Ever had that near-death experience when a customer starts ranting about their bad experience on their social media handles?
And then your phone might buzz with notifications as the post goes viral. Small businesses are not immune to bad ratings and reviews. A similar analogy follows in the enterprise sector.
However, enterprises may have a bloated budget to shove the matter or have pricey tools in place to avoid such pickle situations. When it comes to small businesses, they are strapped for money.
But that in no way means ruling out reputation management from your to-do list. You can use several ingenious online reputation management tools to save yourself from wildfire.
In case you are curious to know what these online reputation management tools exactly do, continue with your tread.
What is online reputation management?
Online reputation spans the information that people can find about you online. This includes your social media profiles, blog posts, comments on other posts, and anything else that might appear when someone searches for your brand name.
You know it better that it’s a fair practice to look up others online before they even meet them in person or decide to work with them. A positive online reputation can be important for things like hiring good employees, winning quality leads, expanding operations, and increasing revenues.
You can’t risk being sneaky. You must be aware of what you post online from your brand accounts and how those affect your reputation. By being mindful of what you share and how you interact with others online, you can help build a positive online reputation that will serve you well in the long run.
Why should you actively monitor your online reputation?
If you are still under the influence that you can escape the online reputation drill, let us enlighten you with some unfair benefits.
1. Protect your brand image
Monitoring your online reputation can help you protect your brand image. By watching what people say about your brand online, you can quickly address any negative comments or reviews before they do any damage. For example, if a customer leaves a negative review on your social media page, you can respond quickly and offer a resolution to show that you care about their experience.
2. Build trust with customers
A positive online reputation can help you build trust with customers. When people see positive reviews and comments about your brand online, they are more likely to trust you and do business with you. For example, if someone is looking for a new dentist and sees positive reviews for your practice online, they are more likely to book an appointment with you using an appointment scheduling app.
Additionally, by giving customers a simple and effective way to select and manage their appointments according to their own schedules, the convenience of booking online through an online appointment booking app improves customer satisfaction.
3. Stay ahead of competitors
Monitoring your online reputation can also help you improve the customer experience. By paying attention to what people say about your brand online, you can identify areas where you need to improve. For example, suppose you notice that people are complaining about the quality of your products. In that case, you can improve the quality and show that you are committed to providing a good experience.
4. Improve customer experience
Monitoring your online reputation can also help you improve the customer experience. By paying attention to what people say about your brand online, you can identify areas where you need to improve. For example, suppose you notice that people are complaining about the quality of your products. In that case, you can improve the quality and commit to providing a good experience.
5. Boost sales with trust
Finally, monitoring your online reputation can help you increase sales. A positive online reputation can help you attract new customers and retain existing ones. For example, if someone is looking for a new restaurant and sees positive reviews for your establishment online, they are more likely to visit and recommend it to others.
Overall, monitoring your online reputation is important for protecting your brand image, building trust with customers, staying ahead of competitors, improving the customer experience, and increasing sales.
What should you be tracking for online reputation management?
When it comes to online reputation management, there are several things that you should track to ensure that your online presence is positive and reflects your personal or brand values. Here are some of the key things to track:
Brand mentions: Keep an eye on where and how your brand is being mentioned online. This includes mentions on social media, news websites, blogs, and forums. You can use tools like Google Alerts or Keyhole to track brand mentions.
Reviews: Monitor reviews of your products or services on platforms like Google My Business, Yelp, and Amazon. Respond to negative reviews promptly and professionally to show that you care about your customers and are committed to providing a good experience.
Social media engagement: Track engagement rate on your social media profiles, including likes, comments, and shares. Respond to comments and messages in a timely manner to show that you are engaged with your followers.
Search engine results: Regularly search for your name or brand on search engines like Google to see what comes up. If there are negative results, take steps to address them.
Competitor mentions: Keep an eye on what your competitors are doing and how they are being perceived online. This can help you identify areas where you can improve your own online reputation.
By tracking these key areas, you can stay on top of your online reputation and take action to address any negative feedback or mentions. This can help you build a positive online presence that reflects your personal or brand values and helps you achieve your goals.
How to manage your online reputation?
Managing your online reputation can seem like a daunting task, but there are several actionable tips that can help you get started. Here are some tips for managing your online reputation:
1. Google brand name
We understand it’s not feasible to manage tons of tools just because they have some value. We researched, so you don’t have to.
