Your social media accounts and pages represent your brand just like your website or smartphone app does. The audience is active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other social media platforms. Then, there are specific review sites for specific businesses. 

For example, TripAdvisor, Tripoto, and MakeMyTrip review hotels and travel companies. Similarly, there are other review sites for other businesses. User comments and reviews on social media and review sites define your online reputation.

The things that customers say through these review sites play a huge role in determining your brand’s reputation. 

Influencers have a huge following on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media channels. Bloggers, vloggers, and online communities are also integral parts of social media.

Consider each of these elements while creating a strategy for online reputation management. It will help you create a strong online reputation for your business.

Due to its huge impact on online branding, social media reputation management has become synonymous with online reputation management. So, ORM (Online Reputation Management) service providers cannot neglect social media while managing the reputation of their clients.

In this article, you will learn how to use social media to manage your brand’s online reputation. 

Watch Out: 4 Hottest Online Reputation Management Trends in 2023

What is social media reputation management?

Social media reputation management means how you handle your brand’s reputation on various social media platforms. Different social media platforms create a huge amount of customer data every day. To manage your online reputation, you must analyze this data and find out what your customers say and think about your brand. 

Social media and reputation management are interconnected. What customers say can make your brand shine or grow online. An untoward incident or bad experience can also damage your online reputation. So, it becomes essential for you to assess your online image. If your reputation is damaged, you must make efforts to fix it.

By hiring an online reputation management agency, you can keep track of negative comments and links. These agencies also suppress negative content by highlighting positive feedback and reviews. 

They use sophisticated tools to retrieve insights from raw customer data. Also, they use conversation-tracking tools to monitor customer posts and comments in real time. By using the latest tools and technologies, you improve your perception among customers. 

What is the role of social media in online reputation management?

The role of social media in online reputation management is critical. Brands strive to look their best on social media outlets. They also use these platforms to combat negative publicity. 

Social media can build your brand’s image if you use it wisely. For that, you must create high-quality and impactful content and share it online. The content that drives engagement also increases your online visibility.

Here are a few things that highlight the importance of social media in online reputation management.

1. Establishing your expertise 

Social media allows you to demonstrate your expertise in a specific niche. By emerging as an industry expert, you can earn the trust and appreciation of your customers. 

You can share high-quality and useful content on your social channels. It will motivate your potential customers to refer to your social media pages and accounts whenever they need them. With time, your following on social media will increase. Consistent efforts will help you earn loyal customers. 

2. Driving engagement
By driving customer engagement on social media, you can build long-lasting relationships with your customers. To achieve this, you must address their queries and complaints without delay. Replying to positive feedback and comments is also part of the reputation-building process. 

Consistent engagement on social media helps you detect negative comments and feedback. By using ORM services, you can get rid of the negative publicity surrounding your brand. 

3. Increasing online visibility 

To manage your online digital reputation with social media, your brand must have enough visibility. Social media allows you to increase online visibility through daily posts and campaigns. You can run campaigns to increase the views and impressions of your posts.

4. Managing a crisis 

Customers may share their bad experiences regarding your service or products on social media. Persistent customer issues can result in a social media crisis. Track such conversations and resolve their issues. After resolving the issues, you may ask them to remove the negative comments. 

Social media also gives you an opportunity to pre-empt a crisis. Be responsive and take care of impending issues that can aggravate customers. It will help you tackle the crisis.

You can reduce the impact of the damage by posting your side of the story. Suppose a customer shares a video or audio clip of your staff’s or a customer executive’s bad behavior. If it was the customer who started behaving badly, you can bring it to the attention of others. 

Also, apologize for the bad behavior shown by your representative. Assure them that such incidents will never happen again. Social media allows you to be proactive by taking complete control of negative incidents and experiences. 

5. Influencer marketing 

Influencer marketing refers to the process of creating content with a social media influencer. Track the most popular social media influencers and build a partnership with them. 

The influencers must have a massive following on social media. So, collaborating with them will improve your brand’s reach and perception among users. 

Brands also use influencer marketing strategies to promote their products and services without being boastful. People listen to them and pay heed to their suggestions. You can also improve a damaged online reputation by using the influence these influencers have on their audience. 

Here are the: 7 Essential Elements Of Online Reputation Management

How effective is social media for online reputation management?
Effective social media reputation management requires comprehensive strategy-making. You cannot neglect the use of social media in digital reputation management.

Choose the social media apps that can complement your brand’s reputation. Provide meaningful and useful content through these channels. It will keep your brand in the spotlight. 

