What Is Online Reputation Management? A Complete Guide

What is online reputation management (ORM)?And how does it influence your business? Let’s delve more into online reputation management in this article.

Online reputation management (ORM) means keeping an eye on what people say about a person, company, or brand online. It’s ensuring online content reflects them positively and aligns with their desired image.

The key focus of online reputation management, or ORM, is to create a positive perception of a brand or business.

ORM typically involves:

1. Monitoring: Monitoring mentions, reviews, and comments across online platforms like social media, review sites, forums, and news articles.
2. Analysis: assessing the sentiment and context of online mentions to understand the overall perception of the individual, business, or brand.
3. Engagement: Interacting with online audiences by responding to comments, addressing concerns, and engaging in constructive conversations to build trust and credibility.
4. Content Creation: Generating and sharing positive content, including blog posts, articles, press releases, and social media updates, to showcase achievements and favorable reviews.
5. SEO Optimization: Optimizing online content to prioritize positive search engine results and minimize negative or irrelevant content.
6. Crisis Management: Developing strategies to handle and mitigate the impact of negative reviews, comments, or publicity in a timely and effective manner.

Why is it important to manage your online reputation?

Managing your online reputation is super important for businesses nowadays. As more people rely on the internet, what they see about a company online can really affect its success. Here are a few reasons why:

1. How people search

 Almost all customers, like 97%, start looking for things to buy on Google. That means what shows up on search results can really shape what people think about a business. So, it’s crucial for businesses to have a good online image to catch the eye of potential customers.

2. Checking reviews

Nearly 93% of shoppers check out online reviews before buying something. Reviews matter a lot because people trust what others say about a product or service. That’s why it’s important for businesses to keep an eye on their reviews and fix any problems quickly.

3. Having a good image

 Businesses with a good online reputation are more likely to get customers. People prefer companies they see as honest, reliable, and trustworthy. A good reputation shows that a business cares about its customers and offers great products or services.

Factors that contribute to online reputation management

While the mix that each business uses to maintain its online reputation will differ, ORM should involve a combination of the following:

1. Online Presence and Branding

Having a good online image is super important for managing your reputation online. That means being active on social media, having a professional website, and making sure your brand looks the same everywhere online. When people see positive stuff about you online, they trust you more. But if you don’t pay attention to your online image, people might get the wrong idea about you.

1. Content Quality and Engagement

The stuff you put online and how you interact with people there really matters for how people see you. If you share the good stuff that people like and talk with them, it shows you know your stuff and care about what they think. That helps build trust and makes people like you more.

1. Online Reviews and Feedback

In the digital landscape, online reviews and feedback can make or break a reputation. Positive reviews act as endorsements, while negative ones can tarnish your image. Actively managing online reviews by promptly addressing customer concerns and acknowledging positive feedback can help mitigate the impact of negative reviews and showcase your commitment to customer satisfaction.

1. Search Engine Results

What shows up when people search for you online can really change how they think about you or your business. Making sure those search results are correct and positive means using special tricks to help search engines find good stuff about you. That includes making your website better, sharing good content, and keeping an eye on what people say about you online.

1. Owned media

 This includes things that the business itself creates or controls. For example, stories from employees or customers, content made by the brand, like blog posts or videos, and reviews left by customers. It also includes things like webinars, which are online presentations, and user-generated content, which is content made by customers, like social media posts about the brand.

1.  Paid media

 Paid media means paying to promote the business online. For example, the business might pay to have its posts show up more often on social media, or it might pay to have ads that lead people to its website. Paid media also includes things like affiliate programs, where the business pays others to promote its products, and native advertising, which is when the business pays to have ads that look like regular content on a website.

1.  Earned media

This is when other people or organizations talk about the business online without the business paying them to do so. This could include getting mentioned in news articles or blogs, or being featured by influencers who have a large following online. It also includes things like PR (public relations), where the business tries to get positive attention from the media or public.

The internet can be both good and bad for your business. It offers many ways to make your business look good online, but it also has risks that could harm your reputation.

Using a strategy for online reputation management, which includes regularly checking how people feel about your business online, can help you understand what’s going on. Here are some of the things it looks at: