The Importance of Online Reputation Management for Digital Marketing

online presence of an individual or a business, with a heavy focus on public interaction and services support. ORM of any brand or individual plays an important role in seizing opportunities to grow their business. Entrepreneurs are realizing the importance of ORM services and digital marketing techniques, and trying to use them wisely to grow in the online market.

Why is ORM important?

The importance of online reputation for digital marketing comes into play through monitoring, addressing and mitigating the information flow on the internet. Due to the great storage of user-generated content online, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques followed by the search engines, it is very important to monitor and be aware of how a brand or a product is being perceived online. This is where digital marketing techniques come into play.

As social media has taken over industries, ORM became an important tool of digital marketing strategies. As such, it became important for businesses to establish and maintain their online presence. For instance, social media platforms are there not just as a venue for sharing product or services updates, but it is also a channel for a business to interact with consumers, and create fresh and engaging content.

One major part of digital marketing strategies is managing SERPs (search engine result pages) through online media and web content. In this prevalent digital era, customers prefer to check online reviews, blog posts, customer reviews etc., before they make any purchasing decisions.

As such, any negative results and reviews that appear on the first page of Google search, will most definitely impact the brand reputation of a business. In this instance, the companies will be compelled to reinvent their image, and try to create a more positive perception of their brand, by generating user content and pushing it up on the rankings search engines, or highlighting positive content, be it positive reviews about a product, or a happy customer talking about their experience with a certain brand.

On the other hand, ranking high on search engines is possible by linking a brand’s website to other reputable websites, improving the tagging and search engine optimization of company-published materials; publishing original, positive websites and social media profiles; getting mentions of the business or individual on third-party sites that rank highly on Google.

Other digital marketing common techniques and strategies include new content creation, engagement on social media platforms, as well as promoting already existing positive content and building social profiles, used to create additional platforms for customers to interact.

Meanwhile, online media that can be monitored and managed includes: social media platforms, review websites, article submission directories, blogs, user-generated content, social news/ bookmarking sites, as well as traditional or mainstream websites.

As social media platforms are gaining more and more importance, every entrepreneur should have a proactive approach to monitoring their online public reputation. Brands with a good ORM system in place will have a competitive edge to other brands on the market, and this will eventually translate into increased sales, personal career advancement, business growth or just overall gaining a stronger social acceptability and positive image.