To create an effective ORM strategy, you must analyze your competitors. Monitor the social profiles of your competitors and evaluate their strategies. Adopt and fine-tune some of their strategies to shape your online reputation. 

By analyzing their content, you can get innovative content ideas. Make sure that you do not copy their content. Use their content ideas as inspiration to design creative content. 

Assessing your online reputation is just the tip of the iceberg! Social media enables you to be proactive while resolving customer issues. It gives the right exposure to your products and services. 

If the customers face issues after using your products, you should address their issues as a priority. Being active on social media is the best way to track customer conversations. 

If customer complaints keep repeating themselves, it can tarnish your brand’s image. By posting how-to videos and blogs, you can suggest ways of reducing issues or overcoming them.

Do you know: What Are the Advantages of Having a Good Online Reputation?

Setting up and monitoring an effective social media presence for online reputation management

Follow these suggestions if you want to manage your digital reputation on social media.

1. Select the Right Social Media Platforms

Choose the social media platforms that your customers most prefer for implementing your ORM strategies. It is so because these platforms will have the maximum impact on your social and online image. 

Conduct a brand audit to discover the best communities and platforms for your social media management initiatives. Check how many posts, votes, reviews, and followers you have on these platforms. Count whether the negative reviews exceed the positive reviews. If yes, your ORM strategy is not up to par. 

Evolve your strategies as follower count, reach, demographics, and views increase. You can also use social listening tools to hear what your audience is saying about your brand. 

If your brand lacks a presence on a specific social media app, make efforts to increase your brand’s visibility. Focus on your weaker areas by conducting an in-depth competitor analysis. 

2. Craft a Consistent Brand Image

Crafting a consistent brand image will help you etch your brand values into the minds of your customers. Consistency must be reflected in the colors and infographics you choose for your brand. The brand logo, labels, and slogans must be consistent across all social media platforms. 

The voice and values of your brand must be consistent. Your customers will identify with your brand and start following it once they start relating to your posts. Being consistent helps you grab their attention and eyeballs. 

Also, your brand image must reflect the industry, your target customers, and the USPs (Unique Selling Points) of your offerings. 

3. Optimize Profiles for Maximum Impact

Tweak your social accounts and pages to create maximum impact on your customers. Your daily posts and ORM strategies will get the audience to your social profiles. But, if they are not impressed by it, they might never return to your profiles. 

Ensure that you use high-quality images and infographics in your cover photo and posts. List your key services and products in the ‘About Us’ section. Do not post any controversial content on your social media handles. 

Engage with the customers in a polite and professional tone. These things will help you manage your digital reputation on social media. 

4. Track Mentions and Notifications

Tracking brand mentions helps you know what your audience thinks of your brand and offerings. If your response to their queries is late, it might create an issue for your online image. 

Create Google Alerts for your brand name to track brand mentions. You can also set alerts and notifications for specific keywords and search topics. 

For monitoring social media platforms, you can use social listening tools and trackers. A customer data management suite with social listening capabilities can help you discover brand mentions. 

Tracking brand mentions manually is an uphill task. So, choose the tools that automate the process of social media tracking. A startup can employ manual tracking, but as the brand grows, it will be impossible to keep a check on each mention. Here is where the automated tools help. 

5. Utilize Social Listening Tools

Social listening is the process of analyzing and interpreting raw data to draw meaningful conclusions. Customer data plays a huge role in determining whether your strategies are working or not. The social listening tools send notifications whenever an unexpected conversation happens. 

They also help you track the latest industry trends. This helps you follow the legislation and adopt technological advancements. All these efforts reduce the occurrence of unexpected events and news that can malign your reputation. 

Social listening tools also provide insights into customer preferences. By using these tools, you can find the social media platforms that your customers prefer the most. It will help you select the primary communication channel for your brand. 

Here are some: 10 Important Factors For Selecting the Best Social Listening Tool For Your Business

6. Analyze Sentiment and Trends

Analyzing customer sentiments and the latest industry trends is important. It allows you to meet their requirements and emerge as a top industry player. You can plan your social media strategy by carefully interpreting customer data. 

Competitor analysis will let you know your brand’s positioning in the market. By analyzing your brand’s position, you can work towards building your online reputation. 

Keep your responses ready to tackle the negative sentiments. Personalize the responses as per the situation. Copy-pasting the same replies will make you appear insensitive. It will reduce your brand’s value and hamper your online reputation. 

7. Respond to Comments and Messages

Be alert to negative comments and messages. Reply to these comments without wasting any time. Try to resolve customer issues on a priority basis. It will help you avert a crisis. 

