Online Reputation Management
Published by: Hannah Stelitano
This short video from Otter PR gives a basic overview of what Online Reputation Management is and why it is important!
What is an online reputation?
In today’s society, it is crucial that individuals and brands both protect their online reputation. How you are portrayed online can either make or break your brand. Online Reputation Management (OMR) helps monitor, maintain, and influence how others see you through the digital scope. This is extremely important to protect since your online reputation is what you are known as. Specifically for brands, it is important to protect how the public perceives you so that they will be more likely to support you. For individual reputations, it is just as important to protect how you present yourself online as it can directly impact your overall credibility. The slightest mistake involving a negative post, misleading information online, or something inappropriate could very likely destroy your entire career or even future. Regardless if you are managing an individual or brands’ reputation, practicing ORM is crucial.
How to build and protect an online reputation?
Creating an online reputation starts as soon as you, or someone else, posts a picture, video, or something you said on social media. Building an online reputation starts by creating your own content. Discovering your brand image is what ultimately leads to your brand reputation. What you decide to post is what you will be seen as so it is important to only post things online that you want to represent you. Protecting this reputation varies depending on brand or individual.
For a brand, an online reputation is fostered from consistency of posts, engaging with the audience, and maintaining a consistent brand voice. In today’s world, a brand’s online presence defines them. The way their website is set up, how their social media accounts look, and how fast they respond to customer reviews/ comments defines who they are and what they value as a brand. Staying consistent with what and when they post helps to show that they care about their brand and want it to look organized. Engaging with their audience on either posts or reviews shows that they care about their audience and want them to feel valued by the brand. Maintaining a consistent brand voice shows that the company is stable and reinforces its brand identity. Failing to meet any of these expectations will reflect poorly on a brand’s online reputation.
For a publically well-known individual, an online reputation is fostered by maintaining a positive view on the public audience and staying out of controversy. For those who chose to stay in the public eye, either famous singers, actors, influencers, or anyone with a larger following, they need to carefully craft how they want to be seen. Maintaining a positive view and outlook sets the individual up to appear more relatable and approachable. Along with this, staying out of controversy will deem them as unproblematic and allow the public to recognize that they are not choosing to be in the public eye to gain attention. This will show that they truly want to support and uplift their larger audience.
For a standard individual, an online reputation is fostered by staying out of the public eye and being cautious about what you post. Today, digital footprints are permanent. Limiting the amount of personal information that is displayed online about one helps to protect themself and maintain a professional image. When applying for university or a job, your digital footprint is always viewed. It is essential to keep this clean to ensure your online reputation is protected.
Disney customer service guidelines from their website.
Disney is an example of a company that practices great ORM. Disney focuses on branding and consistency through their website, theme parks, and online presence. They use the same fonts, colors, and logos to prove that they have a strong brand image. Further than this, they truly focus on customer service and response time. In the image above, it shows guidelines that employees and characters must follow when working. Along with this, Disney focuses on replying to emails, phone calls, and social media comments as fast as they can. Both of these practices show a great sense of ORM as Disney is protecting and upholding their online reputation.