Making sure your business grows and thrives is something that should never stop happening. As somebody high up in the collective, especially the CEO and the owner, your responsibility is to grow your business in more ways than one. It cannot be something you focus on here and there. Every decision needs to lead towards one and the same goal, the increase of the company’s reach, client base, and revenue. But how can businesses who have not done much start growing? What needs to be done in order for it to experience the initial growth that can be built upon later? Well, one thing is certainly reputation management.
As it name states, reparation management is the effort to increase the reputation of the business by advertising it the right way. These days, it is mostly done online since everything is about the internet and information technologies. Basically, you want the public to know of your brand and what it does so you aim to widen the reach and get the collective consciousness to recognize the business. It is a very important approach especially for the companies who want to develop in the most modern of ways. In this article we talk more about it so that everyone needing their business to grow can employ it.
What Is It?
Source: entrepreneur.com
Before talking about its importance and how exactly it helps, there needs to be a few more words about what reputation management even is. It encompasses a lot of things so it can be said that reputation management is the process of monitoring, influencing, and improving the public image and public opinion of a company. The company as a whole including the brand, the products or services, and the general idea behind it. The whole process depends on what the business wants to achieve and what mediums it plans to use. As mentioned in the introduction, all of this is mostly done online. It even goes without saying in most conversations as everyone is used to it by now.
There are certain practices that make up reputation management, three of them to be more precise. They include subduing crises, responding to the customers and trying to solve their problems, and finally, maintaining favorable and positive public image of the business and the brand. Those who offer reputation management services are usually referred to as branding agencies or communication experts. It is a very in-demand service right now when everyone is looking to increase their internet presence and reach. Hiring these experts will surely help your cause so try it out if you want your business to grow. Find out more about this approach by checking out SurgeWebMarketing.
Tactics Used in Reputation Management
The general premise of reputation management consists of various tactics that can be used both alone and together. In the following sections there is going to be more word about the most important ones you should aim for when you ultimately decide to go with a reputation management Check reputation management tool Repsense.
Crisis Management
Source: nsf.org
First off we have crisis management, something that every business needs. As a matter of fact, it is crucial to have it because research tells us that over 69% of business leaders have faced some sort of corporate crisis in the last five years. These can come in a variety of ways but all of them affect the company and its business negatively. Being involved in a controversy or a PR crisis is bad for reputation in an era when news spread within seconds. This is exactly how many products, services, companies, and even people are being “canceled.” Get in front of it by managing even the smallest crises.
Social Media Platforms and News Outlets
Social media is everything these days. It is more important than press when it comes to who and what people trust. There are so many platforms and all of them are free, so naturally people flock to them and share their experiences and views on literally everything. Because of this, you have to monitor social media and press for anything that can damage your reputation and react to it on time. In the UK alone, around 47% of businesses have been in some way negatively affected by press and the web. Having an insight into what people are saying and making sure to fix it is how you manage your reputation. Simply being involved and showing you care is usually enough because people are not used to businesses actually trying to help.
Reviews and Ratings
Source: localiq.com
Reviews and ratings are the bread and butter of internet reputation. If your online reviews are largely bad, expect almost nobody to pick your products or services over the competitors whose reviews are better. Surveys tell us that some 94% of consumers avoid businesses that have bad reviews, which makes sense if we consider the fact that reviews are first-hand experiences and retellings of what happened to the customers to cause such a reaction. Responding to reviews and sharing your end of the story can save you in many occasions especially when a client is trying to purposefully tarnish your reputation despite receiving appropriate service. Protect your face by answering and otherwise managing the reviews and ratings on popular platforms. The biggest problem can be fake reviews that contain misinformation, blatant lies, and only aim to damage credibility. Identifying these and deleting them is the only way to deal with them.
Channels to Employ
Source: blogdumoderateur.com
There are multiple types of channels through which reputation can be managed on your end. These channels are basically different forms of media that can help you grow your business by keeping your brand’s reputation favorable. Paid media includes Google Ads and Facebook ads, sponsored posts, influencer marketing, and traditional media ads. Earned media are online reviews, media coverage, blog features, and most importantly, the word of mouth. Shared media is social media, meaning Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as well as review and booking platforms like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Booking.com. Finally, owned media are private blogs and websites, mobile apps, and landing pages. Making sure you use one of these or even better, most of these will ensure your reputation management campaign grow your business beyond recognition.
