What people see, share, and say about you online matters. In today’s world, our lives are increasingly online and interconnected. What happens on the internet influences public opinion at an unprecedented rate. This can have extreme (good or bad) consequences for you or your brand. Sometimes it can seem like the online chatter is uncontrollable.
However, with reputation management, you can influence the public’s opinion about you. In this article, you will learn what it is, its importance, and its benefits. We’ll also teach you strategies you can start using today.
Online reputation management (ORM) involves monitoring, influencing, and managing how a person, business, or brand is perceived online. This can include responding to reviews, controlling negative content, and building a positive digital presence across platforms. This goal is to ensure that search results and online narratives align with the desired image.
You can’t control what other people say about you online. However, certain things are in your control. This includes the content you publish, how you respond to feedback, and addressing libel and defamation. Being proactive about these things influences the public conversation about you.
For both individuals and businesses, people’s perceptions of you exist whether you’re actively cultivating them or not. It consists of anything online that people associate with your name, business, or brand. Your search results, whether good or bad, directly affects people’s perception of you before you ever meet them.
That’s why being intentional about it matters. Here are 5 benefits of actively managing your online image:
ORM is not just for large corporations, but necessary for personal brands and small businesses as well. By proactively managing your online presence, you enhance your appeal to your target audience.
For personal brands, ORM helps you showcase your expertise, achievements, and professionalism. You get to tell your own story and build up authority in your field.
For business brands, ORM helps companies differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace and create happy, loyal customers. Happy customers translates to better word-of-mouth marketing, thus creating even more customers.
Today, 95% of consumers look at online reviews before making an online purchase, according to Luisa Zhou. 94% of consumers also say that they avoided a business with negative reviews. At the end of the day, those pesky bad reviews cost you money. Some are inevitable for every business, which is why management is key.
Having a positive online reputation means that consumers trust you, which is key to encourage them to buy from you. Consumers are more likely to purchase from brands with positive reviews and a strong online presence.
A good online presence also fosters loyalty, giving your brand a higher customer lifetime value. Customers are also more willing to pay a premium for products and services from a trusted brand.
Your business’s reputation directly impacts whether or not people want to work for you. On sites like Glassdoor, job seekers can read reviews about your business from former employees. If highly qualified candidates see something they don’t like, they will apply elsewhere.
People won’t work with you unless they have a good opinion of you. This is true whether you’re a job seeker, influencer, freelancer, business owner, etc. When people see you as a thought leader in your field or industry, they will listen to what you have to say.
With the internet the way it is these days, most people can benefit from managing their reputation.
Ask yourself these questions to determine whether or not you need help:
Personal reputation is all about how you represent yourself online as an individual. In today’s world where everyone cyber stalks everyone, it is more important than ever.
For students, this help you get into the college of your choice. According to Parent Map, 67% of colleges research potential candidates on Google. A further 25% of admissions counselors admit to checking out students’ social media profiles.
If you’re a working professional in any capacity, negative search engine results can be a detriment to your career and
Salespeople may lose clients or have trouble gaining meetings. Freelance or contract workers can lose work opportunities if negative content ranks highly in search results.
For brands, managing your online image has a direct impact on revenue. For businesses, online reviews play a critical role.
According to Search Engine Land, 88% of customers find online review sites to be trustworthy sources. Online consumers use reviews to determine whether or not a business is of quality. 85% of consumers say they are satisfied with the quality of a local business once they read up to 10 reviews.
Too much negative feedback, customer reviews, or content means negative impacts how potential customers experience your brand. They may choose to turn to your competitors instead.
ORM focuses on what people say about you or your brand online. Google yourself or your business and keep a note of the results you find. Some important areas to look at include:
All these areas factor into your online image, especially if they appear highly in search results.
If searchers see negative links when they Google your name or business, it lowers their ability to trust you. In the digital space, that first page of Google search results is your online “first-impression”. If they see bad content, they will search elsewhere. However, if they see positive content, people will be more loyal to your brand.
Internet privacy management means keeping your name and information private on the internet. These days, your information can appear online in places you never expected.
Online privacy management services remove unwanted links from your search results. Unwanted links can include blog posts, images, videos, addresses, phone numbers, and other personal information.
These 9 strategies are all about displaying your brand (personal or business) in the best possible light and control what people see about you online:
Negative content removal is the first step in controlling your search results. However, removing everything from the internet is rarely possible because you just can’t control what other people publish.
If a publisher refuses to remove content or you can’t reach them, consider submitting a DMCA Takedown notice.
Creating your own website acts as your digital hub. On your own website, you have direct control over what you publish about yourself and a direct line of communication between yourself and your audience. Having your own website also makes SEO strategies more effective (more on that below).
You likely can’t remove all negative content about you online, however, you can suppress your search results. With SEO and keyword optimization, you can optimize any websites you own to push negative search results down.
Essentially, the more that your own websites rank highly in search results, the less negative results people will see. By pushing negative search results down to the second or third page of Google, hardly anyone will see them.
You can use this same tactic with images and videos. By publishing new images and videos that you want people to see, you suppress the ones you don’t want people to see.
Social media can be a double-edged sword, but using it strategically can help with your online image. By creating new social media profiles, you can publish the kind of content you want people to see. You can also promote content from your own website, which will help with Google search suppression.
Content can go viral quickly on social media, and it isn’t always in your best interest. Managing your content on social media is critical. If something negative about you appears on social media, try to remove it if possible.
In addition to blogging on your own website, write guest blogs for other websites. Here are two main reasons for this:
If you meet the notability requirements, try creating (or updating) your own Wikipedia page. Wikipedia pages tend to rank highly in search results, which can help with content suppression efforts. However, not everyone qualifies for one, and you have to follow Wikipedia guidelines.
For businesses, crises can occur when you least expect it. Prepare your organization ahead of time so you can mitigate any potential damage to your brand’s reputation. Part of getting prepared is having a crisis management plan.
Individuals can also experience a crisis that affects their online presence, similarly to businesses. In this case, you need personal reputation crisis management.
Reviews about your products or services can make or break your business. Reviews play an important role in how consumers make purchasing decisions. Because of this, review monitoring and management is critical.
Bad reviews are unavoidable, but they don’t have to ruin your business, as long as you know how to respond to them.
News articles are often the first thing that people see when they Google you or your business. Negative publicity can cause serious damage to your brand. However, using positive PR campaigns can help mitigate the damage.
To control your online brand perception, you need to know how to influence different types of media. Here are the differences between owned, earned and paid media to use in your marketing strategy:
Owned media is any type of media owned by your own brand. If you can publish content directly to it, you own it. This includes:
How to handle owned media:
Earned media is any type of content online that other people publish about you. This includes:
How to handle earned media:
Paid media is any online marketing that you pay for. This includes:
How to handle paid media:
If your brand has a negative online reputation, take these steps to mitigate the damage:
Automation helps you stay on top of negative content before it becomes a problem. Popular tools include Google Alerts, Semrush, and Ahrefs. In addition, check out these free reputation monitoring tools.
When repairing your reputation, you want to ensure you are taking the right approach. Reputation management companies can tailor their expert services to your specific needs. These services will cost you money, but you will get a return on investment.
Here is what to look for before you hire:
At Reputation911, our expert team is here to make you look good online. We offer both business and personal reputation management services, and employ a range of strategies suited to your needs. Contact us for a free consultation.
