Today, with the rise of social media, review sites, and business directories, it feels like everyone has an opinion on everything. Customers are also savvy enough to recognize when a brand is being authentic or trying to conceal a hard truth.
Whether you are a small business or a big brand, one negative comment can damage your online credibility and affect your success. This is precisely why online reputation management (ORM) is so important.
Fortunately, there is much you can do to manage your business or brand's online reputation. This guide covers everything you need, from the critical elements of ORM to the top platforms available. It will help you identify the necessary steps to monitor, influence, and enhance your brand's online reputation, ultimately building trust with online users.
Soon, you can feel confident that the most favorable results will appear when online users search for your brand. Your brand will gain trust, and you’ll notice a positive impact on your revenue.
Are you ready to learn more? Let’s get started.
How Does ORM Work?
Online reputation management (ORM) is the process of monitoring, influencing, and improving a business or brand's reputation online. It involves building a good digital image through customers' positive experiences.
The goal is to create and maintain a positive view of a brand or business and gain the trust of online users.ORM focuses on defending your business reputation by responding to bad reviews, acting on unfavorable search results, and correcting misinformation or misleading information.
Online review management is a growing challenge as online platforms, such as social media, business directories, and review sites, are expanding exponentially. Secondly, and in parallel, the number of potential customers turning to search engines to research new products or services is also growing.
By investing in online reputation management, individuals, businesses, and brands can improve trust and credibility, attract customers, and improve sales. This positively impacts the bottom line and ensures long-term success.
Key Elements of Online Reputation Management
Online reputation management is essential for maintaining a positive image in the digital world. Let’s explore its key characteristics.
Monitoring Online Mentions
It is crucial for effective online review management services to monitor and analyze online discussions, mentions, and reviews related to your business or brand. This provides valuable insights into your business, competitors, and topics that may impact your industry. Since each platform caters to a distinct audience, tracking reviews across various platforms ensures a comprehensive view of your brand’s online reputation.
Monitoring discussions surrounding your brand can be done manually, but this can be time-consuming and difficult. Instead, using software tools is highly recommended. Social listening tools can track and analyze mentions, sentiment, and emerging trends about your brand. This comprehensive view of how your brand is perceived online allows businesses to identify areas for improvement and make informed decisions to protect and enhance their online reputation.
Managing Online Reviews
When a brand engages in conversations and responds to customer inquiries and concerns, it reflects that the business values its customers and is committed to providing good service. A two-tier approach to online review management is required for both positive and negative reviews.
Addressing negative reviews quickly and professionally shows transparency and a commitment to customer satisfaction. It may even lead the reviewer to change or delete the review.
Responding to positive reviews helps build brand loyalty and encourages customers to return.
Social Media Management
More than 5 billion people use social media. With so many people connected worldwide, social media plays a significant role in shaping public opinion and influencing economic decision-making. It affects online reputation management in two ways.
Businesses must navigate the digital landscape cautiously to have a reputation that resonates with their target audience and accurately transmits their values. One negative comment or viral post can damage a brand's reputation, thus making social media reputation monitoring essential.
However, with billions of people connected via social media, reputation management goes beyond protecting yourself from potential adverse impacts. It is also an opportunity to express who you are and what your values are to the world.
To successfully manage your social media online reputation, you have to:
Monitor social media channels and what people are saying about your business online
Respond to reviews, remarks, and customer feedback
Create relevant and engaging content that will keep audiences engaged and positive about your brand and
Address negative feedback promptly and politely
Benefits of Effective Online Reputation Management
There is no doubt that effective online reputation management benefits your business. We can split the benefits of ORM into seven categories:
Build Trust and Credibility
A robust online presence and reputation with positive reviews and feedback support building trust and credibility with your target audience.
Increase Brand Awareness
Effective online reputation management enhances your online presence and attracts more people to your website. Your website and social media accounts are also more likely to feature high in search results for keywords related to your business.
Improve Search Engine Rankings
Reputation and trust are crucial to be ranked high by search engines like Google.
A positive online reputation will enhance your search engine rankings. When people search with keywords related to your business, your website will have high search results.
Enhance Customer Relationships
Online reviews management can boost customer relationships as it shows you are prepared to listen to them and value their thoughts by responding to their reviews, both positive and negative.
Protect Your Reputation
Online reputation management is critical in safeguarding your reputation from criticism or unfavorable reviews.
Negative comments can undermine client trust in your brand or harm your online presence. With ORM and a well-crafted answer to a negative review, you can fix the issue and safeguard your reputation for the future.
