Online reputation management, or ORM, is the process of managing and maintaining the public perception of a brand, business, or person online.<\/p>\n
ORM can include responding to negative comments, gaining positive reviews, and monitoring brand mentions.<\/p>\n
In this guide, we\u2019ll cover:<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s get started.<\/p>\n
Online reputation management is a way to improve how your customers see your brand. It can help you increase customer trust, build industry authority, and even generate more sales.<\/p>\n
While ORM overlaps with public relations (PR), they aren\u2019t the same thing.<\/p>\n
PR leverages relationships to create a positive outlook for a brand both online and not online. Online reputation management achieves the same goal through monitoring and managing your brand\u2019s reputation and media interactions specifically online.<\/p>\n
In short, public relations and ORM are two different strategies for managing public perception of your brand.<\/p>\n
There are four main ORM media channels:<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how they differ:<\/p>\n
Paid media encompasses any form of online content that requires payment to feature your brand. This includes Google Ads, social media ads, sponsored posts, and promotions by influencers.<\/p>\n
Paid media is beneficial because you have full control over the narrative. But it can be quite expensive.<\/p>\n
Earned media is coverage your brand receives from third-party platforms (without payment).<\/p>\n
Examples include:<\/p>\n
You can get earned coverage organically through reviews, online listings, and so on. But you sometimes need to reach out to publications and influencers to get social and press coverage, etc.<\/p>\n
Earned media can shine a positive light on your brand and create trust with online visitors.<\/p>\n
Shared media is any content about your brand posted on social media. Whether that content is from your brand\u2019s account or someone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Unaddressed complaints, negative comments, and low ratings on shared media channels can all seriously harm your company\u2019s reputation and turn off potential customers.<\/p>\n
So you should pay attention to what\u2019s happening on your social media accounts the same way you would pay attention to customer comments inside a brick-and-mortar establishment.<\/p>\n
Monitor your brand mentions and quickly address negative feedback.<\/p>\n
Owned media is any media you control, like your website or blog.<\/p>\n
You can help control the reach of owned media platforms by\u00a0improving your rankings<\/a>\u00a0on Google. Here are a few ways to do so:<\/p>\n By following SEO best practices, you\u2019ll have a better chance of ranking higher on Google. This way, users will see valuable content from your brand when they search for keywords related to your brand.<\/p>\n Maintaining a good reputation is important because it impacts sales.<\/p>\n In fact, almost\u00a060% of U.S. consumers<\/a>\u00a0said they would avoid buying from a brand that comes across as untrustworthy.<\/p>\n A negative online reputation can hurt your brand\u2019s trustworthiness. And, ultimately, your business.<\/p>\n Here are a few other reasons reputation management is crucial for your business:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s review a few real-life examples of ORM in action so you can see how much it impacts real businesses.<\/p>\n United Airlines\u00a0lost over $1 billion<\/a>\u00a0in market value after a video of a passenger being dragged off an overbooked flight went viral.<\/p>\n The video amassed over 1 million online mentions in one day and over 100 million views. Many viewers criticized the CEO\u2019s lack of action in a crisis of public perception.<\/p>\n This crisis happened in 2017 but is still routinely brought up in ORM conversations today.<\/p>\n Nestl\u00e9 also faced a notorious\u00a0reputation management failure<\/a>\u00a0when Greenpeace accused them of harmful environmental practices online.<\/p>\n Rather than addressing the issue head-on, Nestl\u00e9 made things worse by asking YouTube to remove Greenpeace\u2019s video.<\/p>\n The company had to temporarily shut down its public page due to negative comments that included an altered version of the KitKat logo reading \u201cKiller.\u201d<\/p>\n It only takes one negative story to turn online reputation management into an online reputation nightmare. Which is why it\u2019s best to proactively manage your brand image and have a plan in case of a crisis.<\/p>\n Pro tip<\/strong>: Respond publicly to negative reviews whenever possible. While you can\u2019t delete a negative comment, you can show other customers how you handled the situation.<\/p>\n To avoid PR crises and the effects of bad reviews, you need to manage your brand\u2019s reputation properly.<\/p>\n Here are eight keys of effective ORM you can implement for your business today:<\/p>\n Before putting any ORM process in place, conduct an extensive online reputation audit.<\/p>\n The goal is to find out how your customers view and talk about you online. Doing so will give you an idea of what\u2019s going well and what challenges you may need to overcome to make important changes.<\/p>\n To start, review your site, social profiles, blog, and any third-party business profiles.<\/p>\n You can do that by looking at Google results:<\/p>\n You can also find more information about your brand with Semrush\u2019s\u00a0Media Monitoring<\/a>\u00a0app.