Consumers have the luxury of background checking a brand and checking whether they would like to support that business through the internet. Google has been a great tool in that regard, but that usually means enterprises now have to navigate a space and regulate how a potential client may perceive their brand.

It can be a tricky task to only have the positives highlighted, whether you’re an up-and-coming brand or an established enterprise. There will be a lot of critical eyes watching. And this is how online reputation management comes into play.

How ORM Works

Online reputation management (ORM) refers to the processes implemented in order to steer your online reputation in a good light. It encompasses reviewing and monitoring what people are saying about you, along with checking articles written about your brand and more. How people perceive your brand is really important, and ORM’s goal is to mold the brand’s image into something good.

Since the digital space has become a wider avenue for people to talk and share their opinions, it usually means that more people are talking about brands, too. Some business owners may not pay this any mind, but it can have an adverse effect on your business if you have a terrible reputation online. 

Factors Affecting Your ORM

Three key things that every business should take into consideration with their ORM are the topic, popularity, and time sensitivity. Search engines take these all three into consideration when ranking what comes up the search results and, inevitably, what people searching online will see. 

When something negative happens, that topic can typically get a lot of traction and write-ups. Often, it may just be local news, but social media can blow things out of proportion. One good example of this is the froyo shop in LA that got a lot of attention across so many platforms because a celebrity had accused them of promoting diet culture.

Such a story got really big at the time, warranting many content creators and digital news sites to publish it for clicks. Although the conversation for that business was evenly split, the brand now has a reputation that inaccurately reflects them.

ORM’s Difference with SEO

Many do confuse ORM with other concepts of marketing like search engine optimization. It’s a fair assumption since both deal with search engine rankings and the algorithm of search engines. The simplest difference between the two are their goals.

The goal of ORM is to make sure that Google’s search results regarding a brand are more or less positive and informational. SEO is a little different because it merely hopes for a website to rank higher than other businesses to be the answering point for searchers’ queries. 

ORM’s Difference with PR

Aside from SEO, ORM is also confused with public relations. Some may think one concept is the tool of another because they both have a similar goal, though it’s a little more complex than that. PR considerably works better for broadcast and other mediums while ORM serves digital.

PR techniques are centered around the idea of redirecting conversation from negativity to a different narrative that benefits the brand. ORM is a little different in its methodology and aim of having other articles that reflect a brand more accurately top the search results.

See also: Reputation Software and how it helps your business

Conclusion

ORM is a very distinct and helpful practice. Business owners should learn to adopt this strategy in order to counter the misinformation and negativity online that would hinder their brand’s growth.

Need some reputation management tools? TurnKey Reputation helps boost businesses through an automated reputation marketing system. Try it for free today!

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