This is the definitive guide to online reputation management (ORM) in 2021.
We will cover the most important aspects of ORM for 2021. You are also going to see some techniques and strategies that are important for your business.
So, if you are going to look up your online reputation this year, You will love this online reputation management guide.
Let’s get started.
What is online reputation management?
Online reputation management is the process in which the right information appears when people look you or your brand name up in search engines like Google or on social networks like Facebook. The idea is basically to suppress or to minimize the negative content and to promote flattering content.
The primary task of ORM is to control the group’s and people’s reputation. The techniques and strategies that are used in ORM can help people who search for you on the internet will find the correct stuff.
Common Misconceptions
Q1. People will only be interested to discuss your brand if you already obtain a large online presence?
Answer :- No, this is not the truth because consumers can always find ways to express themselves with one another online. Even a local business owner knows that a simple comment on their Facebook page about their services can spread to thousands of possible clients.
Q2. You can ignore unfavourable comments or reviews about you.
Answer :- Ignoring the negative comment or review won’t make them disappear. They will remain visible to the entire online community. What we think a proper response is the only way to show your willingness and when potential clients read your response you may even gain more customers
Q3. To stay on the top your business must only get 5/5 reviews all time
Answer :- Having a perfect 5 overall rating is rather suspicious. It appears unrealistic. Make sure your brand has a balanced review and favorable rating.
Is Online Reputation Management Important for Business?
Yes, online reputation management is important for business.
Let me explain.
Renowned business houses are capable of tackling reputation related threats as their PRs have a huge financial budget but even they sometimes fail to handle online reputation threats correctly.
BUT
The things are worse for startups, professionals, celebrities, and people from different walks of life since they don’t think much of ORM. Your future career prospects are also influenced by online reputation. In fact, Qualtrics.com clearly stated in an article that 93% of consumers say that online reviews influenced their purchase decisions.
To put simply, everyone is vulnerable to online reputation, and threats are very much real & pricey.
Wondering how expensive it is to recover from a bad reputation case?
Here are just a couple of reasons why your business needs online reputation services. Have a look!
Build a Brand Image:- An effective ORM can help you build the perfect brand image. Monitoring the responses to any form of communication online can help create the brand image which your company desires. So much can go right as well as wrong while going online with your brand.
Increase Sales:- Best ways to improve your sales is by engaging with potential customers through direct and indirect means such as social media posts. Reputation management companies can share insights from your customer ’s behaviour & reaction, which in turn can help you understand the best form of communication to go forward to convert the customers.
Increase online Visibility:- Gaining a top position in the search engines is a great way to increase the online visibility for your company and online reputation plays an important role in this.
Reputation threats can come from clients or customers, fake media sites, business rivals. In this case, if your business doesn’t invest in developing an online presence, you will pay considerable costs later.
How To Improve Online Reputation Management?
To improve your online reputation you want to brand yourself as a thought leader in your field.
It takes time and consistently to build that reputation and to establish your credibility.
One of the most effective strategies to growing your online reputation is to add some personality to your website and social media.
Some ideas:
1. Create genuine, valuable content
Use the words on your website to make the reader feel like you are speaking directly to them. Show that you understand the difficulties they face and address the way they feel and think about your product or service.
People like stories. Share your business story. Make it personal and authentic, relating to them on a human level. Show them who you are and what you are passionate about.
You can highlight your authenticity in many ways – through social media, customer support, blogging, or behind-the-scenes interactions with others. Get to know your audience and allow them to get to know you too.
2. Look the part
To be seen as credible, you have to look credible first. Show your skill and expertise by giving your viewers a glimpse of what you do. Let them see that there are real people – not stock photo people – on the other side of the website.
Show photos of you in action, doing what you do best. This could be meeting with a client, creating or inspecting your product, or working in your store or on your computer. Looking the part will increase trust in you and your brand.
3. Give away something delightful
As a successful business owner, you must be an expert in your field – or you wouldn’t have succeeded! Establish yourself as an expert and thought leader by sharing your knowledge with the rest.