<\/p>\n Just plug your brand name into the search bar and select the language that your consumers use.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll get a report that contains your most recent mentions. And a chart that shows you what percentage of those mentions are positive, negative, or neutral.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve gathered sufficient information, you should have an idea of what the average consumer sees when they look up your brand.<\/p>\n Now that you know your brand\u2019s current reputation online, it\u2019s time to set up an ORM strategy. First, decide what you want to prioritize.<\/p>\n Prioritizing which ORM tactics to implement and which mentions to respond to first will help you manage your reputation better.<\/p>\n You can use the Impact Matrix to decide how to prioritize your tasks:<\/p>\n An example of a \u201cquick win\u201d might be responding to a negative review. It won\u2019t take a lot of time. But a well-crafted response can positively impact your online presence.<\/p>\n That being said, you should respond to critical tasks first. If you have an ORM crisis on your hands, address that first.\u200b\u200b<\/p>\n Once you have your prioritization goals in place, develop clear documentation to keep things organized.<\/p>\n Managing comments, reviews, and mentions from several channels can be overwhelming if you don\u2019t set ground rules. Develop policy guidelines and a defined tone of voice to stay consistent in your messaging to customers.<\/p>\n Writing down policy guidelines can help you prioritize tasks and streamline communication, especially when multiple people are working on reputation management.<\/p>\n To start, here are a few things you can include in your documentation:<\/p>\n You\u2019ll also want to include communication guidelines in your policy documentation. This will help you prioritize day-to-day tasks and decide what to respond to first.<\/p>\n Depending on the size of your following, you may get many mentions and reviews at once. So you\u2019ll need to decide what is urgent vs. what can wait.<\/p>\n What you consider urgent will depend on your audience. If your customers primarily hang out on Twitter, prioritize responding to negative tweets before negative Facebook comments since your target audience is less likely to see the Facebook comment.<\/p>\n Establish a tone of voice and share the guidelines with anyone in your company who communicates with customers or creates content.<\/p>\n Here are a few things to keep in mind when building your brand\u2019s tone of voice:<\/p>\n You can use our\u00a0tone of voice template<\/a>\u00a0to define how you want your brand to sound.<\/p>\n A good way to start is to choose adjectives that describe your brand (e.g., \u201ccheerful,\u201d \u201ctrustworthy,\u201d \u201cauthoritative,\u201d etc.). Like this:<\/p>\n You need to know what people say about your brand. The longer it takes for you to respond to negative comments, the bigger the problem might be.<\/p>\n You can monitor your brand mentions by setting up a\u00a0Google Alerts<\/a>\u00a0for your brand name. You\u2019ll receive an email when new results for your chosen topic show up in Google Search.<\/p>\n For everything else, you\u2019ll need to manually search through social media sites, forums, and other platforms. On a regular basis. Which is a hassle and won\u2019t really give you a clear picture.<\/p>\n Which is why we recommend using the\u00a0Media Monitoring<\/a>\u00a0app. This tool collects mentions from all those platforms automatically. Which saves you time and gives you a more accurate picture of how people talk about, share, and interact with your brand on the web.<\/p>\n Just plug your brand name into the tool and you\u2019ll see a list of all your online mentions.<\/p>\n The list includes blog posts, social media posts, news articles, and forum comments that mention your brand. You can filter out certain types of mentions and even filter by importance.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll also get an analysis of mentions over time.<\/p>\n This includes the number of mentions you received, where you were mentioned, and which of those sites are most influential, your presence score, and the sentiments of most of your mentions.<\/p>\n Use the data from the tool to assess the state of your online reputation. And whether some intervention needs to happen.<\/p>\n Crises happen without warning. The good news? You can prepare for them with a crisis management strategy.<\/p>\n Your strategy should outline an internal communication plan, which team members will handle public responses, and how to address social media mentions.<\/p>\n Here are a few things you can do to prepare in advance:<\/p>\n While it\u2019s best to avoid a crisis, sometimes things are out of your control. The way you respond could make or break what your audience thinks about your brand overall.<\/p>\n One of the best ways to manage your online presence is to encourage your customers to leave truthful reviews on Google and other review sites, like Yelp and Trustpilot. This will increase your online visibility and help with your reputation.<\/p>\n Not only can positive reviews potentially convince someone to choose your business\u2014they can also occupy real estate on Google. So when someone searches for your brand, they will (ideally) see those positive reviews.