This is where corporate reputation management comes in. Simply put, a brand’s corporate reputation is defined as the quality of your brand’s footprint and how it is consumed by your target audience.

Everything your brand does and says relates back to its reputation in multiple different ways. When looked at over time, a company’s reputation is the sum of how people, both internal and external stakeholders, feel about your brand as a whole.

It goes without saying that every brand needs to manage its online reputation, but many brands tend not to see their own weaknesses until it is too late. Working on your brand’s reputation sooner rather than later is extremely important for controlling how consumers view your brand both now and in the future, no matter where they come across it in the digital landscape.

Here is a guide on everything an enterprise brand needs to know about both improving and maintaining their corporate reputation for continued success.

What is Corporate Reputation Management?

Corporate reputation management is the process of monitoring and managing your online presence. A positive reputation can be the biggest asset to any business, but if not regulated correctly, it can be their biggest downfall.

It is important to note that business reputation management is targeted towards all the key stakeholders in your business’s success; from customers to investors and even your employees.

The logic behind this is simple: A good brand creates a great following, hires the best employees, and works hard to stand out in a sea of competition.

Why is Corporate Reputation Management Important?

Search engines are the primary way that users get information to make purchase decisions. This makes it essential to work on your brand reputation in as many digital spaces that you can.

Since our digital world makes it so easy for consumers to provide their unsolicited opinions on social media platforms and review websites, reputation management is a crucial business expense any business owner should invest in.

Here’s why:

• The impact of online reviews can make or break for a business; 90% of consumers will read a review before they even click on a website, and 73% say that they will trust a website even more after reading a positive review.
• 46% of companies have been damaged or are worried by negative press. This is up 29% from 2014 and represents the threat just one negative news article can do to a business.
• One-third of businesses report that negative content has already hurt their company, and these owners are worried about how this can affect their brand perception in the future.

What are Examples of Reputation Management?

Depending on your needs, there are a lot of different reputation management techniques that will remove bad news and unsightly press from your brand, while enhancing your influence in the online world. This can be done via:

• Crisis management
• Media relations
• Increasing positive reviews on multiple different review sites
• Creating and optimizing a new and improved website
• Developing blogs and thought leadership pieces that showcase your brand’s voice
• Distributing press releases
• Social media management of all your social networks, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and more

Why Enterprise Brands Need a Corporate Reputation Management Strategy

As with any other digital marketing technique, your brand will need to put a comprehensive strategy behind your corporate reputation management output.

When you have a clear, defined strategy in place, you will be able to appeal to a whole group of stakeholders, while creating a competitive advantage for you. Not many brands have invested in reputation management, and a clear strategy will only work wonders in propelling your brand forward.

Here are some benefits to investing in a reputation management strategy.

• Increased sales. The bottom line is that when a consumer feels that they can trust the company they are working with, they will convert. They also might recommend your company to those in their network, which can lead to more sales. What’s there not to love about that?
• Enhanced customer loyalty. Customers who trust your reputation and have worked with you before will likely return to your services again in the future when needed.
• Attract top talent. Your reputation management strategy’s goal shouldn’t be just to create a strong reputation in the eyes of your consumers. Instead, you need to appeal to different stakeholders of all kinds, including potential employees. After all, your company wouldn’t be anything without them, and they deserve to work at a company they can be proud of.
• Improve your company’s market value. When you have all of the above, your brand reputation will become an intangible asset for your growth.

With these benefits in mind, why wouldn’t you invest in improving your corporate reputation as much as you can?

3 Example Failures of Corporate Reputation Management

In order to succeed at reputation management, you’ll want to look at examples of other enterprise brands that have had reputation management crises in the past. From bad reviews, to negative past actions, take a note of these brand’s failures when creating your own strategy.

1. United Airlines – Crossing Boundaries with Passengers

United Airlines has been dealing with negative stories about their brand since early 2017. Back in 2017, news of United denying two teenage girls from boarding an airplane quickly spread like wildfire over social media.

