It’s been a while when marketers try to track the existence of brand prominence. BRM is a primitive concept with organizations seriously considering the term and renaming it as PR and word-of-mouth marketing. However the scenario has changed fundamentally since then, as user generated feedback via social sites and review networks is now commonplace and such instant feedback means new challenges and opportunities for every business.
BRM (Brand Reputation Management) In today’s Sense
Today BRM also means actively managing the references, conversations and feedback on your business. Such incidents happen more often while online so being extra attentive to what is happening in and around you can save you from the upcoming disasters.
Target, Plan and Time for Action:
1. Search Engine Dominance
So when users type your business’s name into a search engine your company website should be the first thing they see and the remaining listings may vary including social profiles, entries for Google places and news stories. Keep your social media pages should be updated and make sure you have a neat Google+ profile to dominate the first page listings.
2. Brand Monitoring
As per your business many people would be talking about it, some big some small, but it’s what they are talking about which is important. Mange customers accordingly, say thank you to the complimentaries deal with the annoyed ones, the point is to make your presence felt. You can take help of the following tools:
- Google Alerts
- Social Mention
- Technorati
- Hootsuite
3. Social Media PR
BRM is specifically used to project a positive business image and social media competitively helps it to achieve exactly that while cultivating a desired public personality. Keep your social activity up to date and maintain your LinkedIn profiles to be accurate.
4. Reviews and Recommendations
All businesses are open to both negative and positive reviews; if your business is fortunate to garner positive reviews utilize it properly in the website via services such as Trustpilot and Bazaarvoice. Customer endorsements are proven to hold more weight than customer recommendations, therefore invest intelligently in these areas.
Even negative comments would highlight the areas of improvement and your efforts towards correcting them.
5. Customer Service and Culture
You cannot expect every company personnel to know about BRM but atleast let them know its significance. With media activeness people are keeping an hawk’s eye to each companies dealings further posing the targets of championing customer service of your brand reputation internally.
6. Negative PR management
Negative PR is multi face, it can come as grudged customer posting feedbacks online to an expos on unethical business practices. If negative comments are posted online, make sure they are followed up and responded to and if the complaint is especially strong, it may be worth offering a discount or, if your brand is coveted, a branded giveaway with a sorry note.
Always keep brand advocacy as a plus element. Customers who value your brand are worth spending time and money.
