Can you organize an effective Online Reputation Management strategy in 5 steps? Yes, and that’s exactly what we will discuss in this article. Keep reading to learn about the 5 stages of ORM and how you need to approach the process for sustained success.
According to research, 97% of business owners believe that online reputation management, or ORM, should be an important part of their corporate strategy.
But how do you incorporate reputation management into your long-term business plan? And what does an effective ORM strategy look like?
You know that ORM is essential to the longevity of your company, but you’re unsure where to begin. In fact, you aren’t even sure what kind of reputation is following your company in the first place.
Have no fear! Today, we’re discussing the 5 steps of an effective ORM strategy. None is too difficult or time-consuming, but all of them can help shape the conversation surrounding your brand and make it as positive as possible.
So, if you need answers regarding what the ORM process and steps entail, and how you can benefit from following them, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s get started!
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What Does an Effective Online Reputation Management Strategy Look Like?
If, for example, you’ve just discovered a piece of bad press about your business, you might be tempted to jump the gun and respond hastily. Yet, unless you have a dedicated strategy in place to manage your digital business reputation, those efforts could do more harm than good.
To that end, let’s take a look at the 5 steps that create a successful ORM strategy.
1. Reputation Research
What does an effective ORM strategy look like? Or, perhaps more importantly, where exactly does effective reputation management get its start?
Every reputation management strategy begins the same way. You have to conduct research online to understand the current public perception surrounding your brand.
Though it might sound laborious, among the 5 steps of ORM we’ll discuss today, this one is actually fairly easy. The internet makes it simple to find what people are saying about you, whether it’s good, bad, or anywhere in between.
Begin by conducting a simple Google search. Before you do, consider all of the search terms that web users might use to find out more about your company. These might include:
- Your business name
- Variations on your business name
- Key titles
- Major products or services
- Any other term associated with your business
Then, use these keywords to run multiple searches. Take note of any negative mentions you find.
Depending on what you find, you might do further research on;
Optimizing Your Online Ranking
If you’re not ranking in the top position for your brand, it’s usually due to one of these three issues:
- Your website isn’t indexed
- You have a Google penalty against you
- Your website is devoid of backlinks
If it’s the backlinks that are keeping you down, there are myriad ways you can earn or build them to gain more organic traffic.
Ideally, the rest of your brand mentions on page 1 of Google will be sites that you “own,” such as your:
- Twitter profile
- LinkedIn profile
- Facebook profile
- YouTube channel
Make sure you’re active on all of these channels and that your profile information is as up-to-date as possible. Then, add social media buttons to your website to make it easy for users to access those profiles. You can also link to them on other third-party websites (such as business directories) on which you’re registered.
As you increase your online visibility, Google will catch on and recognize these profiles as yours, increasing their chance of appearing on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
Why go to all of this trouble? If someone Googles your brand and the first page is full of your “owned” pages, any negative feedback is subsequently pushed lower.
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Branching Outside Of Google
During the ORM 5 step process, it’s important to know where to find your content online, and Google is an excellent resource in this regard. However, you should also take into account where your target audience hangs out.
Are they talking about your brand on social media? What about on online forums or review sites? The answer will help dictate where you should focus the majority of your research.
For instance, if you work within a B2C service industry, you’ll be most interested in business review sites, where people can give their honest feedback on their experience with your company. This means that, in addition to checking Google reviews, you’ll also take a close look at Angie’s List, ConsumerAffairs, the Better Business Bureau, and more.
In addition, if you specialized in physical products, you should monitor sites like Amazon, eBay, and other e-commerce retailers, as well. Before you move on to the next stage, check blogs, too. These provide writers with an open book to ramble about the great experience they had with your company — or run it into the ground.
Though it might be painful, you’ll need to see the entirety of your current feedback so you can move forward in a new direction.
Removing Negative Content
During the first of the 5 steps of ORM, if you find content that is untrue or negatively misleading, there’s a chance you can have it removed. While this might be possible through the website’s publisher, there are also ways to eliminate it from Google search results.
If you’re working with an ORM agency, these representatives can file a DCMA Takedown notice on your behalf. Legal reputation solutions like these are best handled by professionals with vast industry experience.
For the most part, however, your agency will work with you to turn the negatives into positives. This might mean helping you craft a stronger response strategy or pushing down the negative review with plenty of great ones!
2. Developing a Response Plan
It’s great to know what people are saying about your brand online. However, that’s only the first stage amongst the 5 steps of ORM. To really enhance your online reputation, you need to plan out how to respond to the information you found.
Before you go any further, put together an in-house team to handle this effort. As a beneficial alternative, you can also call an ORM agency that can handle all the legwork for you.
Regardless of the route you choose, you should know who:
- Monitors your online presence for comments and reviews
- Decides whether new social media reviews and comments will require a response
- Has answers on what position your company takes on potential issues or questions
- Will deliver that response
Of course, if you’re a small startup, your answer to all of these questions might be “Me!” Yet, if your organization has the bandwidth, it’s best to have a plan.
