Around 4.66 billion people use the internet in the world. With such a massive presence of people online, maintaining and improving the online reputation of brands becomes self-explanatory. A brand’s social media presence along with its website certainly plays a crucial role in its growth. However, it is also integral to know what your customers and people, in general, are saying about your brand because nearly 90% of customers read online reviews before checking out a business. So while your brand’s product and services may be spot on, a bad review can quickly have people running in the other direction usually towards your competitors.
Online Reputation Management is the process of monitoring and identifying how people online perceive a specific business. It also includes search engine optimization (SEO), marketing strategies and public relations strategies.
Understanding the importance of online reputation management is fundamental for businesses to thrive in the right direction. Not only does the practice tell you about the bad aspects of your brand, but it also informs you about the good and the areas people believe that you can improve. Besides these, here are some other reasons why you need to monitor your online reputation.
From social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram to other review platforms such as TripAdvisor, Google reviews, Quora and more your brand reviews can show up everywhere. It is important to not only monitor the things being written about the brand but also participate in the conversations so that your audience feels seen and heard.
It is not unknown that online reviews can make or break your business. Statistics also show that 84% of people trust online reviews as much as they believe in word of mouth making it integral that you communicate with your customers on both positive and negative reviews. While responding to positive reviews increases your engagement, replying to negative reviews correctly helps you publicly address any concerns that your customers may have before the conversation spirals out of control.
It is a common practice that before going for any particular product or service, you ask around your friends and family for the best recommendations. Similarly, your audience on the internet will definitely snoop around and look for reviews from people who have already had a taste of your product. You can achieve this trust to some extent by social proofing your website which includes adding customer testimonials and media mentions to your website pages.
With the world moving at such a fast pace on the internet, it is only right that people want to know all about your brand quickly. They can easily do this by reading about the user experience posted on social media websites such as Twitter. It is also important that your brand posts are relevant to your audience.
Also Read: Why Is Online Reputation Management So Important
There are 5 key aspects that constitute the process of online reputation management. These are
Regular checks on review sites such as Google, Trust Pilot, Yelp and more keeps you informed about customer activity. Monitoring is crucial in maintaining and improving the brand reputation.
There is a massive amount of activity that goes on social media every day. Keeping a look out for what people are saying about your brand and your industry, in general, can provide you with plenty of insight into the consumer mindset. This monitoring also helps you know about your competitors.
Responding to customers is a big part of online reputation management. Brands should make sure that they respond to all reviews, both positive and negative. While replying to positive feedback can help you build a one-on-one relationship with your customers so that they return in the future, responding to negative feedback in the right manner shows that you as a brand care and would like to help the customer. The latter is helpful as it is also for your future customers to feel assured that in case they face any issues, the brand will be available to listen to them.
A brand mention can be present on not just social media and review sites, but also on blogs, PR activities, media mentions and more. Tracking brand mentions is therefore a huge part of your comprehensive online reputation management strategy.
This aspect can help your brand to see how it stacks up against the competition. Once done, the analysis can be further implemented into marketing strategies.
While there are several benefits of online reputation management, here are the 4 which stay most pertinent to brands.
Now that you have a comprehensive understanding of why online reputation management is important for your business, it is time to build your strategy for it. You can avail of services of online reputation management companies in the UK and India such as ours at RepIndia. Our team of experts bring in their knowledge to help you build a reputation strategy for the long run.
