Online Reputation Management:The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Melanie PhungNovember 2014

Q: What’s easy to pick up and hard to

put down?

A: A (bad) reputation

Online Reputation Management

ORM is the practice of influencing perceptions held about you or your company.

This includes trying to manage what people see when they search for you on the web as well as how you interact with customers online.

Reputation management

isn’t (just) a public relations

discipline …

It’s also a customer relationships

discipline.

Customers’ perception of a “brand” has

little to do with the company’s

logo.

Customers’ perception of a “brand” has

little to do with the company’s

tagline.

Customers’ perception of a “brand” has

little to do with the company’s

corporate style guide.

So what is a brand?

A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.

- Seth Godin

Word of Mouth has always existed, but

the Web allowed individual opinions to

grow virally.

Now everyone with a compelling story

has a bullhorn.

With the Internet connecting

everyone together, companies

are becoming more and more

transparent whether they like it

or not.

An unhappy customer or a

disgruntled employee can blog

about a bad experience with a

company, and the story can

spread like wildfire by email or

with tools like Twitter.

Tony Hsieh

CEO, Zappos

Why Care?

Do people go out of their way

to tell the world about their experiences

with a company?

24% of American adults have postedcomments or reviews online about the product or services they buy"

Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project

Do people go out of their way to seek out reviews?

88% of Americans say they look at reviews before taking the next step to conversion.

- "Zero Moment of Truth”

The average consumer today checks

10.4 information sources before buying. - Social Trends Report 2012, Bazaarvoice,

Selected Theses

• Markets are conversations• Markets consist of human beings, not demographic

sectors• Conversations among human beings sound human• The Internet is enabling conversations among

human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media

• Networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge

• As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized

• People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors.

• There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products.

• The community of discourse is the market

Markets are conversations

Where could these

conversations be happening?

The first page of…

Click-Through Rate by Position (2014)

So What Should Brands Do?

Good Ideas for Brand Managers

• Use social media to support customers.

• Use “social listening” tools to pay attention to what’s being said about your company (and competitors).

• Get customer service, PR and marketing departments working together closely to deliver on a cohesive messaging strategy.

• Be proactive about protecting your reputation before it becomes an issue.

Bad News for Your Brand

• Unprofessional behavior

• Domain/user name squatters

• Outdated or incorrect info

• Disgruntled ex-employees

• Fake reviews by competitors

• Intellectual property infringement

• Site hacks/malware

Things Get When …Ugly

You disrespect your customers.

You get snarky on social media, forgetting everyone can read what you said.

You let someone manage your social media who doesn’t understand what’s appropriate for your brand.

You don’t pay attention to social media norms.

You put your messages on autopilot.

How not to #fail at the reputation game

Understand that people expect to be heard. And they will make themselves heard.

Ignore online complaints at your own peril.

How not to #fail at the reputation game

Engage with people where and when they are talking about you.

How not to #fail at the reputation game

Don’t be a robot.

How not to #fail at the reputation game

Have a plan

B2C Social Media:

Customer Service Expectations

Increasingly, customers expect to get customer service over social media (both publicly and in private messages). These types of interactions have the potential to strengthen or damage perceptions of a company’s level of service.

We strive to…

Be human/Be honest

Be responsive

Embrace interaction

"Every employee can affect your company's brand, not just the front-line employees that are paid to talk to your customers."

- Tony Hsieh

Reputation Management Do’s

• Look for online mentions of your name

• Monitor the rankings for complaints and kudos

• Pay attention to Google’s auto-suggest

• Actively promote positive discussions/testimonials

• Take ownership of your domain names and social media handles

• Integrate customer service, social media and marketing.

• Develop social media policies and rapid response plans

Reputation Management Dont’s

• Don’t astroturf

• Don’t engage in shady link-building practices

• Don’t threaten bloggers/customers

• Don’t ignore online feedback

• Don’t get complacent

Take-Aways for Brands

• Be awesome

• Make it easy for others to tell the story of how you’re awesome.

• Be engaged, active and authentic in everything you do

”You’re on the wrong side of history if you stay offline

because you’re afraid of what people will say."

- Nancy Proctor

Thank You!

www.melaniephung.com@melaniephung

/melaniephung+melaniephung