Control Your Narrative With Reputation Management Tech

An effective reputation management strategy is a critical component of great marketing. But what is reputation management? Simply put, reputation management is a strategy in which businesses monitor and influence how potential customers view their brand. The goal of reputation management is to align your true brand with how it is portrayed by media and AI systems.

Though some might consider reputation management to be synonymous with PR, reputation management — or online reputation management (ORM) — pertains mainly to how a company or individual is portrayed online. While ORM is not the answer for managing crisis communications—that’s when you’ll want a crisis PR strategy—it’s considered best practice for any organization to maintain awareness and control of their online presence.

"Your digital front door and online customer sentiment are more important than ever,” says Annie Haarmann, Head of Strategic Consulting, Healthcare & Life Sciences for Reputation.com. “To compete in today's consumer-driven environment, brands must not only respond to ratings and reviews, but also use this feedback to identify areas within their operation that need improvement. This is the difference between monitoring comments (versus) listening to understand your customers."

How Does Reputation Management Work?

ORM strategists look to Google’s SERPs to determine what users are seeing when they research your brand. They work to move positive blogs, articles, and other media toward the top of the front page while working to eliminate or suppress negative content. Additionally, they leverage social media websites, forums, and review websites to monitor how customers, shareholders, and staff view the brand. Not only do these methods ensure a positive online reputation, but they also ensure that brands can address customer issues before they escalate. 

It’s clear that online reputation management is a valuable tool, but it’s not always an accessible one — especially to small or mid-sized businesses who can’t dedicate an expert to carry out this strategy continuously. Even large companies could save money on their marketing budgets by leveraging automated tools for ORM. 

Automating Reputation Management Processes

Whether you choose an all-in-one platform like Reputation.com or a single solution, there are many tools that make it easy to track and improve your brand’s online reputation:

Review Requests

With a review request tool like Reputology, you can automatically send customers an email or text message asking them to leave a review on the platform of your choice. You can link review tools directly to your website, and gain and share incredible insights on all aspects of your business. Review request platforms can also be configured to intercept negative reviews, allowing you a chance to respond to unhappy customers before their comments are posted online. 

Media Monitoring Software

Automated media monitoring software tracks your brand mentions across all channels, in real-time. With platforms like Critical Mention, you can funnel feedback from TV and radio broadcasts, online news sources, social media, and licensed print — every source becomes comprehensive data that you can use to determine your consumer appeal and develop strategies for maximizing your reputation.

Strategic Posting

There are plenty of platforms available that enable businesses to manage and analyze campaigns. Hootsuite enables companies to create campaigns across various social media platforms while providing comprehensive analytics on each. This essential ORM tool allows companies to fine-tune their branding efforts to make even more compelling ones.