When you Google yourself, what do you see? Do you think you are represented fairly? Are you happy with the reviews and ratings?
Every organization sees a reputation as a vital business asset that needs to be built and protected to enhance brand value. That is why companies are investing in Online Reputation Management (ORM).
What Is Online Reputation Management?
Online Reputation Management serves to cultivate, create, and maintain your brand name online. ORM is an ongoing task. Online reputation management is all about taking control of all the online conversation. ORM is a set of strategies and techniques, which ensure that people find positive information when they look for your business on the internet.
The aim of marketing technology services is to counteract misleading trends, build balance, and allow an organization to put its best foot forward. The purpose of ORM is to build a digital public image so that when anyone searches for your organization, he finds 5-start reviews and great customer experience.
Once, a business builds a credible reputation; more efforts are required to maintain that reputation. This is to ensure that the reputation stays free of any negativity and remains untarnished. However, this is not an easy task. There will always be someone who expresses dissatisfaction about your products and services. Plus, there may be many competitors who would like to affect the image of your business negatively. At times, dissatisfied employees may send out negative reviews or comments. In such cases, the difficult situation can be fixed effectively with the help of an online reputation management company.
There Are Two Cycles of Online Reputation
Vicious Cycle
A vicious cycle is the one when you ignore online reputation and fall victim to the vicious cycle of rumors and misinformation.
How does a person fall in the vicious cycle of online reputation?
- When there is outdated and poor-quality content that ranks highly online.
- People click on shocking headlines
- Search engines continue to promote that content, keeping in mind the likeability of users
- The reputation gets harmed on social media
- Commentary, follow-up content create more links that validate the negative news
Virtuous Cycle
When you take care of your online reputation, a virtuous cycle of high-quality content and positive news is created.
How a person comes in the virtuous cycle?
- Accurate, current, and good quality content rank higher in the search engine results
- People click on the results which provide relevant information that they are looking for
- Search engine promotes those links, keeping in mind the user likability of said content
- Social media amplifies the effect and reach of the content
- Media coverage and follow-up content create more links that validate the positive news.
Online Reputation Management Typically Involves:
- Deploying ORM software to easily obtain reviews from customers and distribute them to online review sites
- Adding review star rich snippets to your website
- Being active about asking clients to leave online reviews about your business (It is seen that 68% of clients will leave a business review when asked to do so)
- Responding to both positive as well as negative reviews to either thank the customer for their positive feedback or address the concern
- Promoting positive reviews through multiple channels (owned or paid); like posting on websites, sharing on social media, including in e-newsletters, creating banners, paid ads, etc.)
Why Should a Business Care About Your Online Reputation?
In earlier times, a disgruntled customer had a limited audience. He could only tell his family or friends about the negative experience, widespread dissemination of the verbal review was highly unlikely. But in the age of the internet, news spread like fire.
8 out of 10 customers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations.
Internet Is the First Stop for Everything
People not only view the internet for reviews, but they also trust those reviews and make decisions based on the information they find online.
- When needing the services of a local business, 97 percent of people read online reviews
- When there is a mismatch between the reality and the buzz, the business faces 80 percent reputational damage
- As many as 70 percent of managers have rejected candidates because of something they found online about them
- 2 out of three people perceive the Internet as the most reliable source of information about a business or a person
Reviews and Ratings Are a Crucial Ranking Factor
There is a direct correlation among the number of positive reviews, the volume of reviews, and local search results. If you want to rank higher on search engine results, you should have a large volume of positive reviews.
Positive Reviews Increase Click-Throughs
“Google My Business” profiles get a significant increase in click-throughs with positive reviews. Customers prefer businesses which have 3 to 5-star ratings. Once the business gets listed in the Google Local 3-Pack, favorable reviews can help with the click-through rate.
Your Online Reputation Will Stick with You
When a client puts a negative review online about a business, it seriously harms the reputation of the brand, and the business faces critical disadvantages in the long run. It is important to keep an eye on what people are saying about your business online and then take measures to correct any inaccuracies.
It is vital to not only monitor the things other people say about you, but also the things you say online. There have been many scenarios when people lost business clients because of things they posted an online decade ago.
How to Monitor Online Reviews?
Google Alert
Google alert drops notification whenever your brand name is mentioned online. With the help of Google alert, you can know when someone has posted a review of your organization.
Brand Searches
By regularly conducting brand searches on Google and Facebook, you can know about news or any rumors that are being spread about your organization.
Hire an Online Reputation Management Company
An online reputation management company can help in improving the image of a brand. It can create good quality positive content to build a positive image of the brand. Online reputation management services ensure that your organization has the best image online.
Conclusion
It is important for an organization to create a positive image online to build credibility. Good online reputation is necessary to build new clients and to retain the existing ones.
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