Crisis Management
ORM is essential for crisis management. When an adverse event occurs, such as a negative comment, review, or controversy on social media, online reputation management can help minimize the impact. A prompt and well-crafted response can help you regain the clients’ trust and protect your reputation.
Competitive Advantage
Online reputation management will help you attract and retain more customers, expand your market share, and gain a competitive advantage.
Top ORM Platforms
Software tools are essential for effective online reputation management. We have reviewed the reputation management software platforms and made a shortlist of four competitive options for your consideration.
1. Synup
Synup is an online reputation managementand digital customer experience software platform. It supports businesses in online reputation management (ORM) and is suitable for companies of various sizes, including SMBs and enterprises. Synup features review and reputation monitoring tools, automated review campaigns, and customer relationship management systems that allow agencies to take charge of their online presence. It is a highly competitive ORM software platform with AI-supported automation, a single dashboard, white labeling, and many other features.
Key Features of Synup
The program's characteristics include the following:
With Synup, you are alerted about reviews through the review notification service.
Increase the number of reviews by integrating with more than 100 CRM (customer relationship management) systems and running automated review campaigns.
Synup's AI features allow you to generate automated review responses based on rating, sentiment, location, and other factors.
Listings management to keep business information accurate and up to date.
Synup has advanced analytics and reporting capabilities.
White-label review management features for agencies and resellers are available with Synup.
Allow Synup’s software tools to handle many online reputation management tasks—especially the tedious ones—so you can focus on other areas of your business. The following are the primary benefits of using Synup:
Manage Customer Engagement some text
Receive notifications with the review notification service.
Dedicated review responses are possible through the available review templates and Synup’s sentiment analysis tools, which allow for positive or negative reactions.
Automated review campaigns may be scheduled through Synup, generating more reviews.
Draft automated review responses based on rating, sentiment, location, and other factors using automation and AI.
Make informed data-driven decisions with the advanced analytics available within the Synup software tools
Manage listings with Synup across 200+ directories, search engines, and social media platforms for brand visibility and consistency.
Synup features white-label capabilities, which are especially useful for agencies or resellers, and with regards to Synup CRM and sales management tools.
Birdeye is a reputation management and digital customer experience software. It is highly regarded for its features and is used by local businesses, brands, and multi-location companies for online reputation management. Many businesses use the Birdeye platform to be found online, listen to social channels, connect to digital channels, and deliver a top-notch customer experience, all while aiming to optimize their online reputation management.
Key Features of Birdeye
The following are the notable characteristics of Birdeye:
Online Review Management consisting of: some text
Review monitoring while utilizing Birdeye’s NLP (natural language processing) capability.
Review responses
Review generation
An AI-powered platform that:some text
Analyzes customer reviews for sentiment analysis
Provides auto-generated, personalized responses to customer reviews with customized filters for region, product, rating number, and more.
Generates automated review requests at optimal times
Birdeye provides interactive tools to engage customers and gather vital feedback such as surveys, chatbots, etc.
The analytics and AI data analysis provide intelligent, actionable insights to improve customer experiences.
Birdeye has white-label capabilities, which can be leveraged if you are an agency or reseller.
Benefits of Birdeye
Birdeye is focused on improving your online reputation, and its users enjoy the following benefits:
Monitoring and analyzing customer reviews for sentiment analyses utilizing Birdeye’s AI features and NLP (natural language processing).
Providing auto-generated, targeted responses to customer reviews by applying customized filters with Birdeye’s AI-powered software.
Determining the optimal timing and generating automated review requests for maximum effect (with the AI-powered software).
Making informed, data-driven decisions with feedback from powerful analytics and reporting tools providing trend, performance, and customer sentiment analyses.
Online review management and ORM: Manage all activities and evaluate performance via the centralized dashboard (customizable)
Customize the platform for white labeling if you are an agency or reseller.
3. GatherUp
GatherUp is a reputation management platform. It supports you in managing your business's online reputation by helping you handle all aspects related to your customers—listening to, understanding, and engaging with them. GatherUp analyzes customer feedback and provides sentiment analysis, AI-assisted SMART, and actionable insights, which are used to retain customers through:
SMS Marketing Campaigns
AI-generated review replies
Social Sharing of Reviews
Key Features of GatherUp
The important features of GatherUp are:
It features an easy-to-use and intuitive UX/UI (user experience/user interface) that simplifies obtaining customer feedback.
The interaction with customers is via a three-tier approach: some text
Listen: Gather customer feedback.
