A company's reputation is vital for the proper functioning of the company. A bad reputation can bring big problems to my business. It affects not only the image that customers have of my company, but also the image that partners and suppliers have of it.
When we talk about online or digital reputation, we approach it in a slightly different way. In this post we are going to talk about what digital reputation is, why it is important and some tips to improve it.
what is digital reputation?
Brand reputation refers to the perception that consumers have of a brand or product. When we apply this term to the digital environment it adds a new meaning.
Many people have a misconception of what digital reputation is. It is not only about the actions that a company takes in the digital sphere or the image that consumers have of our brand. In this aspect, digital reputation also involves the actions that users take in relation to our brand.
It is the users or consumers who make up the "prestige" of our company, which is why it is vitally important to take care of this image, as it is very easy to generate a negative view of our brand, but very difficult to change that bad image.
The digital reputation is created from the comments and opinions of users on the network: social networks, blogs, forums, ..
Having said all this, we can define digital reputation as the set of elements that represent the prestige of a brand or person on the network.
The importance of taking care of our digital reputation
If your company or brand has a bad online reputation it can be a before and after for your business. It is imperative to try to correct it as soon as possible, because it depends on this reputation whether or not a customer decides to buy our product. Poor management by the company can cause huge losses.
A brand with a good online reputation will make the difference between a consumer buying our products or not. The consumer will prefer to buy a product from a company with a good reputation rather than from a company with a bad online image and a lot of negative comments. We must know first-hand the consumer's behaviour.
In light of this, it is worth mentioning that online reputation is an intangible asset, which means that it cannot be touched, but it can be perceived, so, as it is not a physical asset, it can change at any time.
It is vital that when you have a good digital reputation, you work to maintain it and take care of it, so that you can also create strategies to increase it.
On the contrary, if you have a bad digital reputation, you have to work hard to eradicate it. The best advice is to develop a good digital marketing strategy. This will help you to achieve new goals: increase visibility, attract new customers, improve profits, have a good positioning and, finally, acquire a good digital reputation.
You can achieve these objectives in different ways, the main ones being those developed by Digital Marketing, such as SEO positioning, social networks and digital advertising campaigns, among other things. These tools will contribute to improving your company's digital reputation.
6 tips to improve your digital reputation
- Research and listen.
You should look for information about your brand on the web. Review the comments and reactions of users on different platforms, whether YouTube, social networks, forums, ... In this way you will know how the consumer identifies your brand. You must actively listen and pay special attention to these comments and reactions. Thanks to this analysis you can propose strategies for SEO optimization. - Monitor.
It is imperative to monitor and analyse your brand's image data and see how it evolves on these platforms. The key is to know everything that is being said at the exact moment it is being said, in order to prevent a possible digital reputation crisis. - Analyse and act.
When we have compiled all the data we have analysed on the platforms, it is time to act, defining strategies to eliminate negative comments from users and boosting the positive ones. - Publish content of interest.
Implement a Content Marketing strategy in your company. Content is the vital tool that can improve your online reputation or, on the contrary, worsen it. We must create positive and quality online content. This will help to mitigate the possible negative consequences of attacks on your brand. It can be content published by the brand or user content inspired by a product or an action carried out by our company. - Design a Crisis Plan.
Before a possible crisis is created, it is essential to create an online crisis plan. In this way, if there is an attack on our digital reputation, we can use this plan to define what actions we should carry out next. This plan should reflect all the actions that my company should carry out to manage a crisis of our digital reputation. - Manage bad opinions.
If in the end our company ends up in a digital reputation crisis, the company's response to this crisis is very important. You must respond to all criticism in a respectful and confident manner. If the company has made a mistake without realising it, it is necessary to acknowledge and apologise for it. In the opposite case, it is very important to pay attention to the criticism they have about our company. If it is constructive criticism, we can use it to manage what the company is failing and how we can improve.
Having a bad digital reputation can affect your company, but it is not the end of the world. On many occasions, users' criticisms can serve to improve my brand image and see where we are failing. We must propose solutions to avoid a crisis in my digital reputation, and if we are already going through it, propose solutions to these problems. Everything has a solution, and, using the tips we have left in this post, it is more than likely that you can get out of a crisis like this. We hope our post has helped you a lot!
