In recent years, digitalization has taken a big place in the marketing strategy of companies. As a result, their digital presence has intensified. But it was also accompanied by the appearance of a new concept: e-reputation.
E-reputation is the image that the web sends back of a service or company. Thus, when it is good, it attracts customers. But when it is bad, it repels them. A company that wants to be sustainable must therefore control its e-reputation by creating a strategy. At the end of your reading, you will know the key steps for creating a good e-reputation strategy.
Deliver quality content
E-reputation as a set of all the information available on the web does not depend solely on you. You can manipulate information, but so can Internet users. Hence the importance of producing quality content. Because, the more qualitative it is, the better it is referenced on search engines.
When a user launches a search on the internet, they give great importance to the first results that appear. In the same way, they are more likely to consult the content available on the first page as far as your business is concerned. So when you produce content that meets the quality standards of search engines like Google, they rank it at position zero. By carrying out their research, the customer comes directly to information that you have provided yourself.
By regularly animating your website or social networks, you control much of the information that Internet users read about your business. There is therefore less chance that they will come across lackluster content. Employees play an important role in improving a company’s brand image. You can therefore collect employee reviews via a trusted employee review platform. Through these reviews, satisfied employees portray your company positively. Since they are internal members, their opinion strongly influences the brand image that Internet users have of you.
But, it is not enough to produce quality content that will be well referenced. It is also necessary to attract the public to this content. In the communication process, before information passes from the communicator to the target, the target must seek it out. The content may be of quality, but if it is not consulted, it will have no impact on your e-reputation. So be sure to determine in advance your target as well as its needs and expectations. Thus, the content is oriented towards them.
Regarding the themes addressed for the animation of your web page, you can opt for company news and for specific themes related to your services. Thus, you increase the traffic of your target customers on your page and you take advantage of placing your products and services. Be careful to adapt your content to the intended target. Satisfied employees do a better job. The importance of employee satisfaction surveys is therefore well established.
Improve your internet presence
Among the ways to enhance e-reputation, there is information moderation. For it to be effective, you must have a good presence on the internet. Improving your presence on the internet is therefore a crucial step in the e-reputation strategy. Indeed, when a company has a web page or accounts on social networks, customers look directly for the information at the source. First, create a community around your products and services, and then it is up to you to find a way to retain it.
The presence on the internet makes it possible to act on your e-reputation. Unlike Internet users who can manipulate information to your disadvantage, you select information that aims to improve your brand image . Thus, you have control over what is said about you on the internet because you have the opportunity to manipulate information. To properly manage your e-reputation, ask yourself questions about your presence on the internet. How often do you publish content? How many social networks are you present on? Do you need to create accounts on other social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook)? What is the traffic to your business pages and accounts. This gives you a holistic view of your digital presence and the improvements you can make.
But, it is not enough to be present on the internet. The primary goal behind this maneuver is to make yourself look good. It is therefore necessary to take the time to respond to employee reviews about your company and to do the same for customer reviews. It is also important to animate professional accounts with content of interest. It can be articles, images, content in the form of videos. The diversity of your content will strengthen your presence on the Internet and grow your community on the Internet.
Build a good response strategy
Answers on the internet are important. They allow customers to see that their opinions and needs are respected and taken into account. However, some e-reputation players are looking for the slightest mistake to damage your brand image . It is therefore necessary to build a strategy for responding to opinions. It does not only come into action in case of bad buzz but also for any response to Internet users. It allows you to manage the e-reputation of your company.
Customer reviews are a real opportunity for companies that want to improve their e-reputation. Indeed, it gives them the opportunity to lift the veil and express themselves. When a customer leaves a positive or negative review, you have the opportunity to respond to them. Other Internet users interested in your products and services identify with the customer who left a review. You must therefore take care of your answer to convince them of your good faith.
