Brand and company reputation management

How to distinguish reputation from image and what to do if, having soberly assessed the situation, you realized that there is trouble with reputation. We are working together with the author of the article, the leading account manager of the 2L agency Olga Kharitonova.

What is reputation?

Many people confuse reputation with image, but it’s not the same thing. Image is about the first impression, the association of the brand. For example, you met a man – he is nicely dressed, talks well, is smart enough – he has a good image. But if you dig deeper, then the person is rotten. Friends from your environment who have been communicating with him for a long time say that he is unreliable, does not like cats and generally uses people for his own purposes. So that’s what reputation is.

Reputation is a kind of baggage of opinions about your company or brand based on the experience of interacting with it.

How to understand that there is something wrong with reputation

Let’s say your company produces cool products. Stylish design, good performance, and affordable price. You have written many articles and reviews. But for some reason, these very products are in no hurry to sweep off the shelves, and partners do not apply with the right frequency. Or the flip side of the coin is when applicants are in no hurry to get a job at your company, and current employees flee at the first opportunity.

And it’s not just about reviews and ratings on marketplaces and reviews. This is about articles with insights and expert articles, about social networks, about reviews, forums and blogs, about search results and even about a personal brand. Ideally, you need to work with a combination of these tools and work out the negative not only online, but also work on your own improvements.

How to measure reputation

• Ratings of goods/services/stores on key sites in dynamics (must be at least 4.5 stars).
• The tone of brand/product mentions in the media field, in stores, on social networks (Interfax or Medialogy SCAN monitoring helps).
• NPS of the brand in dynamics (surveys in Yandex View, opinion polls will help).
• The number of search queries in Yandex Wordstat (how much is the brand being searched for at all, is it interesting).
• The number of mentions in the search results (on the first pages of Google).
• The tone of mentions in articles /ratings in the top of the search results.

Brand reputation Management is not a classic PR

PR, first of all, is aimed at maintaining the brand image. You can publish endless reviews and articles, stuff a key brand message there, be friends with journalists and tearfully beg them to make edits, smooth out the negative in the comments, and so on. Yes, regular mention on the web will add to your fame and popularity. But it will have little effect on sales. Because it’s not a reputation job.

How to work with reputation

Let’s summarize with a list of the main tools and tactics that (especially in combination) can effectively improve your reputation.

• Review reviews on all key sites. Stimulating the positive and necessarily working out the negative.
• Articles and reviews by opinion leaders. The main thing is that they should be honest, and not overtly promotional, otherwise you can get the opposite effect.
• Working with comments on social networks, forums, and blogs is similar to working through reviews.
• Expert articles.
• Search engine optimization. Firstly, according to brand queries, at least brand pages should be in the top 5 of the output: your website, your accounts in social networks, on maps, etc. Secondly, these should be resources with a positive assessment of the brand.
• Analysis of claims from users and work on the quality of the product/service. And if it is impossible to finalize the product itself, try to reconsider the target audience. Maybe you need to change the direction and highlight other advantages.