Building a strong business brand is important for the overall reputation of your business. The reputation of your business is vital for retaining customers and securing future investments. To achieve this, you need to understand reputation management for your small business.
Reputation management is the practice of influencing stakeholder perceptions and public conversations about your company and its brands. Reputation management includes monitoring perceptions and conversations responding to reputation threats and proactively grabbing opportunities to boost reputation.
For small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in South Africa, reputation is important because at some point they will want to do business overseas.
In this article, we look at reputation management and how SMEs can do it for themselves.
Reputation Management Versus Reputation Marketing
Reputation management is all about maintaining your company’s brand through crisis management and positive public relations efforts. You can do this by responding to negative reviews and managing any feedback you receive on social media.
The overall point of reputation management is to resolve customer complaints and negative posts about your business to ensure you create or maintain a positive business reputation.
Reputation marketing is when your company receives positive reviews, and you use them as marketing content. Think of business websites that have reviews on them from clients using their services. Features that receive positive feedback can for instance be used as a highlight in other marketing materials such as advertising, posters or even product packaging.
The difference between reputation management and marketing is that one is more reactive than the other. With management, you ‘manage’ what your community thinks of your company. With reputation marketing, you need to be more proactive and craft customers’ perception of your business.
Examples of Reputation Management
Here are some ways to practice online reputation management for your business.
Social Listening
Social listening or social media listening is the process of identifying and assessing what is being said about your company on social media platforms. Social listening is a great way to manage the reputation of your company because it allows you to respond quickly to any customer reviews.
You can use tools like Mention to help you with social listening.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a tool which allows you to receive notifications for when people mention your company on the Internet. This tool can help you keep track of anyone who references your company online and help you with your reputation management.
Reply to Negative Reviews
With platforms such as HelloPeter, it’s easy for customers to leave negative reviews on any business. You need to keep track of the reviews your business receives and immediately respond to any negative ones.
Negative and positive reviews are public and are visible to potential customers. Responding quickly to reviewers shows them that you care about fixing issues mentioned by your customers.
Build a Strong Reputation Management Plan
Here are five steps you can take to build a strong and comprehensive reputation management plan.
Step 1: Clearly Define Your Brand’s Values and Messaging
Your business branding is not just about having a pretty logo. Your brand also consists of your values and the messaging you put out to customers. You need to have strong values and messaging to ensure that your brand stands out from your competitors.
Step 2: Identify Your Target Audience and Stakeholders
You need to ensure you have a good understanding of who your audience is. This will help you be able to manage your reputation to the right audience. Additionally, you need to identify key stakeholders who will influence your reputation positively and customise your strategies to resonate with them.
Step 3: Set Specific Goals and Objectives for Reputation Management
Setting clear, specific and measurable goals will provide clarity and direction for your reputation management strategy. When outlining your targets, consider the following as important:
- Boost to online ratings.
- Enhance customer engagement on all platforms and channels.
- Respond to negative feedback in a timely manner.
- Improve website traffic and SEO for better brand visibility.
- Improve your content creation for better consistency (start with two blog posts per week).
Step 4: Create a Crisis Management Plan
You need to be prepared for any and everything. With social media being so wide-reaching, you cannot afford to let the reputation of your business take a hit. Ensure you have a comprehensive crisis management plan to help you navigate challenging situations effectively.
Step 5: Develop Guidelines for Online Engagement and Responses
You need to be consistent with how you engage with people online. Establish guidelines for how your business interacts and responds to various situations online. This will ensure your brand has a unified voice and approach to all online responsibilities.
Reputation Management Tools
Here are some tools (and software) that you can leverage to help you with your reputation management.
Reputation management tools – Brandwatch and BrandYourself.
Social media monitoring tools – Hootsuite and Mention.
Online review management platforms – Trustpilot and Hellopeter.
Website traffic and analysis tools – Google Analytics.
Customer relationship management tools – HubSpot.
These tools can help you not only manage your business’ reputation but also nurture the relationship you have with your customers. This will ensure you retain those customers and also attract new ones.
For more information on using technology for your business, read about the Technological Factors Affecting Business.