As a company that does not want to damage its image, you must respond in a detached and professional way, but still providing the right information. In case of negative reviews, responding will improve your image and not responding will give the impression that you have something to hide. But, in wanting to respond and give relevant information, we must not create controversy. The response strategy makes it possible in this case to give an adapted response while respecting the culture of the company and avoiding altering your brand image .
When the customer leaves a fairly positive review, the best way to encourage them to do it again is to thank them. You can then ask their permission to share their opinion about your business accounts. Thus, you get other customers to believe in your company and its products and services.
There are courses for e-reputation management. To learn how to respond to customer reviews, you can participate in one of them.
Consider everything you do as market research
To properly manage your e-reputation, you must already know what is being said on the internet. It is therefore necessary to monitor the e-reputation. This monitoring consists of consulting and listing all the information available on the web about your company. Thus, you have a global vision of your brand image and the positive and negative points of your company from the point of view of Internet users. This market research gives you the opportunity to work on your business to offer services that meet customer expectations.
Constant monitoring also has other advantages. For a company to be sustainable, it must offer outstanding services. When you do e-reputation monitoring, you look for key information that can guide you to competing companies. Monitoring allows you to identify your main competitors. So you can point out their weakness and strength. Based on this, you can work to turn your weaknesses into your strengths and strengthen your strengths. Thus, you advertise yourself as a complete company and customers are satisfied. Customers being actors of the e-reputation, the more satisfied they are, the better it is for you.
The e-reputation strategy allows you to observe the market in order to find points of improvement for your business. A good e-reputation strategy can improve the employer brand. Discover the challenges of employer branding for a company and the best ideas to improve employer branding.
Attach importance to natural referencing
Natural referencing is undeniably an asset in your e-reputation strategy. Indeed, when you offer quality content in quantity, search engines position them well among the results. Thus, the first article that a user comes across while searching for your business on the internet is one of your articles. You provide information that strengthens your brand image . When you have a good e-reputation in business, the user has a positive perception of your company.
The more quality content you produce, the better it is referenced. Articles whose content you do not control are therefore replaced by content that you have produced yourself for your target. In this way, you improve your Google e-reputation. Natural referencing allows you to moderate information. You do not remove the bad reviews but you manage to pass them among the last results and therefore reduce their impact.
Define a procedure to follow in case of bad buzz
The actors of e-reputation are numerous. These are the company’s employees, Internet users, influencers, different social media and competition. Each of these actors is likely to positively or negatively influence e-reputation. And since they are variables, they can be the instigators of a bad buzz. No company is immune to bad press, so it is necessary to define a procedure to follow to effectively manage cases of bad buzz.
Indeed, when a crisis occurs, it is necessary to react quickly to contain it and minimize the impact. Because, if it is not quickly taken care of, the effects can be disastrous for the company. The implementation of a procedure to follow in case of bad buzz therefore makes it possible to manage the situation effectively. To react to the bad press caused by a bad commentary, for example, it is necessary to set up a crisis team. It only comes into action when a crisis needs to be managed. Since the crisis affects the company’s e-reputation, this team must be federated by the community manager. The crisis unit thus set up is empowered to analyse the origin of the crisis and to create a communication strategy. It defines the type of content to be broadcast and the frequency at which it should be broadcast. The crisis unit also chooses the vectors through which communication will happen. In general, these are the company’s social networks and the web page.
Some tips for an effective e-reputation strategy
Implementing an e-reputation strategy is beneficial for the company’s brand image. However, for it to be effective, you need to have a global idea of your e-reputation. You must therefore use tools to measure e-reputation. These allow to have a precise idea of the bad and good comments. Depending on the specificity of the tool used, you can identify what the bad comments are about. Thus, you locate the points of improvement.
But, above all, depending on the platform on which the comment was registered, if you consider it irrelevant, you have the possibility to get it deleted. Although the internet does not forget anything, you can even take advantage of the right to be forgotten depending on the nature of the information that is transmitted. In this case, the digital location of the comment is simply deleted. If you feel that a comment requires a response, you can set up a response strategy.
