The 8 Most Effective Ways to Manage Your Online Reputation

Effective ways to monitor your online reputation

According to data from Dixa, 95 percent of customers spread the word online and offline when a business interaction goes badly, but only 47 percent proactively share a positive experience. Knowing what others are saying about your brand and managing potentially unpleasant situations can rescue current customer relationships and protect future ones. 

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Ashley Carty, founder and CEO of Carty Media, builds reputation management into each client’s marketing strategy from the beginning. Her preferred approach is to have “a templated guideline on approved emojis, response templates for reviews and ways to positively engage” set out ahead of time so that “their team, no matter how big or small, comes together and is on the same page from the jump and doesn’t deviate from that strategy.” 

Here are eight ways to handle online reputation management for your brand.

1. Monitor your social footprint to manage your online reputation.

Facebook and X (formerly Twitter)  are popular social media platforms, but they aren’t the only ones. Perform regular searches on your brand name or product on various social media platforms, including Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok, to get an idea of what people are saying and gain valuable insights into consumer sentiment toward your brand. Remember to check all relevant social platforms, not just the ones where you’ve built an online presence. 

Some small businesses perform these social media checks in-house or by hiring a social media manager. Others turn to online reputation management services for help.

2. Respond to people promptly to manage your online reputation.

If you have a social media presence, consumers expect you to be sociable. When your customers reach out to you on social media, they want you to reply quickly to their queries. They may reach out to compliment you or share a story about your products or services. They may have a problem or concern they want you to address. Either way, it’s crucial to respond to all online reviews and mentions and acknowledge them.

Engage with positive comments and posts and address problems and concerns swiftly. If you can’t solve a problem immediately, share that you’re working on a path forward and stay in contact.  

Your goal is to cultivate lasting relationships with your target audience. Engaging and being responsive cultivate positive relationships and can nip potentially negative interactions in the bud. 

3. Ask for Google and Yelp reviews to manage your online reputation.

Online reviews are powerful tools. They can attract customers early in the buying cycle and build trust with e-commerce customers researching your brand online. 

To generate good reviews, ask happy customers to post reviews and share their experiences on popular review sites like Google and Yelp, their social media accounts and your business website. You can also encourage other forms of user-generated content like social media posts, blog posts and testimonials. 

If you have a large customer base, create an email marketing campaign to encourage customers to leave reviews. If you’re having trouble getting reviews, incentivize the process with giveaways or competitions to improve your digital marketing return on investment.

4. Encourage brand advocacy to manage your online reputation.

Social media can help you cultivate a strong base of influencers to market your brand. Well-matched influencers — whether consumers who are fans of your product or well-known social media influencers — can help your brand gain credibility and lead potential new customers to your offerings. 

You can also encourage brand advocacy internally and allow employees to share content about your business on their social platforms. Create social media guidelines for them so they can promote your brand’s culture online professionally and positively. As a bonus, your reputation among potential new hires will skyrocket when they see how enthusiastically your employees promote your brand. 

5. Be transparent to manage your online reputation.

Leading with transparency builds trust. Given that anyone can find everything you’ve ever said online, trying to cover up the truth has serious backlash potential. Practice honest communication and marketing on social media. Always admit your mistakes because if you try to cover something up, it will be found out sooner or later.

Megan Sweeney, director of public relations (PR) at the American Staffing Association, cautions that reputation management sometimes involves crisis management and honesty is crucial. “Customers appreciate authenticity and transparency,” Sweeney explained. “If something’s wrong with a product, acknowledge it, apologize and explain what you’re doing to correct the issue and ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

If someone complains to you on social media, don’t delete or hide the comment. Instead, address it immediately. Remember, millions of eyes could be watching. 

6. Create positive content to outweigh the bad.

Part of reputation management is taking proactive measures to ensure consumers see your brand’s positive elements, even if you’ve received some less-than-stellar reviews or press. 

Brian Hyland, co-founder and CEO of Cricket Public Relations, noted the importance of balancing what consumers find online about your brand. “Whether you’re B2B [business to business] or B2C [business to consumer], your customers and prospects often do their online ‘due diligence’ way before they contact you and too many bad reviews (or not enough positive news) is likely killing your prospects,” Hyland cautioned. Hyland advises strategically planning new, positive content that can minimize older, negative content. “With new content, the reputation management firm can use algorithms to replace the negative stories, pushing them further down the search pages,” Hyland explained. 

Positive content may include excellent blog posts, company-created videos and other content you own. However, high-level, positive PR is also powerful. “The best way to push down the old content is through earned media placements,” Hyland advised. “Bylined articles in verified press, opinion pieces, Q&As and industry interviews are the best tools for improving online reputation.”

7. Know your audience to manage your online reputation.

Identifying your target audience is critical in any attempt to manage your social media presence. Once you know your audience’s wants and needs, you’ll be better equipped to understand your social media presence and its purpose. You’ll know which platforms work best for your brand and how to speak to your audience on each specific platform. 

8. Set goals for managing your online reputation.

Approach your online reputation management strategy as you would any other business goal. Set your parameters and identify the metrics by which you’ll assess your progress. Do you want to generate new positive reviews on Google or Yelp? Do you want to increase your response time to online queries on X? Do you want to see a specific number of positive mentions on Instagram? 

Though the overarching purpose of a social media presence is to increase brand awareness online, you want that brand awareness to be positive. Using your social platforms thoughtfully is a great way to bolster your reputation and ultimately increase sales.

Why should you care about what people say online?

Here’s why protecting your brand reputation is crucial for success: 

• Your customers are researching you online: Consumers often conduct research and consult online reviews before buying something. The Podium survey cited earlier found that 82 percent of consumers were convinced to purchase something because of an online review. Consumer research typically goes beyond online reviews to include social media accounts and Google searches. Being aware of how all online channels reflect your brand is crucial. 
• Other people’s opinions carry a lot of weight: Today’s savvy consumers look beyond brand marketing to find actual customers’ experiences and opinions. Customers aren’t shy about sharing bad experiences. They’ll call out your shortcomings on social media or Google and minor complaints can get out of hand. Before you know it, you could have a PR nightmare on your hands.
• Customers reward companies with a great reputation: If your business has many great reviews and positive comments on social media, prospects will likely choose your business over your competitors. They’re even willing to pay more for a service from a company with higher reviews and ratings. The Podium survey found that 63 percent of consumers would pay up to 15 percent more if they’re convinced that they’ll get a better experience. The stronger your online reputation, the more you can charge for your goods and services.

Managing your online reputation helps you stay in control

Carefully cultivating your brand’s online reputation can increase your sales and positive sentiment toward your brand. People expect businesses to engage with them online and on social media to at least some degree, so it’s essential to do it right. Avoid the pitfalls of poor online reputation management because the world is watching and listening.