Having an online presence for your brand can be as daunting as it is fruitful. You have to be ready to face backlash as much as you receive goodness. The Internet is probably the only place where one can voice their opinion unapologetically. Therefore, dealing with bad comments and even good ones is where Online Reputation Management comes in. 

Online Reputation Management is the practice of crafting strategies that shape or influence the public perception of an organization. It helps drive public opinion about a business and its products and services. Having an effective ORM strategy is essential and cannot be overlooked. These are a few ways using which you would ace the ORM game for your brand.

• Monitor conversation about your brand: Keep a track of what people are talking about your brand online. Go through Twitter, Facebook and other social media relevant to your brand. People usually post complaints on Twitter and use hashtags. Make sure you are keeping a close eye on those hashtags, as many users continue to use those hashtags when they’re tweeting about the brand. This helps the brand not miss out on any important reviews or grievances which they can then reply to and rectify.

• Respond quickly: Once you have refined tweets and comments that pertain to your brand, you must respond to them at the earliest. You should ideally respond within 2 hours of the tweet or comment being posted. This shows that the brand is actually concerned about its customers and is ready to take charge and do its best to solve their problems. 

• Personalize your response: This is an unsaid rule. It looks more professional and the customer concerned relates to the brand even more as that emotional connection is established. The tone of the reply should be supportive and ready to help. This gives the brand a chance to retain that customer even after rectifying that error. 

• Acknowledge mistakes: Be sure to accept the complaint graciously and acknowledge the fact that there has been an error from the brand’s side. This mellows down the customer’s negative feelings towards the brand and coaxes them to trust the brand once more. 

• Take the conversation offline: Once you acknowledge a negative comment, make sure to privately message the complainant to know what the problem actually is. Ask for their phone number and get your customer service team in touch with the complainant. This makes it easier to provide service and make amends. This also makes the complainant feel that he is being taken seriously.

• Don’t delete negative comments: This is one major mistake that the brands make. Deleting negative comments just aggravates the complainant, even more, causing a series of more negative comments. This becomes hard to handle as the other followers of the brand start supporting the complainant. This results in a stir of tweets and comments where even happy customers start complaining and going against the brand.

• Separate support handle: Having a dedicated and separate support handle can make the job 10 times easier. Having a separate team of ORM managers makes sure that no complaint is left unattended, which increases the brand’s online reputation and, in turn, your brand’s goodwill.

These tips and tricks are tried and tested by the industry and are 100% reliable. It is very important to be active online and to make sure your customers are content. Online Reputation Management should not be ignored as an aspect of digital marketing. Make the most of your online presence and your brand/business will stand out and shine!