The ultimate guide for ORM

People are so much dependent on the internet these days whether it’s for information, buying or selling products and services, or even for making payments. Since all the information today is on our fingertips, searching for things and information has become easier. People go to the search engines and type in some keywords and boom they have their desired searched product in front of them. The sites on the search engines are ranked and thus are shown on the first or second pages.

Are you ever concerned about what people might say about your brand? How do people view your brand? How does your social profile look in people’s eyes? What is the overall rating of your brand or product? Paying attention to public ratings and reviews will help you understand this and get you out of the dilemma.  

While browsing for products, we often come across reviews and ratings of the products. These reviews and ratings determine how a product is performing on social or online platforms. These reviews and ratings build your online reputation.

So simply put it, is your online presence working for or against you?

Now let’s discuss what is ORM?

Online reputation management (ORM) is all about participating on social and online platforms. It combines traditional marketing and public relations with search engine marketing.

It manages search engines to build a brand reputation and secure the brand from negative exposure. Many times, people confuse online reputation management and online reputation monitoring.

Both are used interchangeably, but both have differences.

Online reputation monitoring just monitors the online platforms, it does not participate. It’s more about listening to the problems and queries but does not reply or take part in the conversation.

Most people, while browsing for a product or service, look for online reviews and ratings to have a better understanding of your brand and user experience.

Your online presence can either destroy or make your brand name.

How can you check your social or online reputation?

Before you hop on to make changes and improve your strategies, it’s important to understand where you are lagging or where exactly the problem stands.

Here’s how you can check your online reputation.

Search

While posting feedback on social platforms, people often prefer being brutally honest. Since they hide behind the screen, but in marketing, this is really helpful. When people don’t lie and actually provide genuine feedback, it helps us understand our mistakes and thus make improvements or changes.

Using search engines and Google My Business are great ways to get the reviews and ratings.

While on Google My Business, you need to make sure you are in the pack of three or first five listings. Since those 5 listings are the only relevant ones and most often used by the audience.

If you are not on that list, then you need to work on your Google My Business profile.

Learn more: read my article on Google My Business and understand it’s all benefits and how to use it.

Search engines

Similarly with the search engines, you need to make sure you are visible on the first page of the searched keywords. Since people rarely wander off to next pages to find answers. They get their answers on the first page. Thus, you need to be visible on the first page.

In case you are not visible on the first page, then you need to check your rankings on the search engine. Rankings even increase when people talk positively about your articles or blogs. The number of positive comments the more rank you have. Another way to get ranked is by using the keywords (SEO).

Socials

You need to check your socials to have a better online reputation. If I am not mistaken, everyone today is concerned about the number of followers they have.

So the first step is to check your number of followers and work on that. People judge a business by the number of followers they have.

Posts: your posts need to be consistent and along with that relevant to the audience. If your posts can’t be relevant, they should at least be informative and shareable so that people share your content, thus increasing your online presence along with your social reputation.

Responding: responding to the comments and messages is a great way to boost your online reputation. Replying shows that you genuinely care about your audience and can spend time on the audience. This makes people trust your brand and thus build a connection. Connection is extremely important if you want to build an online reputation.

This even matters when you receive negative comments. Your social fans often step up to support you and your brand. Thus reflecting customer brand relationships.  

Now, since you are aware of the problems, you need to act on them.

Here are a couple of tips which will help you solve your online reputation problems.

Set up reputation monitors

Don’t let the problems arise. Set up monitors so that they alert you to the potential problems. You can use Google alerts or Trackur to monitor your problems.

Increase participation

Ask the stakeholders and other reputed people of your brand to participate and engage with your audience. This increases trust and even makes the audience believe you care about them. This builds a relationship between you and your audience. It gives a face to your brand.  

Why are negative reviews important?

Negative reviews and ratings on the internet can easily decide the future of your product for the potential customers. I am not saying that negative comments aren’t necessary or that you should delete them. But handling negative reviews is the key here. People judge your brand by the way you reply and handle the negative comments.

In the end,

It’s vital that you receive feedback to understand your audience and thus build a brand reputation. Just like in the real world, when a person is reputed, they are honored.

Similarly, when your brand has a reputation in the online world, then you get sales and you are even honored in the online market.

If you are not sure about digital marketing strategies and are looking for some help, well the experts at digileap marketing services provide digital marketing strategies. Book your free consultation call today!