What is Online Reputation Management?

What is Online Repuatation Management? (10/30/2019)

TRANSCRIPT

ORM Definition

Today, we’re talking about online reputation management. Let’s define online reputation management. One of the funny things about digital marketing is you’ll see a lot of acronyms, today we’re talking about ORM. You’ll see ORM a lot, it’s Online Reputation Management. Really, what is online reputation management? It’s just what it sounds like. It’s managing your online reputation, but what does that mean?

It’s actually the process of managing what you look like online, what people are saying about you online, how you appear in directories and things like that online. Reviews are a big component of online reputation management. It’s funny, we’ve talked to people throughout the year who say like, “I don’t want to be on social media because I don’t want people to leave bad reviews.” People are going to leave reviews, whether you like it or not. You might as well be in the middle of it and actually manage that and be able to respond to people. Otherwise, they’ll leave reviews and you look like you don’t care or you’re distant. That’s going to be a bad thing, especially if you do get some bad reviews.

Name – Address – Phone Number

Hopefully you don’t ever experience that, but we’ve all seen them. If you don’t respond, that looks negative on your business. Other parts of online reputation management will be called a NAP. It’s your name, address, and phone number. N-A-P. This is extremely important because if this is incorrect across the web, basically, when somebody does a search for your business or your type of business, Google would love to show you because hey, they’re right down the street, they’re mile down the road. It would be a perfect prospect for you, but if your NAP is not correct across the web, Google gets a little nervous. Google wants to show the most relevant, accurate information.

If your NAP is not right, they’re going to go, “Whoa? I don’t really know which one to show, so I’m just not going to show you. I’ll show somebody that I do know and can trust that this is the right information,” because if Google gives you an address for a business and you show up and it’s not the one, you’re going to be mad. You’re going to get mad at your Google Maps. Google Maps is not accurate, and everything goes downhill from there. They do a pretty good job of covering themselves when they’re showing things. That’s really the process of search engine optimization, is to help guide them to the right information.You want to have your NAP, your name, address, and phone number across the web correct.

That really goes into all the different profiles that are around the web from Facebook, Yelp, Google. Google My Business is one of the most important ones for online reputation management, because if you’re trying to rank in Google, they’ve got a profile, you want to make sure that’s correct, and claimed and everything, but there’s tons of them out there. We really look at about 50 that we focus on, but then there’s some going beyond that, that’s niche-specific that would be very important to your business, but you want to make sure you’ve captured all of them, and that they’re all correct.

Why Does ORM Matter?

That really, in a nutshell, is what online reputation management is about. Monitoring what people are saying, monitoring your reputation online, and that includes keeping your information right and making it easy for people to find you, making it easy for Google to show you when people are searching for you. Now, let’s talk about why does online reputation management matter? Why does ORM actually matter? If you saw our video of what is SEO, you’ve heard a couple of these stats, but I think they’re extremely important, especially when you talk about online reputation management.

72% of consumers performing a local search are going to visit a business within five miles of their current location. Basically, what that’s saying is people are whipping out their phone going, “I need to find so and so.” They are searching, and they’re going to go to a business they find. If they don’t find your business, they’re not coming to you. They don’t know where to go. They’re only relying on what Google provides them as opportunities and options. You may be the best option. You may have the best pizza all up and down the beach, and then your whole place, everybody talks about you, but this person doesn’t know that. They’re doing a search and say, “Google, help me find some options.”If you don’t show up, they’re not coming to you.

On top of that, 86% of consumers will look up a business before they visit it. They’re going to look it up. Either looking at the reviews. “Hey, somebody told me to go to Joe’s Pizzeria.” I don’t trust my friend, and it’s weird how people socially like, they’ll get a recommendation, they still don’t trust that friend. They’d rather go see the reviews on Google and to determine if they really want to go to that business. They’re going to look it up. Okay, the reviews are great, and they’re going to find a place that they can, here’s the directions, now I’ll go to that business, but 86% of consumers are using this to look up a business before they visit.

If they can’t find you, there’s a level of trust. Now they’re going, “I don’t know. I can’t find them in Google Maps. What kind of place am I going to? Is it shady?” These things happen and these things go through a consumer’s head, but if they look for you, they look for your type, it pops right up, you’re at the top of the list, you’ve got great reviews, your online reputation is amazing, that’s where your new business is going to come into play. When you’re talking about places like Florida and things like that, tourists are all over the place. “Hey, where do I go to find a great pizza? Where’s the ice cream place? Where’s the surf shop?” They’re going to go some place that pops up on the maps.

If you want to learn a little bit more online reputation management, go to our blog blueatlastmarketing.com/resources. You can find a lot of information about ORM, SEO, digital marketing, really the whole game. We’ve got a lot of great resources there. Follow us on YouTube and follow us on Facebook.

If you think you need some help with your ORM but don’t know where to start, we are here to help! Check out our digital marketing services page to see how we can help your business today.