The goal of any business is to make a profit. This factor depends on how much the product or service is interesting to customers. Today, consumers do not trust ads, but reviews and recommendations of acquaintances. Therefore, self-respecting companies pay attention to creating an image on the Web. To do this, they use a powerful tool - reputation management, which allows you to form the right opinion about the product, increase brand awareness and increase the number of customers.
Image - the face of the organization
The more famous the brand, the more goods are in demand. What determines the popularity? From consumer evaluation of goods, from emotions and associations that arise in the minds of people when they hear the name of the company. These judgments of buyers are directly related to public opinion about the company. The more the organization adheres to the principles of honesty and openness in communicating with customers, the higher the level of user loyalty and, accordingly, the level of sales.
The essence of the concept
Reputation management is a set of strategic activities aimed at creating, supporting and protecting the image of a company. Its main task is to create the right brand vision in the eyes of consumers and a stable positive opinion about it. This type of management consists in monitoring the information space around the product on the Internet, predicting all kinds of threats, correcting content, tracking negative reviews and eliminating them.
Relevance of reputation management
As you know, almost the entire population of the globe is users of the World Wide Web and daily use its resources to find the necessary information. So it turns out that if the organization or the product has any shortcomings, problems, etc., a person learns this and, on occasion, gladly shares his opinion with friends. This means that the formation of the image of the product occurs spontaneously and can get a negative color. Fundamental in this case is the subjective perception of users.
In order to prevent such a development of events, reputation management is used. It provides an opportunity for potential consumers to discuss the company's proposals, while setting the direction for the formation of public opinion.
The way to deal with negativity
It’s not a secret to anyone that any tools are used in the market championship race. And the so-called “black PR” on the part of rivals is able to very badly damage the company's reputation and cause a negative idea about the product. This is done mainly in two ways: either the administration orders this work to the profile specialist (special equipment and finances are necessary for this task), or by ordering a series of bad reviews.
In this case, the only way to clear the name is to resort to tools of reputation management. With their help, you can level out unwanted information, create and maintain constant communication with customers and, as a result, eliminate the negative assessment from consumers. But it is better when this work is planned in advance, then it will give better results.
Better late than never
For Russia, this type of management is quite new, while in other developed countries (USA, China, South Korea, etc.) reputation management technologies have been used for a long time, which significantly increases the ratings of companies. In Russia, they are treated as anti-crisis measures: when the image is already spoiled, or the interest in the organization has completely disappeared, then they order the services of specialists. And only recently, more and more companies, starting their own business from scratch, use reputation management from the very beginning to immediately form the necessary image of the product among users and their loyalty to it. Having made honesty, trust and responsiveness the basic principles of communicating with people, there is more chance of gaining a stable position in the modern market.
Activity Functions
This type of control allows you to solve a number of specific tasks, namely:
- analyze the opinion of consumers about the product;
- increase brand definition among other offers;
- create a positive reputation of the company;
- increase the number of users of the product;
- establish communication with customers through reviews on the network;
- identify the negative and eliminate it;
- familiarize users with new products and interesting offers of the company.
Stages
The company's work to create a positive opinion takes place in several stages:
- Analysis of the existing image of the company, internal and external consumer relations to the product. The development of the strategy and the quality of the results depend on how accurate the assessment of the current state of affairs will be.
- Definition of the main goals, selection of tools for reputation management, drawing up a list of targeted actions.
- Implementation of the plan.
Strategy Implementation Methods
When the tasks of work are defined, and there is a clear understanding of the final result, the direct process of forming public opinion begins. It also has its own sequence.
- First, employees of the company look for all available information on the network. To do this, they enter key queries, which consist of company names, name and brand, brand and reviews, etc. Then they analyze it and also study how often the name of the organization is found on the World Wide Web.
- Then they work with the most popular social networks that have a large amount of traffic, so that people can freely communicate on these sites and share opinions with others. If you create your own profile for a company’s brand, this greatly increases the interest of customers with this offer.
