Manage your Brand online: ORM

How Do I Manage My Brand Online?

Having an in-depth knowledge of Online Reputation Management can help you represent your business online in a positive light even if you’re working with a limited budget, staff or resources.

ORM is technically controlled by the social media manager, however every action by an employee online is essentially a representation of the brand, so this is an area all employees should be made aware of.

As far as the social media manager is concerned, ORM involves the creation of content, customer service, and any other relevant activity representing the brand online.

Social media has totally revolutionised the way businesses market themselves. Historically, marketing consisted of placing an advert on either television, radio or in a newspaper, and hoping for the best.

However in the current age, digital marketing has revolutionised how organisations market themselves. The digital marketer is constantly receiving feedback from their audience, be they customers or not. This has now changed the focus of marketing, in preference for building relationships and engaging in a two way conversation between the brand and the public.

This is where online reputation management comes into play. If you are managing your brand’s presence correctly, you can greatly enhance the profitability of the business. However neglect to fully understand how to implement online reputation management strategies, and you can risk alienating potential and current customers online. One bad tweet or Facebook post can lead to dramatic losses in revenue and perceptions of your brand, which may take years to rebuild.

You can ‘learn how to implement online reputation management’ for the benefit of driving return on investment for your business. Furthermore it is not too complex an area to become an authority in, leading to dramatic growth for your business and/or increased demand as a social media manager.

Use strategic planning to succeed in the digital space

A Strategy for Success in the Digital Space

An understanding of the Google, Yahoo, and MSN algorithms, and how to best manage them, should centered on the preference shown towards high quality content and a strong site structure. In terms of SEO, I’ve found its best to optimize for Google, and let Bing and Yahoo take care of themselves. Bing and Yahoo use many of the same ranking factors as Google, but there are some differences. That said, with Google having such a large share of the search traffic online, it’s never made sense for me to do more to optimize for either Yahoo or Bing than provide a properly formatted, easily crawled site map for each of them.

As for Google, a strong site structure, well researched keywords, properly constructed pages with all the correct tags and metas, an xml sitemap, Schema, and interesting on-site content are all extremely important from an SEO perspective. External links also come into play, and it’s important to manage a sites link profile actively. Bad links need to be disavowed using Webmaster Tools, and good links need to be directed to the right place. It’s also important to check keyword rankings daily using either a software tool like Moz, or manually checking a top 100.

From an SEM perspective the best way to manage the algorithms is to carefully research your keywords before placing any kind of a self-selected paid ad. Competitive analysis is very important here as the keywords that your competitors are buying ads on are generally going to a good bet for your client too. It’s also important to study your competitors ad copy to see what works for them, and how to set your owns apart from them. Once you have strong keyword list constructed, and you’re confident in your ad copy, it’s important to tailor your budget to focus heaviest on the right verticals. Once ads are live, they need to be monitored for conversions, and actively managed to ensure they are focused on the right search terms.

If you are simply building a product feed for the Google, Bing, or Yahoo shopping sections a lot of research isn’t required assuming your products are set up properly. Regardless of whether you are taking an SEO or SEM approach to the algorithm it’s important to research your keywords well, build unique ad copy and content, and constantly monitor your campaigns performance to get the best return on investment.

Digital marketing strategy

The Importance of having a Digital Marketing Strategy

Like most components of a successful business, digital marketing requires some sort of cohesive, holistic strategy and a plan. Your Digital Marketing Strategy is your written plan that details when and how you will use the many available online marketing channels and resources to grow your sales or meet other realistic business objectives.

With a well-prepared digital marketing strategy and plan, you will have a controlled and manageable execution method of your online marketing initiatives and a path to capitalize on the available online resources. Without a solid digital marketing strategy, you will likely waste time and money chasing trends that never really contribute to your business in a meaningful way. So it is essential for you, if you want to be successful, that you put a lot of thought into this.

Do ask yourself what you want your digital future to look like? What scale of success do you want? What’s your overall goal whether it’s with your business or career?

There are going to be risks involved, so managing your strategy is going to identify and elevate a number of these risks. But why not just learn as you go, learn from your mistakes and move on?

Well because this method can severely harm your brand, your reputation and it’s just

wasteful in relation to your resources.

One important aspect of a strategy that people often neglect is identifying their market share. Digital marketing is continuously growing, and if you haven’t identified your competition and your target market, then you’re not going to be aware of how to structure your communications or marketing activities.

If you don’t have a digital marketing strategy your competitor probably does, leading to sever loss of control on your part.

Remember that a digital marketing strategy is the road that leads you to your goals. This is what is going to allow you to be successful in the online space.