Here’s a list of tools, having both free and paid keyword monitoring tools that can scale your small business from multiple marketing channels with thorough monitoring.
Conduct a search for your name or brand on Google to see what comes up. This will give you an idea of what people are saying about you online and where your online reputation stands. If you find any negative results, take steps to address them.
2. Be vigilant on social media
Keep an eye on your social media profiles and respond to comments and messages in a timely and professional manner. This can help you build a positive relationship with your followers and show that you are engaged with your audience.
3. Timely response
Responding to reviews on platforms like Google My Business, Yelp, and Amazon can help you address any negative feedback and show that you care about your customers’ experiences. Be sure to respond in a professional and empathetic manner.
4. Create content religiously
Creating positive content about yourself or your brand can help push down any negative results that may appear in search engine results. This can include blog posts, social media updates, and press releases.
5. Engage with your audience
Engaging with your audience on social media and other online platforms can help you build a positive online reputation. This can include responding to comments, sharing user-generated content, and hosting giveaways or contests.
6. Leverage online reputation management tools
There are several online reputation management tools available that can help you monitor your online reputation, track social media mentions, and respond to reviews. We have reviewed the top 5 for you.
With these steps in place, you can take control of your online reputation and build a positive online presence that reflects your personal or brand values. Remember, managing your online reputation is an ongoing process, so be sure to stay vigilant and make adjustments as needed.
Read More: 6 Must-Have Keyword Monitoring Tools For Every Marketing Strategy
Top 5 online reputation management tools for spotting crisis and opportunities
Here’s your brief rundown on the top 5 online reputation management that you can use right away for tracking your brand presence.
1. Keyhole
Pricing: Custom
Keyhole is your go-to online reputation management tool if you want to track any keywords, hashtags, campaigns, or even social media profiles. Just jot down your focus keywords and add them under the social listening tab, and you are good to go.
The tool will fetch it from blogs, sites, forums, and top social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc. Right from the number of posts mentioning it to impressions with sentiment analysis, you can get it all in a single dashboard.
Plus, you can also see the top posts and influencers having that word. This gets updated in real-time, so you get the chance to participate in the conversation and engage with your audience right away.
You can also use its profile analytics and see your overall profile metrics. On the other hand, the same process can be followed for tracking a fellow competitor’s profiles and watching out for potential opportunities. You can track their best times to post and use Keyhole’s unlimited post scheduling feature to experiment to find you optimal post timings.
Keyhole also has a feature called QuickTrends, where you can type keywords or hashtags of your choice and compare their performance side by side. You can custom-select the date range and get a comprehensive comparison of their popularity and trend analysis.
Why is Keyhole fit for online reputation management?
- Keyhole monitors your brand across different social media platforms and listens for both direct and indirect mentions of your brand.
- Keyhole tracks influencers in your industry and how they are engaging with your brand.
- It provides real-time social media analytics that can help you track the performance of your social media campaigns and measure your social media ROI.
- Monitor your competitors and see how they are performing on social media.
- Keyhole’s easy-to-use dashboard lets you build and share reports instantly, saving you time and effort.
Annelise L
I’ve been using Keyhole almost since the beginning, and what I love best is the flexibility in the data that can be tracked and captured. It has made evaluating the ROI of different campaigns and tactics much easier.
Tasmy G
I like how easy it is to generate my analytics report for my social media channels. The hashtag tracker is particularly useful, and the insights have proven to be of great use for our campaign.
2. Google Alerts
Pricing: Free
Google Alerts is a free online reputation management tool to monitor their online reputation by tracking mentions of their brand, products, or services across different platforms. By setting up alerts for relevant keywords, users can receive notifications whenever new content is published online, allowing them to stay informed about what people are saying about their brand online.
This helps in timely response to any negative comments or reviews in a timely manner and stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends and news. Additionally, Google Alerts can be used to track competitors and identify new business opportunities. It is an easy-to-use and effective tool that can save time and effort when it comes to monitoring their online reputation.
Pros
- You can customize alerts by choosing specific keywords, sources, and frequency of alerts.
- Google Alerts is a free tool for kickstarting online reputation management.
Fernando M
This app works to be aware of what you like the most or what you are most interested in, for me, it has been beneficial since I receive alerts about things that have interested me.
Cons
- Google Alerts is limited to sources that Google tracks, which mostly includes web news and blogs.
- It may not capture all mentions of a brand, as it relies on Google’s search algorithms to find relevant content.
