Why is reputation management important for brands?

Brand reputation is one of the most important aspects of building your company and sustaining it. Over 80% of shoppers will actually Google your business before they make a purchase, whether that’s online or in-store. That’s the reason that it’s extremely important to have a good online reputation. Managing your online reputation especially for a business is about closing the gap between 2 separate concepts. This refers to how your company perceives itself vs how the public perceives it. If you are lucky, these two concepts won’t be too far off from each other but that is not always the case. Reputation management in its traditional sense is closely related to PR or public relations. 

Before Google, managing the reputation of your business and shaping the public perception of your company was mostly based on offline activities. Companies were focused on reaching out to journalists, trying to get in touch with reporters, or going to events and attending other networking opportunities. The goal was simple. These businesses wanted to build their reputation and get people talking about them. This was the best way to get potential clients and customers to start talking about the company, i.e., through word of mouth. In today’s world, the game largely remains the same but the means of achieving this goal has changed significantly. The biggest difference is that most of the peer recommendations have been online, especially on social media, which is why it is so important for companies to keep an eye on their online reputation. 

With the evolution of the internet to what it is today, it is not surprising to see the same changes reflected in how businesses need to manage their online reputation. This requires that companies pay special attention to 2 specific areas: social media and Google search. Firstly, social media, because it has become the best place for companies to understand the kind of reputation they have among their audience and address any issues or negative feedback before it has the chance to escalate and damage the reputation. Secondly, online search engines, as they show you the first thing that people see when they are looking for more information on your product or brand. The main search engine is Google which now generates about 95% of all search engine traffic around the world. 

Companies must also look out for blogs, forums and public sites since these are public platforms where people voice their opinion in very social ways. Anyone can respond or comment. Online reputation management has become relevant because connecting with journalists and reporters and offline publications is difficult. Now it is more important to engage directly with customers and build relationships with popular bloggers and influencers. Everything happens faster now and a negative review on a review site will reach a lot more people in a lot less time.