Understand: AI-assisted analyses of customer feedback.
Engage: Use insights to attract, engage, and retain customers.
Customer feedback is analyzed and organized (based on topic, theme, or keywords) for interpretation and defining follow-up actions withsome text
Sentiment Analysis
AI-assisted Smart Insights
GatherUp uses the insights in customer sentiment to engage and retain customers through using the software for: some text
SMS Marketing Campaigns
AI-generated review replies
Social Sharing of Reviews
White Label reputation software is available with the Agency plan.
Benefits of GatherUp
You can do online reputation management and review monitoring all in one place with GatherUp to:
Improve the customer experience
Attract new customers
Retain existing customers:
Gather customer feedback and reviews with its listening, understanding, and engagement features
Gain customer sentiment analysis and AI-assisted insights from customer feedback and reviews.
Obtain actionable feedback for implementation.
You can engage and retain customers through SMS marketing campaigns, AI-generated replies (reviewed using SMART REPLY), and reviews that are shared socially with GatherUp.
4. SOCi
SOCi is a reputation and social media operation tool. It excels in online reviews management, covering all main aspects, from monitoring and sending real-time alerts to responding to reviews and exploring sentiment. Sentiment analysis includes topic and location-specific details. SOCi supports clients in strengthening their digital presence across local search and social media, gaining customer engagement, conversion, and positive results. SOCi has developed and implemented the “Genius Platform,” which uses AI and machine learning to generate business insights and provide actionable recommendations for multi-location brands.
Key Features of SOCI
The key features of SOCi are summarized as follows:
Reputation management: By managing and responding to reviews on various platforms, SOCi maintains and improves your brand reputation.some text
Track and respond to all reviews and
monitor review sentiment.
Social media management: Using a single dashboard, plan, publish, and keep an eye on content on several social media channels..
Analytics and Reporting: Detailed analytics and reports track reviews and social media performance.
The SOCi platform has a content library that stores and organizes content for easy access and publishing.
SOCi Go, the real-time mobile App, allows users to engage with the platform on a 24/7 basis.
Benefits of SOCi
SOCi users enjoy the following benefits:
Monitor various review sites and social media continuously for new reviews and feedback.
Receive real-time alerts for new reviews - enabling prompt responses.
Respond to reviews via the SOCi platform,some text
address negative responses,
and appreciate positive responses.
Analyze reviews to understand the sentiment and categorize reviews based on sentiment, location, and topic, using the analyses available with SOCi.
Utilize the reporting tools to analyze the data, pinpoint areas in need of development, and make data-driven business decisions.
Use content from the “library” for publishing as needed.
Have access to the SOCi platform on a 24-hour basis with the SOCi Go App
Trust and credibility are everything (well, almost everything).
With billions of people interacting on social media, the world is a small place. A negative comment can go viral and quickly damage a business's reputation. Online reputation management is critical for building trust and credibility for your brand, managing crises effectively, and protecting your reputation.
Now that you understand how ORM works and the key elements of online reviews management, you can develop or improve your ORM strategy. Review the software tools again and decide which one you want to explore further. Be proactive. Implement your online reputation management strategy, and be prepared for any adverse events so you can manage them before they affect your reputation.
The good news is that every dollar spent on reputation monitoring will yield a return. With ORM, you will gain the trust of your target audience, attract new customers, and increase the number of returning customers. You can look forward to a positive impact on your business income.
Don't learn the hard way how important ORM is. Take the first step today and get your strategy in place.
What is Online Reputation Management?: FAQs
What does one's online reputation mean, and why does it matter?
An online reputation or e-reputation is the reputation of a company, brand, person, product, or service on the internet and digital platforms.
Online reputation is impacted by the content a business or brand distributes or posts online, its reactions and interactions with online users, and its activity on social platforms. Building trust and credibility with your targeted audience is vital.
Which factors influence your online reputation?
The following factors that affect your online reputation can be highlighted :
Quality and relevance of content
Customer feedback and reviews
Social media presence
Online interactions and behavior
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Web page design
Accessibility and inclusivity
Privacy and online security
Does your online reputation matter?
Online reputation is crucial in determining reach, growth, and business success. Visibility and consistency are essential for an online strategy. It is estimated that it takes 5-7 impressions for people to remember a brand.
Why is online reputation needed?
The benefits of an online reputation can be summarized as follows:
Improved brand image
Increased trust and credibility
Better customer relationships
Higher conversion rates
A competitive edge
Positive customer feedback and online reviews can attract more customers, leading to business growth and success.
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