Why Is Online Reputation Management Crucial for Businesses?

Intro

There is a lot of talk about online reputation among online business owners. There is even an internet marketing profession that foresees that a specialist is taking care of the ORM of a brand and/or company. In this article, let us dwell on the definition of this term and its significance.

Internet reputation is the reputation of a company, person, product, service, or anything else on the Internet and other digital platforms. It seems logical. Everyday people discuss your business: your employees, your services/products, or even your events. They might also have conversations about something related to your business, such as news in your industry or reviews of your competitor.

Online reputation management affects the productivity and processes of the organization, and also focuses on changing the way the public (customers, readers, suppliers) sees your business. This is improving your brand image in the online world, managing positive or negative feedback, and customer or product issues. As you can see, online reputation is crucial for every niche, including Forex companies. So, if you are running a Forex business, the management of your online reputation would not be overlooked.

What do the figures say about the significance of online reputation?

According to numerous studies:

• 77% of consumers study reviews about the company before ordering services or goods;

• Almost half of the potential buyers form an opinion about the company after reading reviews on the Internet;

• Companies with a low rating of 1-2 stars lose up to 97% of potential customers.

Satisfied consumers are in no hurry to write reviews on the Internet. They have received what they want, and they do not want to bother. But indignation and dissatisfaction spread online like lightning. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with the reputation in the network and not let it all go by itself.

Now, a business's reputation can be very easily damaged by:

• ease of posting information (everyone can post content);

• content distribution speed;

• having content online for years.

Currently, there are three ways to manage your online reputation:

• ORM is reputation management on the Internet in general;
• Search engine reputation management (SERM) applies only to reputation in search engines;
• Hidden marketing (HM) is reputation management through hidden marketing influences.

Internet reputation and social networks

The rise of social media has changed the way companies see and understand reputation. In the past, the message was promoted on television, radio, and newspapers to the general public. Currently, most businesses communicate with their customers through social media profiles, which is a completely different environment. Different businesses mainly use such social networks as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. Anyone can post, tweet, or share a video about your company on these social networks.

An opinion leader on social networks can write about your brand or some news about your business will be picked up by a large wave of ordinary users and spread through the social network, or maybe some post will go viral — all this significantly affects the image of your business. That is why taking care of the reputation on social media is an integral part of the implementation of the best SEO practices for the promotion of a business online.

Internet reputation and review sites

Many review websites post about companies by location, such as TripAdvisor and Google Maps (Places). Such sites allow consumers to post reviews of businesses, restaurants, hotels, and other places that they visit.

In addition to allowing consumers to share their opinion, review sites can also create communities of travelers, tourists, and professionals. Now the consumer affects not only the decisions of other consumers but also the results of the business.

Here are the benefits of ORM. It:

• reveals and shapes the public perception of the company, product, or service;
• creates trust and an expert position in the eyes of consumers;
• allows you to quickly eliminate/correct negative reviews and comments as they are posted in real-time;
• detects customer complaints in real-time, allowing immediate resolution;
• helps the company achieve business and marketing goals by attracting new customers;
• assists during crises;
• identifies supporters and creates a community around the company, product, or service;
• provides an opportunity to learn suggestions for improving your business;
• turns reputation into numbers: the number of mentions on the Internet, sentiment analysis, reach in social networks, and much more.

The most important is that thanks to reputation management efforts, businesses know in which direction they should develop and what they should change. Taking into account the comments and feedback from clients, it will be possible to improve the level of customer satisfaction, which will eventually positively influence the bottom line of every business — there will be more clients that will recommend you to others, hence, your revenue will increase.

Conclusive words

As you can see, online reputation management is an essential aspect of any online business and a component of a good marketing strategy. A good reputation will bring profit, and a bad one will only lead to losing your position in the market. Negative comments, bad reviews, and information wars should always be kept under control. All three methods of online reputation management (ORM, SERM, and HM) will help you improve your reputation and online image on the Internet.

A competently developed reputation management strategy can become an effective tool for you to increase brand recognition and ensure loyalty from potential customers. It also helps protect against unscrupulous competitors, which is really crucial for any business.

And it is no less significant to carefully select a company or agency that will take care of your online reputation. One false step — and the damage might be disastrous. More so, a reputation management specialist should work in coordination with promotion specialists. So, if you are going to hire an SEO agency for your Forex business, ask them about their approaches to improving the reputation of a company on the Internet. Believe it or not, it is always worth it to start cooperation with professionals rather than try to restore the spoiled reputation damaged by unprofessional actions.