The airline agents reported that they didn’t allow the girls on the plane because their leggings were too sheer and inappropriate. Once consumers heard about this incident, they demanded an apology on behalf of the girls, but this never happened.

Instead, United’s social media team released a series of tweets where they defended the airline agent’s logic, and claiming that this was normal procedure for passengers.

But things just got worse a few weeks later, when a video went viral showing a bloody and bruised United passenger being dragged from a flight. Initially, United explained that this passenger had just gotten into a fight because the flight was overbooked, but it soon came out that his flight was given up to accommodate extra United Airlines employees.

The victim of the fight lost his two front teeth, suffered from a broken nose, and required facial reconstruction surgery. As a response, United’s CEO released a statement that again defended the actions of the gate agents, and said a lackluster apology to the passengers who witnessed the fight and needed to be re-accomodated.

The CEO’s statement didn’t do much for United’s reputation; within 24 hours of the incident, the United Airlines brand lost about $800 million in total value. Even though this happened 4 years ago, experts still say that this incident could call for irreparable brand damage to United as a whole.

2. Uber – A Temperamental CEO + Political Affiliations

Uber went from being one of the most celebrated brands in the world to one of the least in a matter of months. Starting in 2017, they experienced a whole host of reputation damaging events, such as:

• The CEO Travis Kalanick serving on an advisory council to then-President Donald Trump. Uber customers believed that any CEO should not make their political affiliations known in such a manner.
• Uber continued to serve JFK airport in New York City during a taxi strike against Donald Trump’s immigration policies. This caused a crisis internally with their employers who did not agree with this. And also with customers, as Uber surged prices as they were the only ride-share opportunity available.
• Ex-employees reporting on massive, wide-spread sexual harassment and HR misconduct all throughout the company.
• CEO Kalanick being captured on video arguing with an Uber driver over the sudden decrease in pay the company provided.

How did Uber respond to these indcidents? Not very well, in eyes of both their investors and their consumers.

The CEO has consistently made public apologies and have written letters to his employees and customers. But not many people were pacified. The general consensus is that when a senior executive like himself makes all these public statements, without much change, it is hard to believe the apologies.

Overall, this is a perfect example of how much your brand reputation matters.

Chipotle – Underplaying Health & Safety

Back in 2015, Burrito giant Chipotle experienced a wave of E-Coli outbreaks nationwide. As a result, the company experienced an 82% decrease in profit over a year. They also had a 15% dip in their stock’s value.

In the middle of the E-Coli outbreak, instead of mentioning how safe their food is to consume, a company leader made a public statement that denounced the Centers for Disease Control and basically implied that whenever someone sneezes, they now will believe Chipotle is the reason for them being sick.

This attempt at a joke was futile. It just went to further convince consumers that Chipotle was not taking their health and safety concerns seriously. Even though the company leader stepped down a year later, many consumers believe their response to the bacteria outbreak was not authentic and did little to quell health fears.

Best Practices of Corporate Online Reputation Management

Managing your brand’s image online isn’t always a simple thing. Depending on your needs, there are a lot of different techniques you can do to boost your corporate reputation. Here are some best practices of corporate online reputation management to add to your strategy.

Listen, Listen, Listen

Above anything else, you need to listen to the stakeholders in your business. This means your consumers, both returning and prospective customers, your investors, and your employees.

Every person that touches your company in any way needs to be heard. Make it a habit to listen to them as often as possible.

Host employee forums where employees can openly speak to senior management. Have a feedback option on your website for customers to submit anonymously. Then take what you hear from your consumers and build your strategy off of that.

Invest in SEO

Building an online presence takes time, and enterprise SEO can bring your corporate reputation to the next level.

Search engine optimization is the digital marketing technique aimed at improving your brand’s visibility within major search engines like Google. Ultimately, SEO works so your website is populated within the first page of Google for any search result. Focusing on SEO not only increases the chances that consumers find your website over your competitor’s, but it helps to improve brand awareness and authority. In short, consumers trust Google, and tend to trust whatever website shows up within the first search results, over those on the second page.

