Strategies to master online reputation management and boost your business success

Warren Buffet – one of the greatest investors of all time – said: "Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding; lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless." This perfectly illustrates two things: First, reputation is the key to business success, and second, it depends mainly on your actions.

Managing your reputation has become more critical with the explosion of online reviews and comments. However, having the appropriate strategy to operate daily and in urgent situations would be best.

In this post, I will show you how to create an effective online reputation management strategy and some best practices to help you implement the system in your business. Let's have a look!

What is an online reputation management strategy?

Let's start with the basics – online reputation management (ORM) controls how users perceive you, your company, or your brand.

A good strategy involves a multi-track approach, so you need to:

• Please communicate with your customers (e.g., by answering their comments on social media)
• Ensure good PR
• Monitor your online reputation (use social listening )
• Be prepared for crises and serious problems.

My experience shows that a properly implemented ORM strategy can help protect your brand, build customer relationships, and increase sales.

How to create your online reputation management strategy: A step-by-step guide

You already know what online reputation management is about, so it's time to consider implementing such a strategy in your business. Could you take a look at this list of the best practices?

Understand your current online reputation.

One of the essential issues is knowing your current situation. Many businesses must clearly understand their online presence's current state before jumping into PR campaigns. Of course, reading all comments and reviews is impossible, but you have a better option – social listening. Our platform comes with an intuitive feature called the brand health index . It's super-useful to understand what's your starting point.

Internet monitoring allows you to draw conclusions about your online presence and prepare a plan considering them. Social listening lets you quickly identify what people are saying and where they are talking about your brand. This information makes it possible to react promptly to negative comments or reviews and take necessary actions.

However, it would be best to remember that it is not enough to react to problems but also to counteract them. Your strategy must be reactive and proactive at the same time.

Could you make a list of your challenges and goals??

To grow your business, you need to know the goal you are aiming for and the challenges that may arise along the way. Online reputation management is no different – you must list your challenges and goals. Maybe the problem is as simple as some negative reviews on social media, or perhaps you need to increase your brand's visibility. Possibly you must improve customer service or presence in different media channels.

Remember: Each challenge or goal must be measurable so that you can track progress over time.

Importantly, your list should be prioritized by order of importance and solve the most pressing problems first. You will see the best results in the shortest time when tackling issues in order of priority.

Online reputation marketing – how to build a positive brand image?

Your online reputation management strategy should also include actions to improve your brand image and positioning. I'll show you some simple but very effective ways to manage it. First, you must use available tools – your social media channels, website, and newsletter.

Website

If you have a website, please ensure it's up-to-date and well-maintained. It should be easy to navigate, have good content, and have a professional design. Design is responsible for the first impression, the content resonates with the viewer's interests, and ease of navigation is indispensable for the convenience and intuitiveness of your website. Moreover, all of these elements should be optimized for search engines so your website can be easily found online.

Social media

Nowadays, online reputation is heavily influenced by what people say about your business on social media. To protect your brand, be proactive and regularly monitor hashtags, comments, and mentions of your company name (again, this is where social listening saves the day). Respond to any feedback you get significantly negative, but be professional about it – either explain the situation or offer a solution.

Newsletter

A newsletter is a tool that's often neglected, but it can help you build a positive brand image in many ways. That's why we so eagerly use it at SentiOne! You can introduce new products, share news about your company and industry, or even create a brand story through newsletters. Just remember – a newsletter differs from an email with a new offer. You should think about it as a tool mainly for engaging your audience.

All the channels I mentioned above are also great for posting positive reviews from your customers/users.?This way, you can show that others trust you, which will help build a bridge between you and a new or undecided user (so-called social proof).

Practical online reputation management strategy – summary

An online reputation management strategy is essential for any company, regardless of size, industry, target market, or location. It involves actively monitoring and managing online content, including reviews, brand mentions, social media posts, articles, etc. It's also essential to stay ahead of negative conversations and address any potential crisis that could arise.?

In all these applications, social listening can help you stay up to speed with the market and respond to occurring changes. Manual checking reviews and conducting reputation monitoring is an inefficient and time-consuming task. It's close to impossible, too! A much better idea is to use advanced technology to do the heavy lifting for you.

In this short post, I've just scratched the surface of online reputation management. If you'd like to know more, I encourage you to review our comprehensive ORM guide .