products, or services, whether positive, neutral, or negative.
You can also automate this process by setting up Google Alerts. Choose specific keywords and phrases related to your brand and industry, and you’ll receive notifications for any mentions or discussions about your brand.
To get started, go to Google Alerts. In the search bar, enter a topic you want to follow.
Suppose you were an online reputation specialist at Apple.
In that case, you’d probably track the brand name (e.g., “Apple Inc.”, “Apple Inc. products”), product names (e.g., “iPhone,” “MacBook Pro”), executive names (e.g., “Tim Cook,” “Angela Ahrendts”), and industry-specific terms (e.g., “smartphones,” “technology innovation”).
2. Monitor brand mentions on social media
Having more than one social media profile for your business can make it difficult to see what people are saying about your brand on these platforms.
But doing so can be a game-changer in how you manage your online reputation.
If you can’t dedicate your time to social media monitoring, you can hire a social media manager to monitor all your accounts.
They can check your direct messages and comments on your social media posts to address questions, concerns, or feedback from your audience in a timely manner.
They can also track relevant hashtags associated with your brand, industry, or campaigns to keep tabs on conversations and user-generated content that can affect your reputation.
Other critical tasks of social media managers include:
- Tracking key social media metrics to measure the effectiveness of your reputation management efforts
- Creating, managing, and publishing content that actively engages your audience
- Keeping an eye on competitors’ social media activity
You can also use a social media listening tool like Mention, which automatically tracks mentions of your brand name, products, and relevant keywords across multiple social media channels in real time.
With Mention, you can also easily manage your social media channels, curate content, and engage with customers.
3. Safeguard your reputation and assets with an LLC
Incorporating a limited liability is another effective way to manage your reputation. It does this by offering another layer of protection for reputation management, as it allows you to legally separate your personal and business assets.
So, say that your business is dealing with legal disputes, financial claims, or negative publicity. Having an LLC can help you safeguard your personal wealth.
As a result, you’ll have peace of mind, which allows you to focus on managing and repairing your brand’s reputation without risking your personal finances.
There are different types of LLCs, from single-member and multi-member to specialized entities like professional LLCs (PLLCs) and Series LLCs. So, choose the one that best fits your needs.
4. Use videos to establish trust
As a business owner, you never want to wait for bad publicity to react. You want to do everything in your power to prevent it from happening.
The key to doing this is establishing a strong, positive reputation. This proactive approach results in an online brand reputation that’s so powerful that people will think twice before they say something bad about your business.
It all comes down to establishing trust. And video is one of the best ways to achieve this.
For example, you can create videos that showcase your brand’s values, mission, and positive impact on customers, employees, or the community.
These videos can be customer testimonials, educational content, behind-the-scenes footage, or interactive campaigns like contests or challenges. Below is an explainer video from monday.com.
Whatever route you take with your videos, you’re taking a big step toward shaping a positive perception of your brand in the digital landscape.
Creating engaging and informative videos is crucial. You can use AI text-to-speech tools to create high-quality, natural-sounding voiceovers for videos, making content creation more accessible and efficient.
AI text-to-speech software also helps you produce videos at a faster rate, ensuring that your message reaches a wider audience. This not only enhances your brand’s visibility but also adds a layer of professionalism to the content, boosting your company’s reputation online.
5. Refresh existing content to maintain your online presence
No one trusts a brand that has outdated or inaccurate content on its website. Search engines don’t, and neither do people.
So, make sure you regularly update your content so that the information is current, accurate, and relevant to your audience. This ensures your target audience perceives your brand as trustworthy and authoritative.
Publishing fresh content that addresses industry trends, challenges, and innovations also showcases your brand’s expertise and thought leadership. As a result, you can enhance your credibility and reputation as a knowledgeable authority in your field.
Regular content refreshes are also critical from an SEO standpoint. Search engines prioritize websites that frequently update their content.
So, when you add new content and refresh existing blog posts and landing pages, you can improve your search engine rankings and increase your brand’s visibility online.
