What is Reputation Management?

A brand’s reputation is its greatest asset. Online reputation management involves taking control of what’s being said about your brand and ensuring that people are finding the right information when they search online. A positive brand reputation can influence people’s decisions to purchase products or visit businesses in person. How do you develop a positive reputation, and what should you do if your online reviews are not up to par? These days, social media and online reviews play an incredibly important role in brand reputation. Social media posts have largely replaced word of mouth, especially when those posts are written by friends and acquaintances. A negative review can tarnish a brand’s reputation and set back its search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, while positive reviews can be directly tied to increases in leads and conversions. Research shows that businesses risk losing up to 22% of their customers when people find just one negative article about the company online. Because reviews and social media posts make such a big impression on potential customers, it’s critical that brands do everything possible to monitor and manage what’s being said about them online. Having a solid review response strategy can boost visibility, create more brand advocates, and keep customers coming back.

Effective reputation management strategies should include the following components:

Listening, responding, and taking action when negative reviews are posted online
Creating genuine conversations with online reviewers
Getting actionable insights based on review content
Leveraging review content for local and voice search inquiries
Using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve review response rates