<\/p>\n Not all customers will leave reviews, but you can do a few things to make the review process easier (meaning a review is more likely):<\/p>\n For example, Passion Planner, an ecommerce brand, asks customers for a review via email after every purchase. And incentivizes reviews with a discount code.<\/p>\n Their approach is effective because customers can review products right within that email. It\u2019s simple\u00a0and<\/strong>\u00a0customers get a reward for doing it.<\/p>\n Positive reviews can be a huge advantage for your business, so encourage happy customers to leave a good review without much effort on their part.<\/p>\n A whopping\u00a094% of customers<\/a>\u00a0admit that a negative online review can prevent them from choosing a particular business.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s crucial to manage the negative reviews you receive.<\/p>\n Before addressing negative reviews, assess the most problematic ones. Reviews that rank highly on the search engine results page (SERP) are a great starting point. Quickly run through the following platforms:<\/p>\n Find all the negative reviews (if there are any). Now it\u2019s time to respond.<\/p>\n It\u2019s best to respond to negative reviews quickly before they spiral out of control. Here are some general guidelines for navigating negative reviews:<\/p>\n Unfortunately, you won\u2019t always be able to resolve all negative reviews. But there are still things you can do that will hopefully help your content rank above those bad reviews in Google.<\/p>\n Here are a few ways you can improve rankings for positive articles over problematic reviews:<\/p>\n There\u2019s no quick fix for\u00a0ranking better<\/a>, but these tips can help you put your best foot forward using content. Not all of these tips address specific ranking factors, but they all push your positive content into more prominent places.<\/p>\n Branding refers to the consistency of your messaging and tone of voice across your content.<\/p>\n Think about it this way:<\/p>\n The first thing customers see about your brand will shape their perception of it. So you should make sure your content is branded consistently for better recall.<\/p>\n This also applies to:<\/p>\n So even something as small as a reply to an Instagram comment can make a big impact.<\/p>\n For example, Lululemon, a well-known athletic apparel brand, always\u00a0responds to customers<\/a>\u00a0politely\u2014even to negative comments:<\/p>\n They always remind customers that DMs are welcome.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s important to maintain a cohesive brand image, it\u2019s equally crucial to dominate the SERP for brand mentions.<\/p>\n That way, positive content about your brand appears when people search for it.<\/p>\n You can achieve this by following\u00a0SEO best practices<\/a>\u00a0to ensure that your branded content shows up on the first page of Google search results.<\/p>\n Your first step is to determine what your branded keywords are.<\/p>\n A branded keyword is a search query that includes your website\u2019s brand name or a variation. To find which ones to optimize for, use Semrush\u2019s\u00a0Organic Research tool<\/a>.<\/p>\n Input your domain and navigate to the \u201cPositions\u201d report. And then add two \u201cAdvanced<\/strong>\u00a0filters<\/strong>\u201d:<\/p>\n Like this:<\/p>\n Identify which branded keywords will have the highest impact by looking at the\u00a0search volume<\/a>\u00a0(i.e., the number of times a term is searched over a set time frame).<\/p>\n For example, keywords with a search volume of 1,000 have a wider reach than keywords with a search volume of 10.<\/p>\n Once you identify your most important branded keywords, check the SERP for each one. Click on the search icon to view the SERP directly from the \u201cPositions\u201d report:<\/p>\n Pro tip<\/strong>: If you choose to manually search for your keywords on Google, open a private browser window. This can prevent the results from being personalized based on your search history or location.<\/p>\n Review the results and look at any negative reviews or press that appear on the SERP.<\/p>\n Influencer marketing is when a brand collaborates with online influencers to promote products and services.<\/p>\n And it can yield great results.<\/p>\n It can also be a great substitute for paid media. But keep in mind that you won\u2019t have the same control over your reputation as you do when you use ads or sponsored posts.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a look at Lululemon\u2014a lifestyle brand known for its quality and culture. No matter where you are, Lululemon feels local even if it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n And that isn\u2019t a mistake. They don\u2019t ask celebrities to be their influencers. Instead, they strategically\u00a0choose local athletes<\/a>\u00a0from each community that they want to reach.<\/p>\n For example, they partnered with\u00a0Kevin Pearce of LoveYourBrain<\/a>\u00a0to promote their brand and inspire their community.<\/p>\n But keep in mind that things can quickly go wrong if you don\u2019t choose the right partners.<\/p>\n Take\u00a0Disney\u2019s Maker Studios<\/a>, for example.<\/p>\n They partnered with the popular gaming YouTuber Felix Kjellberg (aka PewDiePie) in 2014. Which gave him co-ownership of a multichannel network that produced videos, apps, and merchandise.<\/p>\n But that partnership came to an end in 2017 due to controversy.<\/p>\n PewDiePie had posted several videos that included inappropriate and deeply offensive content.