Simply speaking ORM or Online Reputation Management is a set of techniques used to create a company’s brand name online and then maintain its brand awareness. This ensures the presence of the company concerned within the online community in a positive manner and also results in increased visibility.
There is a common misconception that SEO or Search Engine Optimisation and ORM can be used synonymously since they refer to the same set of techniques. But even though these two well-defined services are often clubbed together, they help to serve two completely different purposes. While SEO techniques increase visibility and ranking in search engines, ORM techniques help to bring a brand in the limelight.
Key ORM techniques
It is well known that consumers trust what they are able to see and hence in order to ensure that they get too see what a company wishes them to see, the following 5 key ORM techniques need to be understood and applied. These techniques pertain to the following tactics:
- Tools to monitor online brand positioning: In order to achieve the purpose of spreading positive vibes about a company brand and building its credibility, there are certain online tools which can be used like:
- Google Alerts: This is in fact the best possible tool which enables a company to monitor web pages where brand visibility is present and get to understand those areas where work need to be put in to ensure better visibility of the brand. Hence a company can easily keep a track of a brand positioning with regards to organic search results and ensure good reviews, both qualitatively and quantitatively, so as to improve search engine rankings.
- Twitter Search: This tool gives updated information regarding the usage of the company’s brand name in a broader sense by providing statistics related to date and time, links, accounts, customer sentiments etc. This tools also helps a company understand the problems faced by potential and existing customers with their concerned business thereby enabling them to figure out the lacunae and work on them.
- Social mention: This works in a similar manner to Google alerts and helps monitor the credibility of the company brand on the different social media and social networking platforms that are in vogue today.
- Dealing with negative comments: Since ORM is all about ensuring positive branding, any negative comments or vibes which show up on social networking platforms need to be dealt with in an intelligent manner so that the company branding can emerge unscathed. In order to ensure that negative comments do not affect the branding it becomes necessary to:
- Get all negative comments removed either by
- Asking the people concerned to remove the negative comments that they have written or
- Legally putting in a complaint to Google.
- Hide the negative comments by posting comments which are positive so that the positive comments show up on the first page of the search engines thereby ensuring that potential customers never get to see the negative comments, much less get influenced by them.
- Regular bonding and engagement with customers: It is a known fact that regular engagement with the concerned consumer niche which pertains to one’s business also ensures positive branding. Thus doubts need to be cleared promptly and regularly, complaints need to be immediately dealt with in a positive manner etc. This not only helps to build brand credibility but also helps to strengthen the brand online.
- Get all negative comments removed either by
- Brand name assertion: This can be achieved by using techniques which enable the creation of a unique brand name which correctly represents what the company stands for. Hence the brand name itself becomes the representative of the company values leaving no room for any misconception regarding the same. A unique brand name coupled with proper SEO techniques also ensures better ranking in organic searched conducted locally thereby enabling good ORM.
- Strengthening of brand name: This can be correctly done by ensuring that a brand gets enlisted in all major review websites and social media platforms. A listing management tool is of great help when trying to achieve this. Once a listing is correctly done, posting of positive reviews and customer comments and generally ensuring a positive vibe around the brand helps strengthen the brand name.
- Ensuring proper customer service: This is one of the best ORM techniques that one can apply to ensure that a company brand gets visibility and credibility. In fact good customer engagement and providing the required service immediately ensures glowing reviews and this again is an extremely good ORM technique to adopt.
ORM techniques are thus used by companies to influence the choice of the customers and the application of the above techniques properly and correctly ensures that more and more web traffic gets diverted towards the company website thereby providing more chances for conversions.
