Online reputation management and branding in instant world of Information Technology ?
Have you seen negative comments on Social Media, for your brand or any other brand?
Perhaps on Google my business? Or if you own a restaurant, there are many ‘salty’ comments that you may have encountered on Zomato.
Or maybe poor rating on Social Media, or, if you have an app, maybe on the App Store
When a business owner or a marketer sees a negative review about their brand literally anywhere, they hit the panic button, and start worrying about their brand value, brand perception, and most importantly, how will it affect the business? Oh. My. God! ?
Comment below on how will YOU, as a marketer, deal with bad online reputation? Watch out this space as in the next post, we will talk about some proven tips and tricks to manage bad online reputation.
Meanwhile, observe a few brands which are doing it right, at least on Social Media:
Swiggy – They have witty, prompt, and simple replies to major customer concerns.
Airtel – People tag them for network connectivity, and Airtel’s responses are empathetic.
Tips and strategies to handle online reputation management (ORM).
Just removing, hiding, or ignoring negative reviews will not make an impact on your brand’s ORM. If you find your brand’s reputation being affected negatively in the digital space, here’s what you can do.
1) Understand what actually is the cause for all the negative comments. Is it something about your operations? Is it about the Customer Services? Listening to the customers goes a long way in getting a good reputation for your brand.
2) Social proofing – Check why your website and App is having a high bounce rate. Is your website not engaging enough? Or does it not have any section to take an action? Resolve the issue with your website.
3) Is your communication regarding the product not effective? Either change the communication or add something to the existing product.
4) Resolve poor customer service issue by reworking on customer care strategies. If your operations are going through a crisis, provide a general comment or notify audiences about the same and give them a timeline of your strategy.
5) Get feedback from time to time from your loyal customers who are active on Social Media.
6) If you find that your competitor is trying to malign your brand, tackle it head-on and clarify the same.
7) A spammy negative comment that spoils reputation. Communicate people it’s Spammy we have blocked them
8) Find high-traffic content on the website that negatively reflect your brand, and then fix them!
9) Use SEO techniques to push the negative reviews (and mentions) down in the SERPs, and pull positive ones up till you resolve the issues.
10) Use Google alerts to solve reputation related issues and monitor things online quickly. Set up alerts for your brand name and tackle any potentially reputation-damaging reviews and mentions in real-time.
11) For App-based businesses, reviews on the Google Play store or App Store is a very important factor if there are similar competitors. Communicate regular updates and resolve about the existing issues that customers are facing.
12) In case customers or reviewers are getting arguementative in the comments sections, take the issue offline by either having a chat on the messenger or by asking for their contact details for a one-to-one resolution. Limit your responses to nasty customer comments and maintain your brand’s dignity at all times.
13) If it is an issue regarding payment or refunds, provide a response as soon as possible on the social media and get your customer care team to get in touch with the irate customer.
14) Pay attention to what people talk about your brand across social media, blogs, and opinion pieces across the internet.
15) For businesses related to healthcare, law, or education, make sure the key employees are not named and shamed on the social media.
16) If you have enough budget, you can also have a PR company to manage your online reputation.
17) Win the trust of your customers by showing some infographics about your brand.
Most imoportantly, build a uniform communication strategy across all channels. A steady brand voice helps create a good reputation for your brand. If your brand is targeted more towards the youth, your brand-voice can be friendly, funny, or witty like Netflix, Zomato, etc. If your brand has a legacy, your brand-voice must be firm, polite, and graceful.