<\/p>\n When Maker Studio caught wind of these heinous videos, they cut all ties with the YouTuber.<\/p>\n While Disney took steps to end the partnership, PewDiePie was already affiliated with them at the time. Which turned the issue into a reputation crisis for the company, as well.<\/p>\n But as long as you\u2019re careful when choosing who to work with, influencer marketing can be a powerful part of your ORM strategy.<\/p>\n For best results, work with influencers who fit your brand image. Bonus points if customers already associate them with you.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say a social media personality who shares your audience demographic is already known for wearing your clothes and has even organically posted about you before. That social media personality could be a good fit for an influencer partnership.<\/p>\n On the other hand, someone who\u2019s never worn your clothes before and has promoted other brands in your space probably wouldn\u2019t work well.<\/p>\n Ready to start an influencer marketing campaign? Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n The first step is the same as any marketing campaign: Establish your goals.<\/p>\n Some common goals of influencer marketing campaigns are brand awareness, engagement, influencer-generated content, and sales.<\/p>\n Once you set your campaign goal, set a budget. Influencers\u2019 rates vary, so do some research before reaching out.<\/p>\n You can find influencer rates by reaching out manually or using the\u00a0Influencer Analytics<\/a>\u00a0tool.<\/p>\n Next, it\u2019s time to find influencers in your niche.<\/p>\n Rather than blindly sending cold emails or spending hours scrolling through social media, simply click on the \u201cInfluencer<\/strong>\u00a0Discovery<\/strong>\u201d tab to get a whole list of trustworthy influencers.<\/p>\n With the tool, you can:<\/p>\n Pro tip<\/strong>: Use social listening to decide which influencers to work with. Choosing an influencer who\u2019s already a fan of your brand can be a huge asset to your campaign.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve chosen a few influencers you\u2019d like to work with, it\u2019s time to reach out.<\/p>\n Here are a few tips on crafting your initial email:<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve chosen an influencer, set up reporting for your campaign. Collect data before your campaign kicks off so you can see the campaign\u2019s overall impact.<\/p>\n And last but not least: Follow the rules. Your brand (and your influencers) can get in serious trouble if they don\u2019t follow Federal Trade Commission (FTC)\u00a0social media guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n This includes clearly stating which posts are ads (usually with hashtags like #ad or #sponsored) and placing that label somewhere visible toward the beginning of the post.<\/p>\n To learn more about managing your influencer marketing campaigns,\u00a0read our in-depth guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n Online reputation management is an ongoing process. It\u2019s important to keep tabs on your brand and stay engaged with your audience to create a positive impression.<\/p>\n Next, read some of our additional guides on improving your online reputation. And even choose some online marketing tools to keep you on track:<\/p>\n A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Online Reputation Management Online reputation management, or ORM, is the process of managing and maintaining the public perception of a brand, business, or person online. ORM can include responding to negative comments, gaining positive reviews, and\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Why Reputation Management Is Important for Your Business<\/h2>\n
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United Airlines<\/h3>\n
Nestl\u00e9<\/h4>\n
How to Manage Your Brand\u2019s Online Reputation<\/h2>\n
1. Audit Your Online Reputation<\/h3>\n
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2. Establish an Online Reputation Management Strategy<\/h3>\n
ORM Prioritization<\/h4>\n
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Policy Documentation, Communication Guidelines, & Tone of Voice<\/h4>\n
Policy Documentation<\/h5>\n
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Communication Guidelines<\/h5>\n
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Tone of Voice<\/h5>\n
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3. Monitor Brand Mentions<\/h3>\n
4. Plan Your Crisis Management Strategy<\/h3>\n
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5. Encourage Customer Reviews Online<\/h3>\n
How to Get Your Customers to Leave a Review<\/h4>\n
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6. Manage Negative Online Reviews<\/h3>\n
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How to Respond to Negative Reviews<\/h4>\n
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How to Push Negative Reviews Down in Search Rankings<\/h4>\n
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7. Create On-Brand Content<\/h3>\n
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How to Define Your Branded Keywords<\/h4>\n
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8. Choose Influencers Wisely<\/h3>\n
How to Start an Influencer Marketing Campaign<\/h4>\n
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Keep Learning About Reputation Management<\/h2>\n
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