The growth of the internet over the past two decades has come as a welcome development for businesses, both big and small. The internet has provided a whole new, vast and efficient advertising space. However, bad publicity surrounding the brand can also spread faster than ever, tarnishing the image of the brand. The reputation that a brand projects towards its customers, business partners and stockholders can have dramatic effects, not only on the company’s revenue but on its very existence. Many brand owners and managers are still ignorant of the concept of Online Reputation Management (ORM) for businesses.
Online reputation refers to a company’s image online. The online environment poses a great risk to businesses and their brands. The online image of a company can be the creation of third parties. Both the company and third parties influence online reputation. It is the responsibility of the company to control its online image. Third parties may deliberately damage the reputation of a business. To mitigate this risk, businesses should take charge of their online brands. Online reputation management signifies a concerted effort by corporations to manage their reputation in the cyberspace. Consequently, most corporations now acknowledge that online corporate reputation aids them in achieving business goals. Therefore, in summary, online reputation management is concerned with keeping track of company image online and knowing how to respond appropriately.
Search engines are powerful online reputation drivers. If a significant number of top listed search results on a company are negative, customers are likely to click on a rival company’s entry. Good search results don’t always tend to stay up on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). SERPs usually change rapidly based on emerging news, social media trends and algorithm changes. Businesses should therefore look at establishing and retaining a positive internet reputation as a continuing process that they need to dedicate themselves to. Negative news about a brand, whether true on not could dominate search engine results for years. It is important that a business takes control of its brand online by dominating as much of its SERP as possible. Owning and using all Top Level Domains (TLDs) relevant to a company’s name can help to increase user generated information on the internet, an important step in achieving search results prominence.
Online reputation has greatly changed since the emergence of social media. This is largely because the internet gives consumers the freedom to express their views. These views can be either beneficial or disparaging. This is worsened by the huge number of people who can receive a certain message in a given time interval. Information spreads fast in social media. In most instances, the damage will already have been done by the time a company responds. However, companies can use these qualities of social media to promote their reputation and brand. Companies can use social media to create new relationships and strengthen existing ones. Taking part in online forums, providing the information is structured can augment the relationship between a brand and its customers. This implies that even though the internet is largely chaotic, there is room to exert some control. Businesses can use social media to disseminate brand-building messages. It has been observed that participating in social media discussions shapes how stakeholders view a certain brand.
Good online reputation may lead to improved revenue. On the one hand, potential clients are likely to be influenced by the positive reviews of other customers. On the other hand, negative reviews may discourage potential customers. Consequently, organizations should strive to improve their online reputation.
Participation in online discussion may lead to improved ratings. This is largely due to the fact that interaction builds relationships. Strong relationships between clients and businesses may lead to more revenue for the company. Positive interaction may lead to quality improvement. Moreover, it has been shown that those with negative comments are likely to drop their comments if they find that other customers have left positive reviews. The ratings of a company have a direct relationship the revenue. However, while seeking favorable ratings, a company should guard against overexposing itself in cyberspace. Overexposure represents a danger to the company. There are a number of ways to improve ratings online. They include offering succinct responses, taking part in corporate social responsibility events, offering superior products. Offering products of high quality is the most important.
There is a number of platforms through which companies can manage their online reputation. They include X, Facebook, LinkedIn, search engines, YouTube etc. Online review platforms are other important media. X (Formerly Twitter) has been gaining popularity lately. It increasingly becomes the public relations tool of choice. It is preferred due to its ability to reach many people. YouTube is another important video-sharing tool. Companies can utilize this to market their products. A business can also publicize upcoming events through this channel. Facebook is the largest social media platform based on user numbers. This represents a great opportunity for marketing. It is up to the corporations to choose which platforms to maintain an account. However, in order to retain control over their image, organizations need to appear in more than one platform. It is important to note that an organization need not appear on all platforms. All a company needs to do is to select carefully the media platform that will give it more exposure. In this regard, social media and search engines appear to be the most beneficial.
The internet today is a much different arena than it was just a few year ago. Companies were selling to a passive audience and rarely responded to customer feedback. Today, a business can be sure that people, ranging from customers to celebrities will be speaking about it on social media sites such as Facebook and X. The real time nature of social media means that any negative story associated with a company can spread into a global talking point very fast.
As new media emerge, companies should identify those that meet their requirements. Two-way communication characterizes social media. This provides businesses a unique opportunity to interact directly with the stakeholders. Direct interaction with stakeholders is an essential part of relationship building. Communication with customers should portray the companies respect and concern.
Online Reputation Management Strategies
Due to the increasing popularity of new media platforms like social media, many organizations now consider online corporate reputation management an integral part of the corporation. Based on the available definitions of corporate reputation, it is clear that it is a concept that must be nurtured.
Reputation changes over time. A corporation that has a good reputation today may not enjoy the same standing in the future. It should be recognized that businesses should put measures in place to improve and maintain their reputation. It is important to note that reputation is a collective responsibility of all members of the organization. In addition, there should be a team charged with this responsibility. The online reputation management team monitors the online mentions of the organization and its brand. It also develops and disseminates content.
