The Best Online Reputation Management Companies of 2022

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In 2022, your company’s online reputation means everything. As online reviews and social media voices gain power, it’s easy to lose control of your brand perception. Luckily, you can manage your online reputation effectively using different services and tools that help you gather positive reviews, track brand mentions, dispute negative feedback and control customer interactions.

At Perth Digital Edge, we provide top-notch digital marketing services in Perth, Western Australia. We aim to help companies grow their brands through effective digital marketing techniques. Our team understands how vital a solid online reputation management strategy is, so below, we discuss everything you need to know about developing your own.

What Is Online Business Reputation Management?

Online reputation management (ORM) is how an individual or company controls their online narrative. Personal reputation management might include more private details, while brand reputation management focuses on how customer feedback shapes the opinions of potential customers.

The main goal of online reputation management, which is a form of search engine optimisation (SEO), is to shape what consumers see when they search your brand name. SEO Perth experts understand that most online searchers won’t sort through multiple pages of results, so the information that appears near the top shapes your brand perception.

Online reputation management includes the following strategies:

• • Content creation to appear near the top of Google search results
• • Review management
• • Public relations control
• • Social media marketing
• • Customer service management

You can strengthen your brand’s reputation by collecting more positive customer reviews, reducing or disputing negative reviews and creating high-quality content to appear alongside reviews in search results. You should monitor your online reputation across the following media types:

Owned:

• Media you own and control might include your website or blog. Using SEO tactics on these pages helps you control what content appears near the top of searches.

Earned:

• You can earn content from third-party articles, forum posts, listings, press coverage and review platforms. You can’t control earned media, though you can influence it. Earned media is one of the most valuable assets because it displays authenticity.

Shared:

• Social media is the primary form of shared media because you create your own content and share the discussion with others. For example, anyone can leave comments on your posts or engage with your brand through liking, sharing, etc.

Paid:

• You can also pay to display your owned media and business listings across search engines or social platforms, though consumers don’t value or trust paid campaigns as much as organic ones.

The Importance of Managing Your Reputation

A good reputation does more than create a positive brand image. Your business’s reputation impacts all aspects of your organisation, including sales, customer service, marketing, product development and more. You can enjoy the following benefits when you improve your brand’s online reputation.

Streamline the Sales Process

Imagine you want to buy a new pair of sneakers. Would you rather go to the store and ask the salesperson which pair they recommend or search online for the one with the best reviews? Most people would choose the latter because you gain insight into hundreds (or thousands) of opinions rather than one biased viewpoint.

Positive content and reviews celebrating your products online encourage customers and potential buyers to pick your brand. Reputation management helps you streamline your sales efforts by creating free “cheerleaders” who promote your product across the internet.

Beat the Competition without Reducing Prices

Companies frequently reduce their prices when trying to beat competitors. Customers want affordable pricing, though they desire trustworthy brands even more.

Imagine you were still shopping for shoes and deciding between two pairs: One has excellent reviews and costs $20 more than a similar pair with poor reviews. Which would you choose? Some people may still pick the cheaper option, though many will spend more on quality products.

Investing in your company’s reputation helps you gain the authority to sell products and services at a fair market value. Industry leaders maintain (and even increase) their price tags because they know their customers will want to purchase, regardless of cost.

Create Products and Services Tailored to Your Audience

Review monitoring helps you better understand what your audience wants and expects from your brand. Keeping in tune with your customer feedback helps you develop products that people want to buy.

For example, you might notice a bunch of reviews from customers saying they like the product but wish it came in another colour. Without this insight, you might continue developing new products that only come in your standard black and white, deterring potential sales. When you understand your audience’s needs, you can create a product roadmap that meets expectations, which boosts long-term sales.

Customers prefer brands that listen to their opinions. When you provide solutions to audience needs, you retain customers.

