Online reputation is all the perceptions of a brand, good or bad, about itself in the digital world. With a more detailed definition, online reputation is all conscious, unconscious, good or bad impressions, comments, thoughts, and transfers created by people or others in the digital media environment of every concrete or intangible value, regardless of the person, company, brand, product, or service. The first impressions that come to customers’ minds when a brand’s name is heard can be given as an example. With the involvement of digital processes in every aspect of life, searches have begun to be made in the virtual environment to reach a brand or company. In addition, a brand perception emerged in the virtual environment. That’s why every business, brand, in short, everyone in this industry has started to strive to build and improve their digital reputation.
Why is online reputation important?
When the importance of the concept of online reputation is examined, we do not come across a single answer. Online reputation is important in many ways. Today, consumers spend more time online has affected this level of importance. A consumer who researches the product and the brand before purchasing a product will encounter a brand’s online reputation during this research.
Our first answer to why online reputation is so important has to do with reliability. Accordingly, the online reputation of a brand also affects the credibility of that brand. At this point, trust, one of the most important factors in consumers’ decisions, causes consumers to prefer shopping from brands they trust. In this case, in the digital world we live in, consumer questions that brand before buying a product. They read the comments of people who have bought from the same brand and used the products before. This is why online reputation is important to consumers. For example, when we think of a brand with a negative online reputation, consumers’ perspectives change, and they begin to distrust them because of the reviews and analyzes they read. Therefore, when a brand loses the consumer’s trust, it pays a heavy price.
In addition to credibility, online reputation also affects brand image. Consumers are now much more conscious than before. For this reason, only the image of a brand on television, its advertisements that spend money unnecessarily, are not effective enough. Positive comments about a brand in the consumer’s searches create the brand’s image more clearly. Since the advertising and marketing activities are the image that the brand wants to create, the image that the consumer encounters online actually creates the real image of that brand. What matters to the consumer is how they perceive it, so the way it is perceived in online environments is an important part of a brand’s image.
As another important factor, online reputation affects consumers’ purchasing decisions. If the online reputation of a brand is bad and the comments that the consumer reads about this brand are negative, the consumer inevitably starts to move away from the brand and reconsider the purchase decision. This situation causes the consumer to turn to alternatives.
How do you gain your online reputation?
There are some digital elements that have an impact on online reputation. For example, comments made on social media accounts, evaluations on forums created on the internet, articles on news sites, platforms where complaints and questions are placed, user comments whose features have experienced these brands before, evaluations about the brand, brands, and products on different digital pages. And all kinds of digital content sharing on behalf of the brand play a role in gaining or losing online reputation.
To build a successful online reputation, there are some recommendations that brands should follow. First, a brand should read the consumer’s comments about the brand and focus on every comment, good or bad. At this point, it is important to act with the thought that bad comments will impact the customer. It is necessary to work to change such negative comments. At the same time, the fact that blog content has an important place should be emphasized, and blog scans should be made frequently. Particular attention should be paid to these platforms, as social media is perhaps the most effective tool for work. Accordingly, participating in the discussions of the brand through online platforms will always adversely affect a brand’s reputation. However, just deleting negative comments will not produce a positive result. Instead, working towards correcting mistakes positively affects a brand’s reputation.
What is the impact of online reputation?
The concept of online reputation management is of great importance for the consumer as well as for the brand. Especially the fact that large companies have taken their place in the market has affected this situation. Accordingly, the most important priority of every small-large scale company is to ensure customer satisfaction. This is where the impact of online reputation management comes into play. This method is one of the effective methods for users and companies to use the interaction between them beneficially. With successful online reputation management, it is possible to reveal changes in the user’s perception of the brand. As the successful results of online reputation management, which is effective in giving direction to the studies carried out for the reputation of the brands to be created by the users, are encountered, the companies are rapidly turning to this field.
How do you manage online reputation?
It’s never enough for brands to do one thing to manage their online reputation. At this point, every brand can start by examining and evaluating all information related to it in the digital world, on all online platforms. Identifying the content that may create a negative perception about the brand is important and working to improve it. In this process, first of all, it is necessary to make a brand analysis, that is, to examine the brand’s visibility on the internet.
Here, a negative situation confronting the brand works to a damaged reputation are started. In the next step, it is necessary to focus on reputation improvement works. At this point, while brands may not have a negative reputation, their online visibility may be low, and they need to work on it. The third step, which proceeds according to the policies determined after these two steps, is implementing this online reputation policy.
At this stage, it is important to ensure interaction through social media accounts and to make the content productive. Finally, the analysis step should be started, and the change process of your online reputation and its effects on your sales figures should be followed regularly.
What are the benefits of a good reputation?
First of all, you should not forget that positive and negative comments about brands are not easily lost. Since we live in a digital world, the internet does not forget any data, which positively affects brands with good online reputation management. Because online reputation management affects brands in many ways and can put the brand in a different place in the consumer’s mind, brands that have a positive online reputation are greatly affected by this. First of all, because they ensure the reliability of their brands, the orientation of consumers with this brand is gaining momentum. After reading many positive comments about a brand, consumers feel comfortable and safe and turn to this brand.
SIGN UP FREE