A reputation crisis refers to a situation in which the online reputation of a firm has been damaged, and the situation is going out of control. Such a situation requires a planned response. The best way to deal with a reputation crisis is to prevent it from occurring. A firm should allocate resources to programs designed to prevent an online reputation crisis. Elements of crisis management include rapid response, well thought out response, sincerity, and honesty, and establishment of monitoring systems. A rapid response ensures that the crisis does not go out of control. All crises have a manageable beginning. Delaying is a sure way to escalate the crisis.
It is important to remember that while a rapid response is recommended, haste should not precede reason. The crisis management team should analyze the situation and only respond when they are sure of what they are saying. A poorly thought out response can worsen the crisis. All responses should be geared towards salvaging the damaged reputation. Sincerity and honesty should guide all correspondences between representatives of the business and the clients. If clients sense some dishonesty in the responses given, the company’s reputation will suffer further damage. The crisis should be monitored closely. This allows the organization to formulate responses based on the information being shared on the internet. Generally, an online reputation problem can quickly evolve into a crisis.
Various strategies have been used to manage reputation with varying outcomes. They include:
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
This strategy involves the purchase of visibility. An organization can buy space from search engines. The purchased space enables a company and its products to gain prominence in search results. However, this strategy is both expensive and troublesome. Competition for visibility increases the cost of the space offered. On the one hand, it increases the company’s expenditure. On the other hand, it is open to abuse by competitors.
For instance, a competitor may purchase all the top search results in order to reduce the visibility of others. However, it is one of the most controllable strategies. It takes a short time for a buyer to appear in the top search results. It is important to note that while it improves a company’s prominence, it may damage its financial standing. Therefore, this strategy should be employed carefully. The organization’s financial position should be considered when purchasing such visibility.
It is also important to note that the cost of visibility should be compared with its potential benefit. If the online reputation team is satisfied that it will improve the corporation’s financial standing, then it can be adopted. Generally, pay per click advertising favors established players who have more money to spend on advertising.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This encompasses practices aimed at giving a company prominence in search engine results pages. It is an increasingly difficult task. Search engine optimization is very unpredictable. It is difficult for a company to remain at the top of search results pages owing to code modifications effected by the search engines. This strategy focuses on drawing online traffic to the organization’s website. It also aims at pushing negative reviews and content about the company down the search results ranking. Online reputation managers hope that positive content will gain prominence over the negative ones. There is no single method that can be used to improve search results rankings in search engines. Therefore, search engine optimization requires considerable patience.
Allocating Resources to Online Reputation Management
It has been observed that while it easy to cause a reputation crisis online, it is difficult to restore a damaged one. A site carrying negative content can gain prominence and cause considerable damage to a company. A business should allocate enough resources to establish an online reputation management team. The team will devote their time to tracking information about the business online and establishing appropriate ways to respond to online commentary. Restoration of damaged reputation is very difficult, and it requires considerable time. However, while a company seeks to restore a damaged reputation, it should be aware that, in some instances, it is impossible to regain the reputation completely. It is important to divide resources among all the components of online reputation.
Setting up Monitoring Systems
A business can set up a system to monitor online mentions of its brand. Monitoring enables a business to respond to damaging or potentially damaging content before it gets to a larger audience. It should be remembered that negative content could spread very fast and get out of control. Setting up monitoring systems like Google alerts and RSS feeds allows a firm to respond timely. Early identification of negative content gives a firm enough time to give a well thought out response. Late responses are generally ineffective. Therefore, monitoring of online content is the only way an organization can identify disparaging content and respond early.
Pre-saturating Content Channels
This is a strategy that involves attempting to saturate all the top slots in search results with positive content. It is not enough to occupy only the topmost slots in a search engine result. Pre-saturation is done in the hope the damaging content is not seen at all by clients and potential clients. However, this is not an easy task. It is complicated by the fact that negative content can sometimes attract the attention of leading media establishments, thus gaining prominence. Another problem with pre-saturation is the sheer number of online platforms. Online platforms are numerous, and it is not possible to pre-saturate all of them with positive or desired content. However, attempting this strategy is worth the effort.
Maintaining Presence
Maintaining online presence ensures that a company interacts with the stakeholders. This may be accomplished either by setting up accounts in the major social media platforms or by hiring online reputation managers. These online profiles should be used to enhance customer satisfaction through improved interaction. Clients value meaningful conversations, especially those that show that the firm cares about them. This may also enable a firm to respond early to potentially damaging content. It has also been observed that the presence of positive reviews may influence how the next reviewer behaves.
Other strategies that are considered undesirable exist. They include paying reviewers or offering them discounts in exchange for favorable reviews, establishing fake blogs with positive reviews, creating content that tricks the system, and taking legal action. However, it should be noted that taking legal action might become counterproductive. Negative content may escape the attention of the majority of social media. Taking legal action may attract unwanted attention. The attention may cause more damage than the original content. Therefore, a business should be cautious when dealing with legal content. Legal action has the potential to escalate a problem. In most instances, other social media users will side with the reviewer. This may portray the business as an insensitive organization whose only interest is profitmaking.
To conclude, online reputation management is an effective approach to managing a company’s reputation online. It is wrong to believe that online reputation management is a matter of the past. With the growing intensity of market competition, reputation often becomes the only source of competitive advantage for firms and the most valuable organizational asset. It is clear that, in the markets full of identical products that are sold at identical prices, customers will prefer a company with a better reputation. However, a good reputation management strategy must be proactive and cover all aspects of the company’s performance.