Develop a Crisis Management Strategy

A few negative reviews may not damage a small brand’s reputation, though larger enterprise companies must worry about the snowball effect. For example, imagine you own a property management company with an online portal that helps people across the country pay rent. If this site goes down for just 60 seconds, you might receive thousands of negative mentions and reviews from residents.

Creating a management strategy before crisis strikes help you prepare for future incidents.

Why You Should Consider an Online Reputation Management Company

Imagine you receive a few hundred reviews, comments and mentions each week across ten different online platforms. Attempting to locate, read and respond to each one would take at least a day. Online reputation management services make the entire process more efficient, so you don’t waste time or resources.

A few types of services exist for different purposes:

• Review management: A review management software helps you gather more positive reviews by contacting your customers and asking them to leave feedback. You can also track, view and respond to all collected reviews in one place.
• Brand mentions: Brand mention software gathers everything people say about your company across social platforms into one place. Many tools also sort social media mentions into positive and negative categories.
• Net promoter scores (NPS): NPS surveys help you separate promoters, passives and detractors to target different audience groups with strategic promotion campaigns. For example, you can ask promoters to recommend your brand to friends, and you can speak with detractors about their negative customer experience so you can improve.

Top Online Reputation Management Services

Continue reading below to learn about the top online review management and reputation control tools.

1: Birdeye

Birdeye tops our list for best reputation management software because of its all-in-one abilities. The software integrates with your existing CRM (customer relationship management) to gather your customer’s contact information and purchase details.

Next, it helps you gather online reviews by reaching out to purchasers through different platforms, like Facebook and Google. Birdeye helps you automatically collect Google and Facebook reviews by messaging customers through the platform and allowing them to leave their feedback without leaving the app.

Birdeye also lets you respond to customer feedback across 150 websites. The software flags negative reviews, so you know where to act first. Additional features include customer surveys, competitor analysis, social ticketing, benchmarking, business listings management and insights.

2: Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is a search tool that helps you discover online content surrounding different keywords or phrases. The platform improves your company’s ability to discover negative content involving your brand, products or services. If you find negative search results, you can target the problem area to improve your brand’s image.

3: Mention

Another reputation management tool that lets you monitor online conversations surrounding your brand is Mention. The platform includes:

• • Automated and customisable reports
• • Custom graphs with your preferred metrics
• • Audio and video monitoring, including television or radio broadcasts
• • Post scheduling and publishing across social media accounts

Mention includes more features and insights than Buzzsumo with an easy-to-use platform. If you want to conduct a quick search, consider Buzzsumo. If you want long-term, trackable insights, we recommend picking Mention.

4: Google Alerts

Google Alerts is another mentioned tracking tool that sends you notifications each time someone talks about your brand online. You can use this platform to stay ahead of negative comments with reputation repair strategies.

Google Alerts doesn’t include insights, outreach methods, response features or review gathering aspects. Like Buzzsumo, Google Alerts can help you understand the conversation around your brand, which is a great starting point for many businesses.

5: Reputation Marketing

Reputation Marketing is a customer intelligence tool that allows you to create customer experience surveys and manage your reputation online. You can use the surveys to craft your brand image with positive content. With the ability to monitor discussions across 594 review sites, you won’t miss a single negative review.

Additional features include:

• • Customisable messages
• • Scheduled sending
• • Bulk importing

6: Grade.us

Grade.us is a white-label online reputation management software often used by marketing agencies. The tool suite allows you to request reviews from customers, monitor feedback across review sites, handle negative reviews and broadcast promotional feedback.

Grade.us integrates with various third-party platforms, making it easy to include in your suite of marketing tools. You can customise messages and auto-publish reviews to streamline the process. The widget is mobile-friendly and offers a simple user interface.

7: GatherUp

GatherUp is another comprehensive platform that lets brands perform every function necessary to maintain and improve their online reputations. The most significant feature that sets it apart from the rest is the ability to integrate a review widget directly on your website, which encourages more customers to leave feedback.

