How to create a strategy to improve your online reputation
Getting started with online reputation management can seem daunting. Still, there’s a lot you can do to create an excellent online reputation for your business – long before potential worst-case scenarios arise.
You can use several brand management strategies to boost your search engine rankings, increase engagement rates, and see positive results on your bottom line.
Here’s a step-by-step online reputation management guide.
Audit your online reputation
Begin by finding out where people are talking about your brand. From blogs to social media, there will be a lot out there about your brand – perhaps even in places you don’t know about.
You can manually search your company’s name on search engines to see what information comes up about your brand. This will include internal information like your web pages. Make sure to do this on an incognito browser so you get an unbiased view.
Social media is more potent than ever. So it’s important to see what consumers think about your brand across these sites, too. Companies that opt out of certain social media platforms still need to understand – and occasionally engage with – what's being said about them in these places. At the end of the day, you need to meet your audience where they are, so gather this information to help inform your strategy moving forward.
You can also do a survey for both customers and non-customers to understand what people think of your business and how it stacks up against your competitors. This should include people who have never heard of your company so you can see how your business is perceived by people who aren’t customers yet.
Consider using a social listening tool like Brandwatch Consumer Research to make this process (a lot) easier. This way, you can get a holistic view of your reputation all in one place.
Analyze your findings
Now you have a good idea about what people are saying about your brand – and where they’re saying it – it’s time to analyze your findings.
Take a look at the themes that come up when looking at how consumers are discussing your brand, and measure these up to your core brand values. Are there any discrepancies?
Find out what topics come up the most often, and implement a strategy to engage with these conversations in a way that reflects your brand identity. For example, if people criticize your customer service, you can make it simpler for customers to find out how to get in touch. Or, if they’re praising it, you can prioritize showcasing how easy it is to get issues resolved.
For your online reputation to measure up to your brand identity, you need to get serious about how you want to be perceived online. You can then use this information to advise your strategy going forward.
Now you have a good idea about which areas you need to work on, it’s time to implement these strategies.
Create quality content
A crucial part of online reputation management is having your own voice and using it. Even if what people are saying about your brand is positive, creating content that resonates with your audience can help to ensure it stays that way.
Brainstorm how you can implement content that mirrors your brand identity and post it on platforms where your customers are spending their time. This can include anything from:
There will be plenty of places to share your brand identity, and creating quality content is one of the best ways to engage with your audiences.
Optimize your SEO
Utilizing search engines is key to optimizing your website strategy. Making sure your SEO is strong can lead to direct customer conversions – and, it means that you get to define how your brand will appear when people search for you.
Complete a full SEO audit to find out how you can improve your website. Discover what pops up first about your brand on search engines, and review whether this is how you want your brand to be perceived.
Is your brand identity evident on your website? Can you create any content that will boost your search engine rankings? What are customers, and potential customers, searching for when they look up your brand?
Customers want to find relevant information about your brand straight away, so prioritize SEO to improve the return on investment on your website.
Engage with your audience
From partaking in conversations about your brand to creating thoughtful content for your audience, engaging with potential customers is vital.
This can include anything from:
- Answering the questions people are asking about your brand
- Replying to direct messages or mentions on social media
- Generating new conversations with your customers
- Making FAQs based on the questions people are asking the most
Answer questions, engage with your social followers, and build a reputation for contributing to the narrative happening about your brand. This way, you’ll find that people speak more favorably about you.
Address negative reviews
Online reputation management and reviews go hand-in-hand. The online community offers a lot of transparency, and if you’re not doing well, you’re going to hear about it.
Make sure your staff are all mindful of how they come across when interacting with customers – even if they’re not directly consumer-facing. Something as small as a bad email manner could put somebody off.
Make an effort to acknowledge any negative press you might be getting, especially if it’s as a review left on your, or a third-party, website. Be quick to reply, too, so other customers can see that you care about their experience.
Putting more effort into building relationships also means that customers are often more willing to be vocal about you. If you’re doing a good job, ask your customers, clients, or fans to leave a glowing review.
Make sure to showcase any positive reviews you get. Do this in as many places as possible, so potential customers can see how great your brand is.
From sharing these on an Instagram Story to featuring them on the website or including them in email marketing, there are plenty of relevant places to share positive reviews.
You could even create video content, interviewing customers further to create a bank of review content you can use across social media – or even for ads.
Proactively asking for feedback from happy customers will increase the number of positive reviews you have.
Make sure to act on any feedback you get, too. Reviews are an essential part of understanding your customer journey.
Monitor your brand’s reputation continuously
Online reputation management is an ongoing process for all brands. As social media, search engines, and customer expectations grow and evolve, it’s important to stay on the pulse of what people are saying about your brand.
The online world moves fast. If there’s a crisis, knowing the landscape of the internet and what’s important to your audience will help you react quickly and in the best way possible. Keep up to date with the latest trends or bring in experts from online reputation management companies to help.
Now you know the key signifiers of online reputation, you can start figuring out how to manage yours effectively.
If you need a hand in knowing how to do online reputation management, why not try Brandwatch? We can help you understand what’s being said about you online.