- Preparation of quality content. The main thing here is that the information is accessible, truthful and concise. The ability to leave feedback allows you to track customer attitudes to the product, and quick response to comments - increase the level of trust in the company.
- Comment control. The opinion of others is an important component of the image of the organization. Positive reviews will independently work in the hands of the company, but the emergence of negative ones needs to be constantly monitored and then either deleted using a moderator or answered, expressing respect for their authors. In this case, it is always necessary to indicate ways to solve the problems and shortcomings mentioned.
The work on creating a brand reputation is within the power of any employee who is familiar with the basics of reputation management. Only for this, a clear strategy is needed to understand what kind of result is necessary to achieve in the process of work.
Web Image Tools
Today, the Internet is one of the most powerful forces of influence on people's minds. It reflects almost all aspects of human life. The content with which it is filled is created either purposefully, or at the request of individual customers. In any case, it is widespread because of its availability. Therefore, the deliberate use of the World Wide Web can provide a high level of advertising activities of the company. There are a number of possibilities for this, namely:
- Social networks (the well-known Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, Facebook, Twitter, and so on) allow you to keep in touch with potential customers, track the user’s rating of the product and form the right opinion on the product, as well as inform about all the news of the organization. In addition, these platforms allow customers to communicate with each other and share their opinions while referring to specific sources.
- Various blogs, forums, and feedback sites provide an opportunity to provide people with the information they need to build a brand loyalty and consolidate it, as well as increase customer confidence.
- Online media. Placing content on trusted sites with links to the source increases the interest of the proposal on the part of the population.
- SEO optimization. In order for potential customers to become regular, you need to take care of the convenience of the site and its fullness, as well as to ensure that the user quickly finds the information that he is interested in on the network.
Using these tools of reputation management gives good results only if there is a clear strategic plan, and they are used simultaneously.
Pitfalls control
In order to qualitatively conduct reputation management, you can contact the profile agency that professionally performs this type of service. But if it is not a big company that is ready to spend money on creating an image, but a small company, then, as a rule, the responsibility for creating public opinion is entrusted to one of the employees, who does this at their discretion. In this case, it is necessary to understand that if a person does not have a knowledge base, or rather does not own reputation management tools, does not know the specifics of sites on the Internet, as well as a number of significant nuances, his work will be fragmented. So, the time spent and finances will not bring the desired results. It should be borne in mind that the functions of reputation management depend on the competence of the employee.
A guide to creating and maintaining a company image
In any organization, good specialists are appreciated. But if their staff and finances are limited, and you want to carry out this type of management with good results, then you can draw on experience from a textbook on reputation management. Unfortunately, there are few books on this topic. And those that are presented today to the reader reveal certain aspects of this process. Basically, these are separate articles or other author's works, which deal with the essence, principles, objectives and / or tools of this activity.
The only textbook to date in which this concept is deeply and systematically considered is L. Salnikova’s book, “Reputation Management. Modern Approaches and Technologies”. This is the first leadership in Russia in which all steps to build the image of the company are examined in detail and in stages, new ways of working in this area are presented. The positive aspect of the source is that in it all the methodological foundations are disclosed in combination with practical material. The author shares the secrets of improving the image of the company, as for a long time she worked as a consultant in reputation management.
Those who decide to create public opinion can try their hand by completing the creative tasks presented in the book. It was precisely on them that future managers honed their skills to form a good name for the organization at the University of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "Reputation management" L. Salnikova, using striking examples, tells how to turn your business with the help of the above tool into a profitable asset. The book contains a lot of useful information for students, heads of organizations and people who are involved in the promotion of goods on the network.
Any company, no matter how large it is and what resources it does not have, seeks not only to make a profit, but also to have a good name and enjoy the respect and trust of people. Therefore, it is safe to say that it is reputation that promotes the organization on the Web, and reputation management is the tool that will allow you to confidently occupy your niche in a competitive environment, make products branded and turn the company into a highly profitable asset.