You can also use GatherUp to request and manage reviews, allowing you to stay ahead of each negative review and amplify each positive one. The tool automatically communicates with customers, making it easier for you to listen to and understand feedback. The intuitive and detailed features that GatherUp offers and affordable prices make this platform an excellent choice for many brands.

8: Meltwater

Meltwater is a leading reputation management platform for brands with a growing social media presence. Meltwater lets you manage conversations across various websites, podcasts and social media apps. You can also use the tool to publish content and engage with your online community.

Meltwater’s main selling feature may be the influencer campaign tool. The platform helps you identify social media influencers relevant to your brand and industry so you can reach out to them with campaign opportunities.

9: Reputation Defense Network

Reputation Defense Network (RDN) is a platform that helps you remove online slander. Internet provokers frequently post false or misleading information about a business to gain attention or seek revenge. Such distorted opinions can quickly snowball into severe brand crises.

Reputation Defense Network removes false, negative or defaming information within two to 14 days (sometimes up to 90). The product uses targeted, personalised and legal strategies to prevent false accusations from harming your brand. Aside from reviews, RDN also removes the following content types:

• • Articles
• • Images
• • Blog posts
• • Videos
• • Fake reviews
• • Complaints
• • Social media posts

10: AskNicely

AskNicely is a tool that makes collecting positive feedback simple. The platform integrates and collects feedback with your CRM. As soon as a customer interacts with your company, they’ll receive a one-click question to enter their feedback.

The more reviews you collect, the more customers trust your brand. Quick surveys increase response rates and make it easier to gain authority. With the streamlined review process, you can still gain insights into customer satisfaction rates, net promoter scores and customer effort scores.

How to Pick the Right Online Reputation Management Service for You

Trying to pick the right option for your brand can feel overwhelming when there are so many online reputation services. Be sure to pick an option that aligns with your company’s goals, size, online spread, and budgetary requirements. Use our tips below to find the best tool for your needs.

Consider Your Goals

Every company has different goals with online reputation management.

For example, if you have a handful of positive reviews, you may want a tool that helps you generate more. Larger enterprises with thousands of existing reviews may need a platform for managing high content volumes. If you have poor review scores, you may want to consider a tool that helps you remove slander.

We recommend outlining your specific goals to narrow your options. For example, your plan may include the following objectives:

• • Gain 30 new reviews each month.
• • Respond to each negative review.
• • Reduce negative reviews to once per month.
• • Share all positive content on Facebook.

Such specific objectives make finding a platform that serves all your needs easier. Be sure to consider your short- and long-term goals when outlining your plan.

Cover All Your Online Information and Social Media Platforms

Certain platforms only analyse conversations across limited websites and platforms. You need to pick a reputation management tool that can locate all your brand mentions so you don’t miss any crucial information. Remember that you may not know exactly where people discuss your company online.

For example, just because your brand doesn’t have a Twitter account doesn’t mean Twitter users aren’t talking about your company. We recommend using one of the search tools to first locate your primary audience locations before picking a platform. Once you do, pick something that covers all your bases, including business listings, review sites, social platforms and anything else.

Pick the Right Price

You should also consider your budget. We recommend weighing your projected gains versus platform costs when considering each tool. For example, if a service costs $200 per year but could lead to an additional $10,000 in sales, it would likely be an excellent investment.

Aside from the total expenditure, you should also consider how and when the product charges your company. Some services charge you based on usage, while others offer a flat fee. Some products also include free trials so you can test the waters before spending money.

Do You Need Help Growing Your Brand?

Online reputation management is only one aspect of search engine optimisation. A comprehensive SEO strategy helps you target every possible ranking factor. Making your website appear high in search results boosts traffic, sales, conversions and more.

At Perth Digital Edge, the top SEO company in Perth, WA, we want to help your brand excel through digital marketing. Our experienced team knows how to craft winning optimization strategies so your business can accomplish every goal. Call Perth Digital Edge today.