Do you ever wonder what is being said about your brand online? Are potential clients easily able to find your business or is your brand getting lost in the clutter? In a saturated media environment, it can be difficult to keep up with every review, comment, and opinion from current or potential customers.
Every business wants its brand to have an easily accessible online presence and be perceived as a respected organization. Establishing a strong brand identity is important in ensuring your brand has a well-managed reputation online.
Managing your company’s online reputation includes surveying every medium your company has a profile or account on, social media platforms, your website, tracking analytics and reviews, and more.
A few ways brands are able to increase business and drive traffic to their social platforms and websites are through word-of-mouth communication, utilizing search engine optimization, interacting with customers on social platforms, and receiving testimonials from clients.
Keep reading for some tips to help manage your online reputation and further develop your brand identity.
Establish a Strong Brand Identity/Perception
Creating a strong brand identity is pivotal in shaping your customer’s perception of your business. To thoroughly ensure your brand has a reputable perception among your customers, a brand audit should be conducted first to understand your place in the marketplace and who your customers are. Second, discover what your unique selling proposition is and what your business has to offer that others do not. Next, determine what branding and design elements will accurately reflect your brand and its core values.
Brandlink Media can help you establish a brand identity that will attract new clientele and serve as the foundation of your business. After finalizing your creative elements, implement creative strategies to market your brand to consumers and potential new consumers. Social media campaigns are a great first step in establishing your brand identity! Most importantly, your brand identity should reflect your business’s core values and your customers should be able to recognize that.
Electronic Word of Mouth
Electronic word of mouth is one of the most influential ways of communicating opinions or recommendations about a product or service online.
With an increasingly large media space, consumers are more likely to turn to the internet to search for a business that can properly serve them. If a customer has a quality experience with a brand, they are likely to form a positive relationship with the brand and refer them to friends and family. They are also likely to post about the brand or leave a positive review.
Consequently, if a customer has a negative experience with a brand, they are likely to negatively post, review, and share their opinions with friends and family.
Search Engine Optimization
Brand and Social Media Monitoring
One of the most important steps in establishing and understanding your brand identity is monitoring your brand and social media platforms. Brand monitoring consists of monitoring customers’ sentiments about your brand, potential crises, reputation, issues, competitors, industry trends, and online news media.
Social media monitoring and social listening are also very important in accurately discovering what is being said about your brand online.
In order to effectively monitor your social media platforms, you need to keep an eye on your brand name, mentions, comments, likes, shares, direct messages, reviews, posts that tag your account and location, as well as branded, campaign, and industry hashtags. Brand monitoring also requires observing your brand’s competitors’ platforms and what is being said about their business.
Testimonials/Reviews
Testimonials and reviews are pivotal in shaping public opinion of your brand. Similarly to word of mouth, testimonials and reviews can positively or negatively influence what your customers think about your brand and affect potential customers’ purchase decisions. Reviews will affect your reputation– they can make or break your brand!
Fostering positive relationships with customers can largely benefit your brand as these customers can become repeat customers, spread the word about your business, and become encouraged to write reviews or testimonials about your service. Posting and responding to these reviews on social media platforms and apps like Yelp, can increase traction with your business and improve your brand’s image.
Social Proof
In marketing, social proof is the idea that consumers will change their habits in accordance with what those around them are interested in. This is important to your brand’s reputation as it affects consumer purchasing habits, decisions, and opinions of your business.
According to Trustpilot, social proof allows companies to take advantage of external validation and customer advocacy in order to influence potential customers. A few types of social proof are: customer reviews, testimonials, social media interactions (likes, comments, shares), endorsements, and earned media.
Social proof creates trust between your brand and your customers. Utilize social proof marketing to grow your business and tap into consumer insights.
Marketing your business is made easy with Brandlink Media! From small projects to large strategic initiatives, we aim to help businesses look their very best online, attract their target market with precision and ultimately win business. If you’re interested in top-notch marketing support for your brand, contact us today!
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We can’t wait to create something great for you.