Reputation - a entrenched image of a company or a person who is based on information from various sources. What users on the Internet say about your brand depends on the decision of potential customers to cooperate with you.
Therefore, you need to monitor the situation and in various ways contribute to improving the brand's reputation. Below we consider how exactly this can be done.
Content:
- SERM technology reputation management
- How to monitor your company's reputation on the Internet
- Work on reviews to improve online reputation
- Other ways to improve brand reputation on the Internet
- Conclusions
SERM technology reputation management
SERM (from Search Engine Reputation Management) is a marketing tool aimed at managing the reputation of a company or person on the Internet through search engines. The goal of this technology is to make sure that when looking for reviews about your company in Google or Yandex, in the issue were sites with a neutral or positive assessment.
Managing a company's online reputation using SERM technology begins with monitoring feedback on the issuance and mentioning of the brand on the network. You need to check everything said about you regularly. Because if you do not, then the potential client will do the necessary. And you risk losing it simply without noticing a negative comment and not responding to it in time.
How to monitor your company's reputation on the Internet
The basis of reputation - reviews about the company, posted on the Internet. Marketers' research has proven that more than 60 % users, before deciding to choose a product, seller or partner, study and trust online reviews. At the same time, 64 % respondents confirmed that positive reviews motivate the purchase. All this speaks of the importance of working to build and manage the brand's reputation.
Work on a reputation should not be interrupted. In a small company at the start, you can do it yourself. With the growth of the business, it may be necessary to expand the staff in which an individual employee or even a whole department will deal exclusively with reviews and references to the company on the network. Personnel working directly with clients or partners should also help in this work.
Manual search
Before starting a search for feedback about your own company turn on the Inkognito mode. If this is not done, the searchout will be formed based on the history of your work in the browser.
In the search issue with the word "Calls" we consistently drive:
- Name of your company;
- Brand;
- Product (if you sell unique products);
- street + business orientation (suitable for companies with the actual address of service or sales);
- Name of manager or employee;
- The name of the companies of competitors.
As a result, in the extradition you should see:
- "Calls" section on your site;
- company pages on social networks;
- personal pages on social networks;
- recall sites;
- articles on blogs and the media.
You can use another option to find company references on the Internet. Enter a combination in the search bar:
"“example.com” -site: example.com"or"“Company Name” -site: example.com», where example.com is the address of your resource. And specify how long you want to find references to your site on the network: for the last week, month or year.
As a result, extradition will be displayed all the resources that the company is mentioned over the specified time interval.
For convenience, we keep the links in Excel or Google Tables, so that later it is comfortable to work on answers and not miss anything.
Automatic information collection tools
There are several services that automatically track information regarding your brand or product. They are among the most effective reputation management tools. With their help, you will save time and do not miss the references related to your Internet project. Consider the most convenient of them.
A service from Google that sends alerts about the mention of a brand or company name by e-mail. The frequency of information can be changed in the settings.
Google Alert tracks data in its own search engine, allowing you to constantly keep your finger on the pulse and quickly respond to feedback, comment or publication on a third-party resource.
Babkee.ru
Convenient service that will record any mention of your company, brand, product or any keyword related to your business.
Babkee collects data from almost all social and media resources. With it you can monitor references to competing companies to track the situation in the business niche as a whole. All this makes the service an effective tool for managing the reputation of a company or brand on the Internet.
Any feedback, comment or article may affect your target audience’s decision to cooperate with you. Therefore, it is important to find every mention and not to ignore it.
Work on reviews to improve online reputation
The power of withdrawal surpasses even the attractiveness of low price. It is always worth remembering when it comes to the idea that you will not be good for everyone. The most dangerous in negative reviews and comments that the opinion of your company is formed without your participation. As a result, you cannot influence the decision of the user, who will not even reach you.
Therefore, in managing the company's reputation in search engines negative reviews occupies a special place.
What can be done to eliminate negative reviews:
- Removal
Removing negative comments is not the best option for managing a online reputation, although possible. It is suitable in cases where the review is custom-made and is used by competitors in an unworthy struggle for customers. To do this, usually just send a request to the admins of the resource.
At some sites, you can remove any unwanted review by paying the owners. Usually, call sites work like that.
- Posting positive reviews
The meaning of this company search reputation management method is to publish the maximum amount of positive information about your project. Active work in this direction will allow you to push negative reviews far into the background, displacing them with positive ones. In parallel with this, you can place crowd links to your site, thereby increasing reference mass and positions in search engines. For greater efficiency, you will need to place articles, reviews and comments on a large number of different resources. But this work is worth it.
Plus, motivate satisfied customers to leave feedback on cooperation with you and offer them in return any bonus or discount. - Negative neutralization
Not the easiest, but often the most effective method of managing the reputation of a brand and company on the Internet. Its main plus is the ability to actually show their merits, which are much more active in the formation of a positive image in the eyes of the target audience.
What to do to neutralize negative reviews:- respond to every negative comment, the exception is provoking reviews, with the authors of which it is better not to enter into open polemics;
- establish communication with each dissatisfied client, employee, partner, initiating a conversation;
- reduce the severity of the problem, but without downplaying the significance of the opponent and his opinions.
To maintain a good reputation or restore it, stick to the rules of communication with dissatisfied users, who left a negative review:
- do not be rude, do not insult, do not make fun, do not humiliate the opponent and do not go over to the person;
- do not use the phrases “you are wrong”, “you were mistaken”, etc.;
- agree with the author, if this contradicts logic;
- acknowledge errors if they were made by you or your employees and apologize for them;
- do not get involved in a dispute and do not find out relationships, trying to prove their case;
- concentrate on facts and exact actions;
- to thank for attention to the problem that was not previously encountered, for the choice, time allotted and help in improving the company.
All this will lead to the neutralization of negativity and objections, and will also help to identify unscrupulous authors of negative reviews. As a result, potential customers and partners will be highly trusted, and earlier displeased user can come back to you again, Desiring to continue cooperation.
Other ways to improve brand reputation on the Internet
The more they talk good about you, the better for business. There is no need to wait for others to write and speak. Work on the formation of a positive image of the company and product yourself.
To improve the company's reputation on the network:
- post positive company references on your own;
- ask satisfied customers, partners and employees to leave feedback about the company, because often people forget to report positive experiences, but they are willing to share negative;
- be attentive to staff, especially in the process of dismissal, without creating conflict situations;
- collaborate with bloggers, the media and friendly companies, sharing information, exchanging links, posting articles on external resources;
- carefully consider the advertising campaign, tuning in to the target audience;
- maintain social networks and YouTube channel, actively support live communication with the audience there;
- strive to subjugate all processes, ranging from improving the site to training staff, comfort of visitors and customers.
Conclusions
Search Engine Reputation Management - SERM - the most important part of the site owner’s work, which is inextricably linked with the development of the company and the brand. You can invest a lot of money in advertising and promotion, arrange promotions and sales, reduce the cost of goods or services to increase popularity and income. But, if the company is perceived as a dubious and unreliable seller, partner or employer, then you can forget about success.
The reputation is affected by all aspects of the project. This is the convenience of the site, and the quality of work of each employee, and the speed of response when responding to the request, and the properties of the product, and the service, and the ability to work with reviews, and relevant useful information… Each point is of great importance and forms an opinion about you.
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