For example, could you offer ideas on alternative uses for your best selling products. If you’re a fitness instructor, you could share your recommendations on the best workouts or supplements.
If you are struggling with bad online reputation, then, do check out our personal reputation management case study.
SEO and Online Reputation Management
Nowadays, people get confused between SEO and online reputation.
Let me explain to you first.
SEO means optimizing search engines to generate business mileage.
Reputation management means optimizing search engines and other digital channels to improve your reputation & neutralize threats or negative links.
When it comes to reputation recovery, reputation management is also popularly called reverse SEO. Meaning, you work to push down links from the first page rather than focusing on pushing your pages up in search results.
Basically for reputation management you just require the understanding of SEO.
How Much Does Online Reputation Management Cost?
Do you know?
According to Deloitte Global Risk Report, reputation damage affected nearly 88% of the executives across the globe.
Reputation comes at a cost, at that is not small. I will share you the average cost structure of ORM but before it will be wiser to get a know how about risks to your online reputation.
Negative information spreads faster than a positive. Same goes for society and the same is followed on the Internet. Lack of knowledge regarding online reputation management tools and techniques may result in an irreversible career damage to an individual or an entire business.
Start-ups and professionals are most vulnerable to online reputation loss. Whether due to competitors, critics or their own ignorance they are lead towards their downfall. Unlike big business houses, start-ups and individuals not only lack funds but also a highly efficient reputation management team that can improve their existing brand image.
Ever thought what causes reputation loss and how much ORM cost?
The minimum budget: $1000
Intermediate: $1000-$3000
Advance: Above $5000
Some elite reputation management agencies also charge $3000-$5000 per month for very complex reputation cases.
Here is an overview of the ORM pricing insights derived from all the reputation recovery projects we have delivered in the past decade:
I will also share with you the most ignored but most responsible reasons causing Online Reputation Loss:
Ethical lapses
Serious reputation stains can occur to a business if ethical practices do not prevail in the organization. Any illegal business activity can easily get in notice when it comes to business houses. Though they may tackle it but once a loss is always a loss. For the startups and individuals, the losses are mostly irreversible.
No corporate/social responsibility policies
If a company lacks in ethics, it is possible that it ignores its social responsibility too. Solid or liquid waste management, pollution concerns and sustainable goals should be kept in consideration while establishing a business. If ignored, definitely will result in serious reputation loss in near future.
Customer service failures
“How can you expect me to treat you well, if you didn’t greet me well”. Yes! if a business is not good to customers, whether it is query handling or after sale services, it is considered as a failure to the business. It will ultimately affect your online presence making you rank down on Google as well as in your customers eyes.
Low employee satisfaction
Employee happiness builds a brand’s internal culture. If not taken into thought and ignored, the employees will ignore you too. It will result in their low performance and ultimately delivering sub-standard products and services. What will be the result? Online reputation loss for sure.
Data breach
The most modern and most scared reason for a businesses downfall. Businesses rely on technology. If technology eases the task, it brings risk of getting hacked too. In recent years there have been several data breaches in big businesses. They may have recovered from the losses with time but for an individual or a start-up this reputation blow may be fatal.
Online Reputation Management Tools
There are many reputation management tools available online but let’s be honest here. NO reputation management tool can help in reputation recovery.
Note:- Reputation management tools can only help in reputation monitoring.
Neither can they push down negative links from the first page of Google.
Nor can they handle negative reviews on review sites like Complaintsboard.
Nowadays, a lot of businesses and startups get caught up in reputation issues. Have a look at some points to minimize the threat of reputation :-
- Run paid campaigns to rank on top of Google. This will minimize damage a little.
- Engage in philanthropy work. Engage with NGOs so that they write about you
- Take action to do away with the source of the negativity. Solve the case before it hits mainstream
- Take responsibility and speak openly on the circumstances that lead to the chaos (if you are not in the wrong).