Use a polite tone while replying to customers. Do not be rude to them. Refrain from making personal remarks. Following these pointers is essential to your social media reputation management strategy.

8. Address Customer Concerns 

Address customer concerns as a priority. A slight delay in providing a resolution to their queries or complaints can hamper your online reputation. 

The use of social media in digital reputation management depends on how well you handle your customers. If you handle them well, it will be easier to convert them into loyal customers. 

Provide customers with multiple ways of raising queries or concerns. Use an empathetic tone while reacting to their concerns. Do not ridicule their issues as it reflects your brand in a poor light. 

9. Share Valuable and Relevant Content 

Reputation management on social media needs time and effort. Building an online reputation will be easier if you share valuable and relevant content. 

Do not engage in cheap gimmicks or tricks to convert the audience into customers. It may seem to be working at the start.

Once the audiences understand your ploy, they will refrain from engaging with your content in the future. This not only degrades your brand reputation but also derails your efforts to increase engagement. 

You can consult a content management firm to create inspiring content for your brand. Share content that resolves customers’ issues and educates them about your products/services. Provide interesting bits of information through your content to keep the audience engaged. 

10. Showcase Your Expertise and Thought Leadership

Your content must showcase your expertise in your domain. It must establish you as a prominent player in the industry. By posting innovative and path-breaking ideas, you can emerge as a thought leader in your sector. 

Collaborate with creators who have experience in curing thoughtful and engaging content. Sit with them, discuss your ideas, and participate in the content creation process. It will help them to create ideas as per your expectations. 

Monitor customer feedback regarding your content. Improvise your content strategies to stay relevant as per the latest industry trends. 

11. Encourage User-Generated Content and Testimonials

Encourage your customers to share their reviews and feedback after using your products or services. It will help you to understand whether they are satisfied with your offerings or not. 

Post user-generated on your website and social media pages. It will generate trust among customers and help you build a powerful online reputation. 

Once users start sharing their reviews, start responding to each review. Prioritize the negative reviews first. Apologize for the inconvenience caused to them and provide the correct resolution. Offer special services or benefits to agitated customers. Treat every customer with equal attention and respect. 

Do not forget to thank customers for their positive reviews. It will encourage them to post reviews in the future. 

Use personalized elements while interacting with the customers. It makes them feel special and helps you to convert them into loyal customers. 

12. Respond to Negative Feedback and Reviews

Responding to negative feedback and reviews will create a sense of positivity among the users. By responding to their issues on time, you can emerge as a responsible brand that cares for its users. 

You can use automated feedback messages or templates for positive reviews. Handle negative feedback and reviews with caution. Repeating the same messages or templates might agitate them further. 

If necessary, call customers to understand their exact issues or complaints. Take their feedback seriously and work towards improving your products. All these efforts will enhance your brand’s online reputation. 

13. Handle Social Media Controversies 

Handle social media controversies sensibly to prevent them from damaging your social and online reputation. Try to resolve the controversy as soon as possible. Delaying the response shows that you do not care for your customers.

If needed, you can organize a press conference or meeting and address the controversy. Use your primary communication channel to discuss the controversial subject. 

Try to sound empathetic if a customer is deeply hurt or dissatisfied after using your products or services. Do not blow the controversy out of proportion if it can be solved easily. 

If a crisis occurs on one channel, do not drag it to another social media channel. Try to suppress the negative behavior of customers by using your social and communication skills. If you cannot handle the situation, hire an expert or reputation management agency. 

14. Maintain transparency and Authenticity in Crisis Communication

Try to give authentic details about the matter during a controversy. Your transparency in dealing with conflicts will establish you as a respectful brand. Avoid forgery and trash talking while handling controversies. 

Assign the responsibility to a firm that offers online crisis management services. Let professionals handle the situation or else things might get out of your control. 

Conclusion 

These were some ways to manage online digital reputation with social media. We hope that you now understand the importance of online reputation.

Understand the role of social media in online reputation. Choose your channels wisely and hire an expert to bail you out from online scandals and controversies. Keep track of all the social media channels that matter to your business. 

You can use social media monitoring tools to track brand mentions. Konnect Insights is a customer experience management suite that comes with social listening tools. Using this platform, you can listen to customers and develop a comprehensive strategy for social media online reputation management. 

Konnect Insights offers a wide range of features and tools for improving customer relationships. Its BI tools and social listening features enable you to track customer feedback and reviews in real time. It is also backed by powerful crisis management tools. Visit Konnect Insights today and manage your online reputation with ease!