6. Monitor online reviews
Online reviews and ratings are some of the most influential factors that affect potential customers’ decision-making process. This is especially crucial in high-stakes industries such as healthcare.
A medical company like Hims, which specializes in hair loss, weight loss, and sexual health, benefits significantly from online reviews and ratings by collecting and displaying positive feedback from satisfied patients.
This can help the brand build trust and credibility in its niche, which can be difficult. Online reviews and ratings can also help Hims improve its services and patient experience based on the insights it gains from customer feedback.
Therefore, a sexual health medical company like this should actively encourage patients to leave reviews and ratings on their website, social media platforms, and online directories and respond promptly and professionally.
To stay on top of customer feedback, use a review management tool like Google Business.
A restaurant like Corner Grille can track online reviews using Google. It can be sorted by most relevant, newest, highest, and lowest star ratings.
Google also has a feature that shows the most-used phrases under “People often mention“. For Corner Grille, the most mentioned phrases are chicken and waffles, salmon, airport, and omelet.
So, if the restaurant owner wants to know what people are saying about a particular menu item or amenity, they can filter reviews based on these criteria.
Don’t have many customer reviews? Start asking for them. Send personalized emails to recent customers thanking them for their purchase.
Then, ask them to leave a review about their experience. Include a direct link to the review platforms where you want them to leave a review. This could be Google, Yelp, or industry-specific platforms or directories like Tripadvisor, Angi, or G2.
Consider offering a small incentive, such as a discount or entry into a giveaway.
When you start generating more customer reviews, be sure to respond to them as quickly as possible. And always thank reviewers for their feedback, whether positive or negative.
If you do get negative reviews, apologize to customers for their inconvenience and let them know you’re available to help them resolve the situation in any way you can.
Even if you can’t resolve the issue to their satisfaction, responding to them shows that you care about their experience, which can help mitigate the impact of the negative review.
To make sure your business and products are always improving, use negative customer feedback to your advantage. Identify recurring themes or issues customers mention in reviews and take proactive steps to address them.
For more on how to check and manage online reviews, check out our blog post, How to Make Your Online Reviews Work for You in 2024.
7. Improve SEO to boost online visibility and credibility
As mentioned above, SEO is a key component of an online reputation management strategy. Many brands rely on search engine traffic for a solid online presence, so it’s essential to ensure your website is optimized for search engines.
One of the best ways to boost traffic to your website is to create blog content that educates your target audience. Include relevant keywords your audience searches for within these blog posts.
So, if you’re an eCommerce business selling custom and handmade smartphone cases, you might use keywords like “custom phone cases” or “personalized cellphone cases“.
Some sample blog titles for this topic might include:
- Celebrate Special Occasions With a Unique Custom Photo Phone Case
- How to Choose the Perfect Custom Phone Case for Your Style
- Why a Custom Phone Case Is a Great Gift Idea
- Custom Phone Case Design Ideas
Using relevant keywords in your blog title and content while informing your audience at the same time shows Google that your content is valuable and helpful.
This increases your website’s chances of ranking in the top results when someone searches for a keyword related to your business or industry.
Consider using an AI paraphrasing tool to refresh and optimize existing content. These tools can help generate new content ideas, ensure the uniqueness of your material, and maintain the original message’s integrity while enhancing readability and SEO
This increases online visibility, which boosts your brand’s online reputation. There are many exceptional blog examples to inspire you. The key is to follow SEO best practices and keep your readers and customers in mind and at the top of your priority list as you create your content.
Start building a reliable online reputation management strategy today
There are many aspects of ORM, but the key thing to remember is that customer satisfaction is everything.
Having unhappy customers is the quickest way to see your good online reputation go down the drain.
So, follow these tips to ensure you stay relevant in your industry and continue to create amazing experiences for your customers.
Here are other crucial strategies for managing your online reputation:
- Be transparent and authentic.
- Encourage user-generated content (UGC) to build connections and establish trust.
- Maintain a consistent brand voice and messaging across all online channels
- Use online monitoring tools like Mention to automate the process of tracking mentions, reviews, and sentiments about your brand across various online platforms.
