Online reputation is what people see about you when they search for you on internet. People use various channels like major search engines like Google and Bing, social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, review websites like Yelp, Trustpilot, Glassdoor etc before making a purchase decision, hiring or even making a business deal. In such a scenario, it becomes crucial to keep a close eye on online reputation of business.
Who needs online reputation management?
For any business to stay ahead in the long run, good reputation and good will are of utmost importance. It becomes even more important for businesses that are local in nature or the businesses that have a very niche audience or very targeted or hyperlocal audience. Since local businesses or small businesses have very niche set of products or services and have very targeted audience. Online image is equally important for online as well as offline businesses. Web has become a medium for people to share their thoughts about anything and it is a well-known truth that people are more prone to giving their feedback when they have a negative experience about something, they hardly care about writing a positive feedback or review if they are happy. This makes it even more important to be pro-active about your online presence. Listed below are some categories that must keep a close eye on their online presence –
- Local Businesses – Online or offline
- Professionals – Such as lawyers, doctors, consultants, entrepreneurs
- Product and service based companies
- Public Figures
- Offline businesses
Importance of Online Reputation Management
“Prevention is better than cure”
It is very important to keep a close eye on the social chatter, online reviews, consumer complaints or feedbacks, negative publicity etc since these can make or break your business or profession. There are several real life examples of individuals and businesses that we have worked for.
People go to internet to know about anything that they are curious for. Be it a product, review, service, individual or anything else. The users tend to research more and more on business + reviews or complaint related terms If during their search, they come across any negative press or reviews. In such a scenario, it becomes very important for businesses as well individuals to stay active on countering such situation or work in a direction so such scenario does not arise.
Keeping the negatives out of first couple of SERPs is hence very important. Any negative comments or complaints on page 1 of search engine can harm the reputation big time.
Anyone can keep a track of their online reputation by using simple tips on a day to day basis. All it needs is attention, discipline and some time from your busy work schedule. Some simple tools can help. I have divided these tools into two categories –
- Free Tools
- Paid Tools
Free Tools – The tools that are free of cost and are available for anyone ie individuals, small businesses, local online or offline businesses. These free tools are not always effective for enterprise businesses because the level of tracking that is required to monitor and respond to online chatter, sentiments etc is not possible using free tools. Mentioned below are a few free tools to monitor online reputation –
- Google Alerts
- Social Mention
- Trackur (Paid version also available)
- com
- Ubersuggest
Paid Tools to Monitor Online Reputation –
- Talkwalker
- Meltwater
- HootSuite
- Radian6
- BrandsEye
How to find a reputation management or ORM Consultant
Finding and finalizing an ORM expert is not easy. You cannot hire a reputation manager just like that. If you don’t have clear requirements and right questions then you are in trouble. There are hundreds and even thousands of so called orm service providers (agencies and freelancers) who claim that they are experts but if you interview them with right set questions step by step then most of them will fail to clear the hiring criterion.
Major search engines especially Google is continuously updating their algorithm so that a searcher gets what they are looking for to make the right decision (when they are using search as a medium to know about something). Google’s algo can easily understand if any manipulative action is being taken by anyone to manipulate search results. That said, Google comes hard on such activities.
Hence it is very important to understand the process an orm services provider follows. Before starting the process of hiring an orm expert, you should make a list of questions based on your requirements.
Must have’s for a ORM questionnaire –
- Recent examples of successful projects
- ORM strategy and process that provider follows
- Tools that a service provide uses
- Clear specifications on what they will require from you
- Time frame to getting the job done
Read more about the hiring process for online reputation management expert
