Benefits of Online Reputation Management

Maintaining a positive feedback and a good brand image on internet nowadays is as vital for a company as carrying a positive image in the real market. The practice of controlling negative feedback and disseminating positive information about people and businesses on the internet is called as Online Reputation Management. This is accomplished by controlling online search results because most of the time they carry misleading, inaccurate and negative information which can have adverse effect on the way web searchers view them.

The emergence of social media has given a larger platform to the companies and businesses for marketing their products and services but at the same time consumers also get a wider platform for expressing their views about a product, service or people. This gives rise to both positive as well as negative feedbacks and comments depending on the consumer’s experience. Now it depends on us how well we are managing our online reputation so that the negative feedback doesn’t affect our sales figures. Here arises the need of Online Reputation Management Services.

There are various platforms where we can influence the perception of people:

• Social networking websites - Facebook and others.
• Professional networks like LinkedIn.
• Microblogs such as Twitter.
• Consumer Review websites such as MouthShut, epinions, etc.
• Mainstream or traditional websites.
• Collaborative Research websites like Rediff Q & A, Yahoo Answers.
• Bookmarking or social news websites
• Blogs and discussion forums
• Blogging communities such as LiveJournal, Open Diary, Xanga etc.
  

Online reputation management has many benefits. Some of them are listed below:

• Increase customer satisfaction by gaining reviews from consumers on positive and negative features about your product and services.
• Improve positive perception of your brand by listening to and getting involved in conversations with customers.
• Get reviews about competitors and perception of their consumers about their products or services.
• Online reputation helps in upholding shareholder value by reducing risk by being informed about how the opinion about our products are formed and disseminated.
• Establishing a more effective public relations.
• Cut downs expenses on marketing activities by understanding how to reach potential customers at lower expenditure.
• It helps in understanding gaps for services and products that can be manufactured for lucrative niche markets.
• It helps in removal of negative comments and feedback about you or your company from the review websites or other websites.

Our main focus while planning a social marketing strategy should be to set conversation parameters. It is not possible to control the direction of each and every conversation but we should try to give honest answers and helpful input wherever we can. We should make use of social media for creating a conducive environment where prospective and existing customers can freely express their opinion without the fear of being censored. Also we should provide answers to negative feedbacks and comments that help our potential customers to understand the cause behind a particular action of your company. Whenever possible, you can refer viewers to your product in a manner that they do not feel that you are promoting your company rather than providing a useful information. Thus if we carry out professional activities within the online space we begin to approach our potential customers at different levels.

GrowFast® is a leading company offering Online Reputation Management Services that results in positive brand image, highlights the USP of the brand, increases the longevity of the brand and re-creates the trust with the customer base.