LinkedIn Marketing

As the name suggests, reputation management is the practice of owning and influencing your own reputation or that of an organisation or person. It’s a practice that originated in the world of PR, at a time when consumers learned about brands through either advertising, media coverage or word-of-mouth. With the growth of online media and communication and the widespread use of search engines such as Google, reputation management has since become much broader and has taken on an important digital dimension. With much of public opinion swayed by Google reviews, social media comments and more, customers’ opinions of a brand don’t need to be published in the media to have an influence. For example, Google accounts for almost 60% of all online reviews for businesses with an brick and mortar location. Between social media, search engine results, user-generated content, reviews and more traditional media, there’s now a larger and more varied body of reputational content in the public domain than ever before. All of it can help or hurt a brand, whether it’s a Google review, the words of an individual Twitter user or a front-page news story. The world of reputation management is now so large and diverse that it’s common for reputation management services to be specialised, for example offering online reputation management only. But it’s worth remembering that any and all reputational content has an impact on your business, and it’s important to take a holistic view across all possible channels when you’re developing a reputation management strategy.