Online reputation management (ORM) is the analysis of your personal or professional, business or industry reputation as represented by content across all types of online media channels. Basically, when people online write stuff about you, you should know about it fast enough to be able to respond – especially if it’s negative stuff. So, why is this important? Here are a few damn good reasons.
Reason 1: ORM protects your brand
Think back to the Domino’s Pizza ‘cheese up the nose’ debacle – watch the videos here – where Domino’s employees Michael and Kristy showed their extra-special pizza making techniques (which included snot on the pizza and armpit salami, amongst other things). Domino’s responded slowly and failed to avoid a brand-damaging firestorm when the video went viral. If Domino’s had had a decent online reputation management strategy in place, they could potentially have averted the few million views the clip received online and dealt with the issue a little more privately.
Reason 2: ORM allows you to make smart decisions
The board of United Airlines have not been able to sleep properly since August 2009. The reason? This video, where musician Dave Carroll sings a song called “United Breaks Guitars“. The song hilariously describes Carroll’s experience with United Airlines staff and their stubborn refusal to repay him (or even apologise) for the breaking of his Taylor custom-made guitar. United Airlines staff damaged the item irreparably en route and then belligerently batted Carroll off when he asked for compensation of $3600. The song went viral (over 6m views to date) and is probably the last thing UA directors hear as they drift off into troubled dreamland. A careful ORM strategy would have allowed United Airlines to pick up the song before it spread across the globe.
Reason 3: ORM gives you a lead over your competitors
The key to ORM is listening. If you do this correctly, not only will you hear the bad stuff written about your brand, but you’ll also be able to hear what is being spoken about within your target community. This allows you to gather vital information, identify consumer trends, and most importantly, spot opportunities quickly.
Reason 4: ORM is the best customer retention tool you have
This is a no-brainer. If you’re an angry customer, the thing you want more than anything else is to be heard. If you’re a really angry customer and you feel like no one is listening, you’ll quickly find other people who will listen to you bitch and moan. On the other hand, if you’re an angry customer, and you’re suddenly confronted by responsive service, your anger will be instantly deflated. I remember going to Pick n’ Pay after buying some really nasty wine. I complained about the taste – a subjective thing, really – and half expected the customer service person to tell me to bugger off. To my surprise, they took the half-drunk bottle of wine and gave me double my money back – no questions asked. I am now a Pick n’ Pay customer for life. Online reputation management works on this principle. If you make an angry customer happy, in most cases, they will reward you with their unbridled loyalty.
Finally, if you’re wanting to find out more about ORM for your brand, drop us a line. World Wide Creative’s team is currently working on high profile ORM strategy for a host of brands, and we’re eager to pass on our experience to you.
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Good post Fred. I’d like to however add two extra points:
- measure: it allows you to measure which marketing/comms/brand activities are working and off the back of that focus budget on getting the most bang for your buck (maximise).
So I guess there two angles to this, one – use it as a brand perception management tool and secondly use ORM as a market research tool to impact top level business decisions.
My 2 cents
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@timshier
@brandseye
Nice points Tim – agreed. If used right, ORM is a great tool to assist companies make smart decisions. It keeps your finger on the pulse.
Great Post Fred [as always!]
ORM is really starting to become more and more important and it seems that SA is only starting to wake up to it’s potential – in my opinion.
I am totally generalizing when I say the following – but we don’t seem to have really GREAT service in SA – not as a culture. There are some refreshing exceptions here and there, but IT’S CERTAINLY not the norm.
With Social Media becoming an increasingly preeminent public voice, a decent ORM Strategy will become part and parcel of the Marketing budget of any company who takes their customers, clients, brand, audience and prospects seriously.
Fortunately their are some great companies such as WWC that are actively playing a pro-active part in creating a solution here and now
Thanks for the compliment Stehan!
I agree, in general, that service is not at a level that we can be proud of down here in SA. I think that’s why companies such as getclosure (http://www.getclosure.co.za) are making such inroads into the marketplace. They offer a great balance of solid complaint delivery and an effective, discreet service to their subscribers (corporates who are the target of service complaints).
Interesting – thanks for sharing. I have not heard about them yet. I have only been aware of the world renown “GetSatisfaction.com” and the more local soundboard “HelloPeter.com” – getclosure.co.za looks like they mean business. Hooray – will go to them the next time I’m slighted by poor service
Thanks for the getclosure mention Fred, and for another great post – the examples really show how effective ORM can be when you’re on the ball.