3. Set a Framework For Negative Comments
The 3rd stage of the 5 steps of ORM involves learning how to answer negative online reviews and comments.
You could be the best company in the world and still receive a one-star review from a jilted customer. Rather than logging in and deleting it right away, take a step back and reconsider how it can actually help your business’s image.
Bad reviews and low feedback scores give you a unique opportunity to change someone’s mind. This is your chance to impress and win over your hardest critics.
In the end, the effort will pay off. If you can maintain a polite, friendly, and professional tone, even when tensions rise and feelings get hurt, you’ll come out on top. Remember tho! This is not about winning. Always keep an open mind to feedback as it can truly help improve your products and services.
Your ORM agency can walk you through a step-by-step process for responding to negative comments with class. Rather than taking anything personally or taking major offense at every turn, remember to keep a cool and level head.
Tell the reviewer that you heard the complaint and that you’re listening. Then, provide their name to your team, who will be reaching out to make it right.
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4. Accentuate The Positives
We all have elements about our business that we hope someone notices. Top-notch customer service. Fast project turnaround. Fantastic entrees.
While you never want to ignore negative comments, the same holds true with anything positive that passes over your desk. Don’t ignore it or sweep it to the side!
In addition to thanking everyone that leaves a kind review, you can also position that positive energy to snowball into an even greater avalanche of customer satisfaction.
There are two ways you can approach this 4th stage of the 5 steps of ORM. Let’s take a look at each one.
Online Profile Management
Have you heard of the 1/9/90 rule in social media marketing?
This rule maintains that of the billions of people who log onto the internet every day, only 1% of them actively create content. In addition, 9% will contribute only a moderate amount, and 90% are silent observers who will absorb content for hours each day and never contribute to it.
It’s on this 90 % that you should focus your efforts.
While someone from the 1% of creators might leave you a new review, don’t rely on that activity to propel you along. Rather, it’s time to take proactive control.
Reclaim your online business listings and social media profiles. Enhance them with pictures, make sure the data is correct, and create interesting and informative content that you can share on these platforms (e.g., blog posts, articles, webinars, podcasts).
Ask For Feedback
Along the way, don’t be afraid to ask patrons to leave their honest feedback on how they perceive your brand and your corner of the internet.
This is an especially helpful approach in a one-on-one situation. For instance, if one of your customer service representatives helps a client with a challenging IT project, he can ask for a review at the end. A personal request is often more convincing than an automated email asking for feedback within a given timeframe.
5. Make The Changes And Monitor Results
Finally, during the last stage of the 5 steps of ORM, you must ensure you’re really making the changes you promised.
Did you offer that unhappy client a promotional code? When you told a disgruntled customer that you’d speak to a particular employee about an incident, did you actually hold that meeting?
Your customers are shrewd, and they can spot a fake from a mile away. If you fail to carry through on your claims, it won’t take long for them to use their misplaced trust as leverage against your brand.
Take the time to develop a plan detailing how you’ll make good on every claim. Try not to overpromise in an effort to quell negative feedback. Your responses should be realistic and doable within the realm of your current capabilities.
Monitoring Your Success
Once you have a system to actively respond to all issues entailing your reputation management, monitor its effectiveness. If you’re investing in ORM services in the first place, it’s because you want your reputation to move in an upward motion. But how can you tell if it’s heading in that direction?
If you use a monitoring tool, this step is straightforward. Most of these will reference the scoring system used by online review sites. As your reviews become more positive in nature, your score will improve. Watching that number move from three stars to five stars or from 50% satisfaction to 75% satisfaction, you’ll know that you’re heading in the right direction.
Along the same lines, most social media platforms include integrated sentiment analysis capabilities. For instance, Facebook has a tool called Facebook Insights.
With a few clicks, you can monitor the type of feedback that each of your posts receives. This can be an invaluable way to see what kind of content your target audience responds the best to and which they don’t.
Strategize Your ORM Process Approach With Us
Hopefully, this article on the 5 steps of ORM has helped you find answers to some of your questions regarding ORM steps, processes and strategies. Or, at least, provided some helpful tools for pointing your business reputation in the right direction.
However, a shiny, successful brand reputation doesn’t happen out of the blue!
Rather, it takes a concerted effort and focused strategy that involves everyone on your team. At the end of the day, your ORM strategy revolves around listening to what people are saying about you and putting steps in place to gently direct that conversation in a positive direction.
Need some help making that switch? That’s where we come in.
We’re ORM experts, and we’re ready to help your brand follow all the 5 steps of a successful ORM process so that it enters the limelight, unburdened by negative Google search results, false reports, or any defamation that’s holding you back.
Contact us today and step into the image you deserve.
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by Net Reputation