{"id":764,"date":"2019-11-28T11:39:12","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T11:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandmentions.com\/blog\/?p=764"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:16:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:16:43","slug":"online-reputation-management-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandmentions.com\/blog\/online-reputation-management-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Reputation Management Guide. Build. Maintain. Recover."},"content":{"rendered":"

W<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

elcome to online, a huge party where you chat, make yourself visible, integrate within a group and manage to form your own gang. Sounds very natural and simple but the smallest fail like falling from stairs or a private picture of you that your friend shows to everyone can ruin this party for you. The same is with your online reputation that takes a lot to build and just some seconds to ruin.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To assure a clear understanding of your brand and also to win trust and devotion of your audience, your company needs to invest a good amount of time and effort. So reputation management is more of a triathlon than just a sprint. This long-term, complex process consists of building your company's name, maintaining it stable and recovering it in case of dramatic incidents. Knowing what to expect, now we can go in depth through this guide to online reputation.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. How to Build Your Online Reputation<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. How to Maintain Your Online Reputation<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. How to Recover Your Online Reputation<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But first thing first...<\/p>\n

    What is online reputation management?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Online reputation management (ORM) is the process of monitoring the digital presence of a brand and influencing the audience\u2019s opinion about it.\u00a0So if your company is present in online it is very risky to not worry about its brand reputation in online. Ignoring it might affect directly or indirectly your revenue for a longer period of time. And rebuilding it is a much more difficult process but let\u2019s not go so far yet.<\/p>\n

    Why reputation management is important? <\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Online reputation management is absolutely necessary in this era of digitalization in order to grow and control your brand image, to build a long term relationship with customers and to control the social approval of your product\/service. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Brand is no longer what we tell the customers it is - it is what consumers tell each other it is.
    \n<\/span>Scott Cook, director of eBay and Procter & Gamble<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    You probably think \"fewer of common known concepts and more practical steps, please\".<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n

    How to Build Your Online Reputation<\/h2>\n

    Like in triathlon, you start by diving into the online ecosystem and swimming through a lot of digital channels and types of content. What can you do build your brand image:<\/span><\/p>\n

    1. Social Media Presence <\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Your reputation is basically what people are saying about you. As a logical conclusion, in order to build your online presence, your first step is to let people interact with you the easiest way for them. So a profile on social media automatically announces your openness to the audience. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Statistics say that 1 out of 4 potential customers interacts on social media channels with the brands before buying from. <\/span><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Besides your availability, your digital presence is also one more social proof filter.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Do not:<\/span><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0There are so many social platforms on the internet and even if it seems very promising to make pages on all them, still be reasonable. You need to reach only your potential clients and there is no sense to make a snapshot account if you are a B2B company.<\/span><\/p>\n

    2. Run a High-Quality Blog<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

    Be not just a product or a service for your target audience, be a friend who gives advice, a teacher who guides step by step, a talkative neighbor who tells you all the juicy news. Basically be someone people need day by day so they get attached to your brand. You can easily do this by starting a blog<\/a><\/strong>, friendly for both users and\u00a0search engines, where you publish the engaging information your audience might need and look for within\u00a0search results.<\/span><\/p>\n

    By the way, it\u2019s a must to keep blog posting constantly and also to invest time and creativity in content creation. Make it as creative as possible: create infographics<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0animate your text by adding images, audio, video content.\u00a0 By starting a blog you officially promise your audience to have an effective communication strategy and stay close and help. Once you stop you will be replaced by other industry blogs.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Do not:<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Your blog is your voice so don\u2019t use it to scream out loud about yourself, just whisper now and then about how can your product\/service help. A content strategy would help you avoid this problem. Just look at the blog of Dollar Shave Club. Without its generic name you wouldn\u2019t really guess what are they selling, and still, these articles attract the public and make people buy its health care products for men.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    3. Reach to Your Influencers<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

    Like coming into a party, make your friends introduce you to the new group. The same is in online, find the influencers (vloggers, experts in a niche, celebrities etc) whose followers are your main audience and ask them to talk about you. Be aware that this kind of collaboration is monetized but it can bring you, new customers. A research about influencer marketing and a little bit of creativity can raise your visibility. Start by learning how to reach them using this short guide<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Do Not:<\/span><\/strong> Influencers<\/a> are not you sellers, don\u2019t expect them to flatter you all the time, they still want to be authentic, they won't be fixing your online reputation. And even if you pay tons for it in\u00a0crisis management situations, and the influencer accepts it, the audience still will feel and punish overpromotion.<\/span><\/p>\n

    4. Transparency Policy<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

    As risky as it sounds, transparency is the best policy. Besides your main marketing message be open to show your team, your CSR action, and even your fails. Moreover, encourage your employees and clients to tell their opinion and experience with you. Brand transparency inspires trust and is the best way to establish a healthy relationship. <\/span><\/p>\n

    At some point, negative content might pop up but, nobody is perfect and even this situations handled right can bring you benefits. (we will discuss how to respond to negative reviews<\/a> and comments right away). <\/span><\/p>\n

    Do Not:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Being honest and natural when it comes to your company reputation has its limits. Still keep in mind basic ethical rules like appropriate language, respect for gender and race equality, politics etc. For example, this McDonald\u2019s<\/strong> tweet didn\u2019t end well<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n

    How to Maintain Your Online Reputation<\/h2>\n

    After getting all soaking wet building reputation and a good public perception, it comes the time for maintaining it. It is much like cycling, you get on it, learn how to do it and then keep going getting more and more traction. <\/span><\/p>\n

    1. Monitor. Monitor. Monitor<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

    Even not trying to quantify, it is obvious that internet is huge with myriads of users and tonnes of content. A comment about your brand can jump out from any corner and you better be prepared. Stay always with an eye on what people are saying about your brand otherwise you might lose potential customers or miss a negative discussion that can ruin your name. <\/span><\/p>\n

    There already exist many tools that help you monitor your presence all other the online. Some of them are free like Google Alerts. But the major difficulty with these kinds of media monitoring tools is that they are not accurate enough and you still risk to miss some social mentions, negative reviews and comments etc. In this case, you might want to go for some paid tools like BrandMention<\/strong><\/a> (with a free trial) that also include many other features like alerts, reports, sentiment analytics, keyword search. <\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Before deciding to invest go through these 5 reasons Why Brand Monitoring Is a Must and Not a Whim<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    2. Be Present on Review Platforms<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

    70% of consumers read 4 or more reviews before trusting a business\u00a0<\/a> <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Statistics speak for itself. So, even if you're facing\u00a0reputation issues or not, get some reviews on board. Find the review platforms based on your niche, make your company page and then encourage your clients, collaborators are the whole audience to leave their opinion there. Obviously, you don\u2019t have control over the reviews but you can monitor your digital reputation. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Negative aspects can appear at any time. The good side is that those negative comments are a perfect source of feedback and future improvement. Negative reviews and comments can have a big emotional impact on you, see how you handle it in a most profitable way for Neil Patel<\/a>'s perspective. <\/span><\/p>\n