Reputation management: modern approaches and technologies

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The goal of any business is to make a profit. This factor depends on how much the product or service is interesting to buyers. Today, consumers trust not advertising more, but reviews and recommendations from 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 buyers.

Image is the face of the organization

The more famous the brand, the more the product is in demand. What determines popularity? From the consumer assessment of the product, from the 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 firm. The more an organization adheres to the principles of integrityand openness in communication with customers, the higher the level of user loy alty and, accordingly, the level of sales.

The essence of the concept

Reputation management is a set of strategic measures aimed at shaping, maintaining and protecting the company's image. Its main task is to create the necessary vision of the brand in the eyes of consumers and a stable positive opinion about it. This type of management consists in controlling 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 a user of the World Wide Web and every day they turn to its resources to find the information they need. So it turns out that if an organization or a product has any shortcomings, problems, etc., a person finds out about it and, on occasion, shares his opinion with friends with pleasure. This means that the formation of the image of the product occurs spontaneously and can get a negative connotation. Fundamental in this case is the subjective perception of users.

In order to prevent such a development of events, reputation management is just being used. It enables potential consumers to discuss the firm's offerings, while setting the direction of shaping public opinion.

The way to deal with negativity

It's no secret that in the race for market dominance, anytools. And the so-called "black PR" on the part of rivals can greatly damage the company's reputation and cause a negative image of the product. This is done mainly in two ways: either the administration orders this work from a specialized specialist (special equipment and finances are required to complete this task), or by ordering a series of bad reviews.

In this case, the only way to clear the name is to resort to reputation management tools. With their help, you can level unwanted information, create and maintain constant communication with customers and, as a result, eliminate negative evaluation from consumers. But it is better when this work is planned in advance, then it will give the best 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 damaged, or interest in the organization has completely disappeared, then the services of specialists are ordered. And only recently, more and more companies, starting their business from scratch, use reputation management from the very beginning in order to immediately form the necessary image of the product among users and a loyal attitude towards it. By making honesty, trust and responsiveness the main principles of communication with people, there is a greater chance of winninga stable position in today's market.

Activity functions

This type of control allows you to solve a number of specific tasks, namely:

• analyze consumer opinion about the product;



• increase brand visibility among other offerings;
• create a positive reputation for the company;
• increase the number of users of the product;
• establish communication with customers through online reviews;
• identify the negative and eliminate it;
• to introduce users to new products and interesting offers of the company.

Steps

The company's work to create a positive opinion takes place in several stages:

1. Analysis of the existing image of the company, internal and external consumer attitudes towards the product. The development of a strategy and the quality of the results obtained depend on how accurate the assessment of the current state of affairs will be.
2. Defining the main goals, selecting reputation management tools, compiling a list of targeted actions.
3. Fulfilling the plan.

Methods for implementing the strategy

When the tasks of the 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.

1. First, the employees of the company look for all available information on the network. To do this, they enter key queries that 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 appears on the world wide web.
2. Next, 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 their opinions with others. If a company's own profile is created for the company's brand, then this significantly increases the interest of customers in this offer.
3. Preparing quality content. The main thing here is that the information is accessible, truthful and concise. The ability to leave reviews allows you to track the attitude of customers to the product, and a quick response to comments increases the level of trust in the company.
4. Monitoring comments. 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 appearance of negative ones must be constantly monitored and then either deleted with the help of a moderator, or responded to, while expressing respect for their authors. At the same time, it is always necessary to indicate ways to solve the problems and shortcomings mentioned.

The work of building 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 in order to understand what result needs to be achieved in the process of work.

Web Image Building Tools

Today the Internet is oneone of the most powerful forces of influence on the consciousness of people. 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 widely used due to its availability. Therefore, the conscious use of the World Wide Web can provide a high level of company advertising. There are a number of possibilities for this, namely:

1. Social networks (the well-known Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, Facebook, Twitter, and so on) allow you to keep in touch with potential buyers, track user ratings of the product and form the right opinion about the product, as well as report all the new products organizations. In addition, these platforms allow customers to communicate with each other and share their opinions while referring to specific sources.
2. Various blogs, forums, review sites provide an opportunity to provide people with the necessary information to form a loyal attitude to the brand and consolidate it, as well as increase customer confidence.
3. Internet media. Placing content on trusted sites with links to the source increases interest in the offer from the public.
4. SEO optimization. In order for potential customers to become regular, it is necessary to take care of the convenience of the site and its content, as well as that the user quickly finds the information of interest to him on the network.

The use of these reputation management tools givesgood results only when there is a clear strategic plan and they are used simultaneously.

Management pitfalls

In order to carry out quality management of reputation, you can contact a specialized agency that will professionally perform this type of service. But if we are not talking about a large company that is ready to spend money on creating an image, but about a small company, then, as a rule, the responsibility for creating public opinion is entrusted to one of the employees who does this at his own 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 Internet sites, as well as a number of significant nuances, his work will be fragmented. This means that the time and money spent will not bring the desired results. It should be borne in mind that the performance of reputation management functions depends on the competence of the employee.

Manual for creating and maintaining company image

Good people are valued in any organization. But if their staff and finances are limited, but you want to carry out this type of management with good results, then you can learn from a textbook on reputation management. Unfortunately, there are few books on this topic. And those that are presented to the reader today reveal certain aspects of this process. Basically, these are individual articles or other author's works that deal with the essence,principles, objectives and/or instruments of this activity.

To date, the only textbook in which this concept is deeply and systematically considered is the book by Salnikova L. S. "Reputation Management. Modern Approaches and Technologies". This is the first manual in Russia, in which all the steps to create a company's image are considered in detail and step by step, and new ways of working in this area are presented. The positive aspect of the source is that it reveals all the methodological foundations in combination with practical material. The author shares the secrets of improving the company's image, as she worked as a reputation management consultant for a long time.

Those who decide to create public opinion can try their hand at completing the creative tasks presented in the book. It was on them that future managers honed their skills in forming a good name for the organization at the University of the Russian Foreign Ministry. "Reputation Management" Salnikova L. S., using vivid examples, tells how to turn your business into a profitable asset using the above tool. The book contains a lot of useful information for students, leaders of organizations and people involved in the promotion of goods online.

Any company, no matter what size it is and what resources it has, strives 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 the organization that promotes the organization on the Web.reputation, and reputation management is the tool that will allow you to confidently occupy your niche in a competitive environment, make the product branded and turn the company into a highly profitable asset.