- Kickstart your PR team into action. Get yourself published in top news sites.
(ORM) Online Reputation Management Techniques
Below are the best online reputation management techniques. Let’s list out for personal reputation :-
- Track your Reputation- See where the threats are coming from. Do a thorough analysis
- Set up a website – Buy a domain on your name and put your best content on it
- Fire Up Your Social Media Game – Optimize social media channels to rank
- Become Author in Media Sites – Contribute to blogging sites. Author pages rank quickly for unique names.
- Create Blogs on Top Blogging Publishing Platforms – Medium ranks quickly for personal reputation cases.
- Contribute to Popular Communities – Communities like Quora have high ranking power. Use it for ORM
- Try to Get Negativity Removed – Request the publisher to pull down. It works only 5 out of 100 times but worth the effort.
- Create Fan Pages or Clones – Work with your namesakes to create multiple personas.
- Don’t Engage with Negative Resources – Stay away from negative channels. Don’t open URLs again and again
- Make amends – Do away with the source of negativity
Businesses struggling with ORM can:
- Run paid campaigns to rank on top of Google. This will minimize damage a little.
- Engage in philanthropy work. Engage with NGOs
- Take action to do away with the source of the negativity.
- Take responsibility and speak openly on the causes.
- Kickstart your PR team into action.
- Gather positive reviews from happy customers like Trustpilot. It is a great website to do that
Also, 80% of the points mentioned for personal reputation management also applies for small businesses!
Personal Reputation Management
The best solution for personal online reputation management is to build your personal brand online.
If you think your personal reputation is critical for your business/career/personal life, then, you have every reason to start working on it. Because if you won’t be proactive about your reputation, then, threats will take no time to reach first page,
There are a lot of tools out there that can be used to keep an eye on your personal online reputation.
You can check the web every week for threats by doing simple searches related to your name and brands associated with you.
Google Alerts is a good place to get started.
Bonus Reputation Management Strategy tips for 2021
In 2021, online reputation management is going to be bigger than ever and hence we thought you can use some new ORM tips and ideas in your online reputation management strategy. As promised, here they are:
Launch a website: This online reputation management tip for professionals who are fighting attacks through media articles and blogs. Launch your personal website and start publishing content on it on a daily basis to push it on the top Google pages for your name. Are you an offline business without a website? You got to do this too!
Create a GMB profile: Google My Business profile should be part of your online reputation strategy for 2021. These profiles quickly show up for business name related searches and can aptly disrupt the top Google search results. So, mark your business on Google! Are you a professional struggling with online reputation threats? Create a random GMB page under your name and get the ranking benefit!
Start blogging: Blogging has to be part of your online reputation management strategy in 2021. Google is in love with blogging platforms like Medium right now and a couple of detailed blogs written with the right keywords in mind will send you straight to the first page of Google! This is an online reputation tactic used by the best reputation managers out there. So, don’t miss out on this!
Get active on communities: There are a lot of open communities and forums that have huge search relevance. Start with websites like Quora, Tripoto, and Couchsurfer to build your name in relevant industries. If you have expertise in a specific industry, you can choose forums and QA sites relevant to that. This ORM tip will greatly amplify your online reputation strategy in 2021 and years to come!
Above are the best online reputation management strategy, tips, and techniques that have worked wonders for our online reputation management clients and can help you maintain your brand’s digital reputation.
Start Online Reputation Recovery in 2021
We are helping working professionals (doctors, lawyers, real estate agents), small time entertainers (musicians, reporters, and media guys), and people from the political spectrum (judges, congressmen, etc.) recover from bad personal reputation for over 5 years now. And everyone who speaks with us at some point says, ‘only if I had been more careful earlier’
If you have a reputation problem, it ought to be addressed asap. However, make sure you partner with a reputation expert that promises NDA to protect your identity.
P.S: don’t pay a fortune to recover your reputation. There are a lot of ripoffs out there.
So that’s how ORM is working in 2021.
Let me know by leaving a comment below right now.