Because SEO relies so heavily on search engine algorithms, you may not see updates to your crisis management SEO strategy right away. That is fine, do not worry! At the bare minimum, give your website and search engine optimization efforts about three months before they gain traction. After that, you will start seeing regular, consistent results. Being patient is worth it, trust us!

Review Your Reviews

93% of people say that online reviews impact their buying decisions. This is the exact reason why checking your reviews is so important!

Just one, one-star review has the potential to upend your entire business. It will dramatically decrease your average star rating. Most consumers only look at your overall rating, rather than each specific review. So you’ll need to make sure you do everything in your power to keep those ratings as high as possible.

Unfortunately, online bots do exist with the sole purpose of creating fake reviews for businesses. So to mitigate any potential fake reviews, review your online reviews on a weekly basis. Not only that, but you’ll want to respond to each and every review. Not only does this show your customers that you are a face behind a screen that is willing to fix their problem, prospective customers will notice that you are active in your customer’s buying experience.

Build Brand Identity

Above anything else, you need to know who you are and what your brand stands for! Developing an unique brand voice will only work to help establish your reputation management strategy as you begin to become more active on the Internet.

Because almost all brands are reachable on social media and within search engines, you’ll need to stand out among the crowd. An unique voice can do that for you; set you apart while making yourself approachable online.

When brainstorming ideas for your brand identity, ask yourself the following questions:

• How would I like my brand to be portrayed to a new consumer?
• How can I let a returning consumer know I value their business?
• What are some words and phrases I can use to really make my brand’s personality shine?
• What type of content is my target audience most likely to consume? How can I create this content and promote it in a way that will make my customers care?
• If I was a new customer, what kind of impression does my brand gve off?

The answers to these questions will work to guide your strategy and give you the answers you’re looking for. Remember, your identity is yours and yours alone, so feel free to get creative and really let your personality show.

Final Thoughts on Corporate Reputation Management

If you’ve learned anything from this post, it’s that corporate reputation management matters. Without a positive online reputation, your brand is not living up to its full potential. You may even be pushing away prospective clients.

To avoid this, put the above corporate reputation management tactics to work so your brand will be in the right place to grow and succeed online.

Make sure your brand is promoted online in the best way possible by showcasing its strengths. Our team at LinkGraph can help with crisis management and corporate reputation management. We’ll paint your brand in a positive light and let it shine online.

The post Corporate Reputation Management for Enterprise Brands [2021 Guide] appeared first on LinkGraph.

But there are a lot of misconceptions of what online reputation management strategy is. It is more than just monitoring online reviews, checking news sites for your brand perception, and investing in public relations. When it comes to your reputation management strategy, every business owner, no matter the size of your company, can benefit from learning the basics.

What is Reputation Management?

Simply put, online reputation management (ORM) is the ongoing process of promoting, maintaining, and cultivating your brand name and its good standing everywhere that it appears online. See it as building your digital image; one that is easy to find, understand, and will resonate with potential customers, regardless of where they come across your brand name.

It may sound easy, but the internet is a big place. Becoming known, recognized, and loved in a sea of competitors that have been around for a while is an uphill battle for any brand. For big brands that are well known, maintaining your reputation in good standing all across the internet is a time-consuming task. Reputation managers do the hard work of helping brands execute reputation management at scale.

Perception is everything when it comes to your digital image. Since you aren’t able to speak directly to all of your consumers and potential customers, it’s important to realize that your internet presence is constantly speaking for you.

Why Do Companies Need a Reputation Management Strategy?

Just a decade ago, the Internet was a very different place. Companies were simply putting up small websites as a way to offer a convenient shopping option for their customers. Businesses were not engaging with people, they rarely had a social media account, and their websites were simple, with only a few pages in their layout. 

