By Nyah Scott
Google and Yelp reviews are just two of the many ways customers and clientele can leave feedback on you or your business.
With an onslaught of vague and overly-complex definitions of online reputation management (ORM) flooding the Internet, here’s a simple and straightforward explanation of one of the most essential parts of marketing in the digital age.
“Online”
Being online = limitless reach. The Internet. The world wide web. The great digital expanse. Whatever you call the collection of online platforms, people, businesses, and entities interacting with one another every minute of every day, it’s easy to realize that having an online presence is vital to any person or organization’s marketing strategy. Being online entails access to any individual or entity with an internet connection, and it is up to you or your business to tap into that reservoir of users to bolster positive exposure and algorithmic prioritization.
“Reputation”
The overall presentation of you or your business is key to attracting, obtaining, and retaining customers and clientele. If the initial online presentation of your brand is littered with negative feedback, controversial news coverage, or disparaging comments, it deters online users from being confident with engaging with you or your organization, and it will most likely keep dissatisfied users of the past from recommending you or your services to others. Online reputation is everything, especially in the time of remote work and quarantining during the pandemic. People will almost exclusively get their information online when seeking out a new product or service and trust the reviews of others to inform their own decisions.
“Management”
ORM is distinctive from the general facets of public relations because it is rooted in the reactive. Most people and businesses are focused on creating and sharing content and information that they create and they disseminate on their own, but online content and information generated by customers is equally if not more important than that self-generated media. What you share about you or your business online unprompted by outside inquiry is public relations, a proactive way of forming your online presence. What you share about you or your business in response to customers or clientele is ORM, a reactive way of moderating the buzz around your brand. Management can look like monitoring where your audience can leave reviews or directly comment on your business, responding quickly and thoughtfully to any negative comments or press, and remedy any damage done to your brand through social media campaigns or sharing toolkits with company representatives that help them in effectively replying to potential external negativity.
Your online reputation will not remain a positive face of you or your business without management. Initial bad press or reviews, if not addressed early and directly, will only exacerbate negative sentiment towards your organization. Through efficient ORM, your audience will see how dedicated you are to transparency and accessibility. You can find a balance in management of valid criticism to help improve your products or services and unwarranted purposefully defamatory remarks which should be removed. ORM can help curate your online presence with positive content you and your customers create, establishing a collaborative effort in expanding your brand that will put you or your business on the screens of people far and wide.