Questions About Reputation Management You Were Too Afraid To Ask

While even regular Joes have to worry about what they present online, businesses, brands, and celebrities especially have to manage their reputation proactively.

For businesses, just a few bad reviews can snowball into a serious issue that can turn away new clients. This is where reputation management comes in, to either restore a damaged reputation or to ensure that the public discourse around a business is always positive.

This area is pretty comprehensive, and as a company developing software that can turn anyone into a reputation management expert, we sure get a lot of questions. Here are just some of the most common ones:

1. What is reputation management?

Yes, you’ve read it right - a lot of people ask us what reputation management is. Well, it’s the process of influencing the online conversations around your business which helps potential customers only see the positive when looking you up.

In other words, you’re polishing your online presence into a diamond that helps you stay relevant in the era where customers heavily leverage online research for purchasing decisions.

Reputation management includes a lot of work, such as:

1. Generating new reviews

2. Monitoring reviews

3. Responding to reviews

4. Social media postings

5. Managing online listings

2. Who is a reputation management expert?

As the name suggests, a reputation management expert is a consultant who helps businesses take control of their online reputation. They perform extensive monitoring day in and day out, spot new opportunities, and discover potential risks to your reputation.

This brings us to the next question:

3. Can reputation management repair a broken reputation?

Many businesses don’t even think about reputation management until it’s too late and they have to enter damage control mode to repair their reputation. While it’s easier to manage your reputation from the get-go than having to bury a bunch of negative information, it’s never too late to start.

To fix a damaged online reputation, you might have to double down on your SEO efforts and generate new positive reviews. It also doesn’t hurt to create and promote new content that shines the light on the positive aspects of your business.

4. Does reputation management apply to social media?

Naturally! If it’s on the internet, it should be included in your reputation management efforts. Social media is pretty powerful -  not only do customers leave reviews, but they are also very keen on sharing their positive experiences or grievances with the wider online audience. 

As a business, you can engage with users who had a negative experience and try to resolve the issue. The same applies to receiving a glowing comment - you can promote it on your social media pages to boost social proof.

5. Are there any benefits to managing your reputation?

Most people aren’t convinced by just a spotless reputation, so you have to explain they get the most bang for their buck, so to speak. 

Number one is increasing customer reach. Because people nowadays trust online reviews as much as they trust suggestions from close friends, you increase the probability of attracting new customers. 

The second benefit is an increase in search engine ranking as search engines consider user reviews one of the most important ranking factors.

6. How to develop a reputation management plan

When working with a reputation management expert, they’ll usually start with a solid plan before springing into action.

The first step is usually a whole lot of research. What you can do is Google yourself and scour social media looking for mentions about your business. This part might include researching new keywords and looking at the reputation of your main competitors.

After the research process is done, you’ll probably have a better idea of what you need to do next. A big part of the strategy is deciding who is in charge of monitoring online conversations surrounding your business and which comments you should respond to. For instance, you shouldn’t engage with fake comments, only with comments from actual customers.

You also have to establish a consistent tone when you respond to both positive and negative comments. You shouldn’t be overly bubbly when you’re responding to positive feedback and you shouldn’t try to be a smartass when responding to negative criticism. Find one brand voice and stick to it.

Based on the current state of your online reputation, you might be able to pinpoint common complaints, which provides valuable insight into where you can improve. The opposite is also true - if positive reviews always mention a particular thing you’re doing right, you know what you should continue doing.

7. Is it possible to manage your reputation?

Why yes! However, do keep in mind that you might be overwhelmed by this task as your business grows and you start attracting more customers. Eventually, when the ball gets rolling, you’ll either have to buy specialized software that simplifies online reputation management or hire an employee and delegate this task to them. 

8. What are the main challenges of managing your reputation?

For most businesses, it’s usually consistency. Reputation management is not a one-time thing as it requires constant work. 

Consumers require new content all the time. So even if you generated a bunch of new positive reviews six months ago, that might seem outdated for potential customers.

We recommend you develop a strict schedule to stick by as it’s going to help you stay accountable and never let reputation management fall by the wayside. 

9. Can you automate reputation management?

Absolutely - and you definitely should. There are software solutions out there that will help you do that - including our own, ReviewArm!

With this software, you can automate both monitoring across multiple review platforms and send automatic review requests to your customers through email or text. We provide you with a single dashboard from which you can do anything relating to reputation management. 

You can set up a notification system that alerts you every time you receive a new review, andalso easily respond to said review from the same dashboard. This eliminates the need to sign in to multiple platforms to check for reviews, as well as send review requests manually.

In simple terms, ReviewArm lets you manage your reputation like a true reputation management expert - with minimal effort at the fraction of the price.

10. Which businesses can benefit from managing their reputation?

We truly believe that every business, regardless of size, should manage its reputation. For small to medium ones, it might require extra effort, especially if they don’t have the resources to hire someone to do it.

In that case, a software solution for automation of reputation management is the best option as it eliminates a lot of the busy work, and the price of the software is almost negligible to what it has to offer.

Become a reputation management expert!

When you consider all the benefits and tough situations it can help you avoid, reputation management is a no-brainer. Thankfully, leveraging this practice is now easier than ever.

While managing your business reputation is by no means a new thing, only recently has it become available to all kinds of businesses with the advent of technology that can simplify the process.

So in a sense, reputation management software is the thing that helps level the playing field and makes it possible for smaller businesses to compete with their larger competitors.

If you want to get a taste of what it feels like to be a reputation management expert, sign up by filling out our contact form and grow your online presence!