Most customers were brand loyal and searched specifically for a certain business name, with little intention of changing their shopping habits and moving on to a competitor. And while this was great for consumers and shoppers alike, when the Internet boomed and more options came on the scene, things changed. Customers started having wandering eyes and wallets with the ever-present goal of finding the best quality item at the best price.

Because internet users now have access to thousands of products and service providers, there is a lot more that goes into the process of choosing your brand over your customers. Potential customers may read reviews of your products and services, check your social media accounts, look for news or articles about your brand name, or even read your Wikipedia page. Potential employees may comment on forums and job review sites about working at your company, and popular bloggers may choose to write unflattering reviews about your brand.

There are so many places on the internet where users may choose to right about you, and if those eventually become search results for your brand name, it has the potential to drastically impact the customer journey in a negative light. Any business owner should consider their brand management strategy as protecting their hard-earned customer satisfaction, boosting their brand reputation, and preventing any permanent damage to online reputation if a crisis unfolds.

If you are about to embark on an ORM strategy, don’t feel overwhelmed. Here are 5 ways to elevate your reputation management strategy.

#1: Audit Your Online Reputation

The first step in your reputation management strategy needs to be to see where you stand currently in terms of both positive and negative coverage and feedback. You do this via an online reputation audit.

Start off by asking yourself the following questions:

1. How do you want your business to be viewed by people online?
2. Who is your target audience?
3. How will you find your target audience? For example, a younger population is more successfully targeted via social media channels.
4. What details about your business would you like your target audience to know?
5. Where online do you want to promote your business and its information?
6. What action do you want your customers to take online. I.e, call you, sign up for a newsletter, and/or make a purchase?

From there, you’ll need to brainstorm any and all search terms your customers are using that you need to monitor. This can include your brand name, your industry, product and service names, sub-brands and/or categories, and geo-targeted phrases. For some extra ideas, you can use a keyword explorer to help you out, as they will provide extra analytic information on which of your branded search terms are actually being used by your potential customers.

The next step is to do some simple social media and search engine searches with these terms to see what customers, current and former employees, industry leaders, and others are saying about you. Setting up a Google Alert for your brand name is an easy way to start keeping track of where you are being talked about on the internet.

Once you compile all of this information, you’ll be able to get a clear impression of your online reputation and what steps need to be taken to positively boost your brand recognition.

#2: Revamp your Online Review Management

One of the major elements of reputation management strategy is online review management. According to BrightLocal, 75% of all online shoppers say they trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations. Combine that with the fact that a whopping 89% of all shoppers consult customer reviews before converting, then it is fair to say that reviews are an integral part of influencing the customer’s buying journey.

Just because you may have some negative reviews doesn’t mean that all is lost. By investing in a revamp of your online review management, you can make it easier for your customers to leave a review, therefore making a better user experience, and hopefully, a positive review of your services.

Some questions to consider when thinking about where your online reputation stands on major third-party review sites:

• Do the positive reviews outnumber the negative reviews? 
• Have you responded to these reviews, and if so, did the client end up happy and satisfied in the end? 
• Are there any themes in your negative reviews such as lack of customer service, slow shipping times, or faulty website? 
• Where are these reviews? Are they on your social channels, your website, your Google My Business listing, or third-party review sites like Yelp?
• Are the reviews recent? Or are a bulk of them from a few years ago?
• Do the reviews look like they have come from actual customers? A way you can check this is to look at the spelling of the review itself, as well as the poster’s name and picture. Most shoppers have online profiles with actual pictures of them and their names instead of an avatar and a screenname. If you are noticing a lot of random reviews filled with spelling mistakes by users without pictures, chances are, these could be bots and need to be addressed as so.

Here are some important details to include when you revamp your reviews and use them to your advantage.

Always, always respond to negative reviews.

Customers want to know that there is a face behind the screen. More often than not, when they leave a negative review, they would like to come to a solution with the business owner, so don’t ignore them. Make sure to respond!

Customer frustrations can easily be caused by a misunderstanding or something else trivial and small, so if you had the opportunity to change just one person’s experience, wouldn’t you want to? 

Reach out to the poster, be authentic and genuine, and offer a solution that makes both you and them happy. Remember, a negative review can easily be turned positive when you use a little elbow grease.

Make it easy for you to be contacted.

Customers don’t want to add to their negative experience by having to search high and low for a way to contact you. So make sure to claim every listing your business is listed on, including Google My Business, Yelp, and social media, so your customers know it is you they are communicating with.

Additionally, put your contact info at the top and bottom of every page, and include your phone number, a specific email address, and brick-and-mortar physical address everywhere you can. You can even implement a chat widget on your website for faster, instant communication. Doing so makes you look and feel approachable.

Ask for reviews.

Sometimes, all you have to do is ask!

Search Engine Land found that 70% of customers will leave a review when explicitly asked to do so. So why not take advantage of this? Better yet, you can offer an incentive for writing a review, such as a free product or a coupon for a future service. This is one of the best ways to improve your reviews on sites like Yelp, Google My Business, and other popular review platforms. Doing this can really help you create an organic, or natural, pattern of reviews coming in.

#3: Earn more Positive Media with PR, Content Strategy, and Guest Blogging

There’s more to your brand’s online reputation than positive reviews and negative reviews, and it is crucial that you create positive messaging to the best of your ability. Content is king when it comes to digital marketing, and it is vital for your content messaging to be strong, consistent, and unique from your competitors. 

The whole point of content development is to not only provide useful, valuable information to potential users, but to rank in search engine results for the keywords those users rely on to get more information about your brand, products, or services. Developing a content strategy isn’t all that hard, and the benefits not only extend to online reputation management, but to your keyword rankings, website traffic, and overall brand awareness.

Earning more positive media coverage, guest blogging, and contributing content is great way to get more positive digital locations ranking on page 1 for your branded searches. If you place content on high domain authority sites, they may stick around in the search results for years promoting your brand in a positive light. Not only does more off-site content promote your company as industry experts, it also puts your business in front of potential partners who are in your same niche and industry. 

Sometimes, building relationships within your niche is all that you need to become a respected business, and in doing this, you set yourself apart from your competition as someone willing to work together for both of your businesses’s successes.

#4: Launch Link Building Campaigns to Improve Rankings of Positive Press Coverage

So once you have your positive content and press, you can help put the spotlight on those digital locations through fundamental building blocks of SEO like link building. Most websites focus on building links back to their website to improve their overall site authority, but when you get a great article about your business, you can also build links to improve its appearances in the SERPs.

This is a great strategy in particular for those brands who experience a barrage of negative press coverage due to a crisis or mishap. If these negative reviews, articles, or blogs are suddenly showing up for your branded searches, getting to work building links to your more positive digital locations can help knock those negative articles off page 1.

The more links you can build, the better, which is why a link building agency like ours that operates at scale can also provide SEO reputation services. We build links the right way, and we do so quickly.

#5: Hire an SEO Reputation Management Agency

As a business owner, it can be exhausting staying up-to-date with all the digital marketing trends out there. You have a business to run, and sometimes don’t have the extra time (or energy!) to ensure all of your marketing needs are met, including your online reputation management. This is where LinkGraph can come in: We can handle all of the heavy lifting for you. 

We understand completely how one negative review can throw a wrench into your entire digital image. There’s a lot at stake when it comes to ensuring your business and brand shines online, and a professional reputation management agency has all the tools in place so you don’t have to add this worry to your daily business thoughts and concerns.

Plus, we will incorporate your online reputation management strategy into your overarching SEO and digital marketing goals. Our team will constantly monitor your brand’s online presence across all digital locations while incorporating SEO best practices.

At the end of the day, our goal is to set your brand and business up for success, and to show off your company in a professional and successful way. Schedule a free SEO consultation with one of our experts to learn more about how we can help elevate your reputation management strategy.

The post 5 Tips to Elevate your Online Reputation Management Strategy appeared first on LinkGraph.