Nastazija B
It can be annoying at times when you are in the middle of doing something or especially when you are on the phone, and you hear the alert notifications in the background.
3. SurveySparrow
Pricing: $19-$99/mo
SurveySparrow’s reputation management tool is a key feature within its omnichannel experience management platform. This tool enables businesses to track, monitor, and respond to customer reviews across 99+ review platforms, including Gartner, Software Advice, Amazon and Yelp.
You can set up and customize real-time alerts on Slack, as well as daily review summaries. The AI assistance for replying to reviews also saves time and effort. In addition, SurveySparrow has a ticket management tool that helps you ticket negative reviews, prioritize them, assign them to team members, and track them till closure. And the good ones? You can showcase them by embedding them on your website.
In addition to reputation management, SurveySparrow offers a range of complementary features like NPS and CSAT surveys, offline surveys, and CogniVue to extract insights from published reviews.
Pros
- With sentiment analysis, you can identify the emotional tone behind customer reviews, enabling your business to find out where they need to improve.
- The tool lets you focus on reviews by region, location, device and more – a key feature for businesses with customer bases across different areas.
Gary Shouldis
SurveySparrow is currently being used across several departments in our organization. Customer support is using it for feedback on the quality of support while marketing is using it to gain valuable insights and ideas from our customers.
Cons
- Real-time review alerts are currently limited to Slack, which can be a drawback if your company doesn’t use it.
- SurveySparrow does not cover reviews on LinkedIn or Instagram, which is a downside for businesses that rely heavily on these platforms. It also doesn’t cover video reviews from sites like YouTube or TikTok.
Chandrakeerthan P
SurveySparrow has got so many features which are not available in other survey builders but the user must take premium plan to get access to those features in SurveySparrow.
4. Birdeye
Pricing: $299/mo per location
If you’re looking for an online reputation management tool for businesses in multiple locations, Birdeye may be a great fit. With its user-friendly platform and comprehensive set of features, Birdeye manages your online reputation pretty efficiently.
One of the key features of Birdeye is its review management capabilities. The platform allows businesses to monitor and respond to reviews across a wide range of review sites, including Google, Yelp, and Facebook. With its sentiment analysis feature, Birdeye can show areas of improvement and track progress over time.
In addition to review management, Birdeye offers a range of other features including social media marketing, customer surveys, and business listing management.
Pros
- Birdeye’s reporting and analytics capabilities provide businesses with valuable insights into their online reputation and customer sentiment.
- Birdeye’s customer survey feature lets you collect feedback from customers and gain valuable insights into their experiences.
Heather C
I find that very helpful in knowing people’s interest in reviewing us. The customer service has always been helpful and very responsive.
Cons
- Its pricing can be expensive for some businesses, particularly for those with multiple locations.
- Its user interface can be overwhelming for beginners.
- Some users have reported issues with Birdseye’s integrations, citing difficulty connecting with certain review sites or social media platforms.
Chris C
Finding the review request button is now difficult. My employees will no longer use the product due to difficulty to use and I am getting tired of emails and texts all day.
Read More: Ultimate Brand Monitoring Guide For Tracking Online Reputation
5. Reputology
Pricing: $29-$49/mo per location
Reputology is a review management platform to manage online reputation by monitoring and analyzing customer feedback and reviews. The platform comprises an extensive set of tools for review management, including review monitoring, response management, and analytics.
Reputology’s customizable dashboard offers real-time alerts and notifications for better audience engagement. It integrates with a wide range of review sites and social media platforms, making it a comprehensive tool for online reputation management.
Pros
- The platform offers a mobile app to manage online reputation on-the-go.
- It has multi-user access to collaborate on review management and response.
- It provides you with templates and best practices for responding to reviews to craft effective and professional responses.
Kellie P
I really like how it takes information from many different sites and brings all the information to me! I don’t have to go to many sites to track the reviews and comments. The data is put into charts that help the presentation to company executives. I am very excited to be using this product.
Cons
- Reputology’s pricing model can be confusing for some users, as it is based on the number of locations a business has.
- Some users have reported issues with the platform not capturing all of their reviews or not integrating with certain review sites.
- Reputology does not offer contact management or contract lifecycle management features, which may be important for some businesses.
Andrea B
You cannot reply to Yelp reviews within the software. You can only see them and then have to go outside the platform to do any responding. Kind of a hassle.
Find the right pick for your brand
Managing your online reputation is an important part of building a positive online presence. Fortunately, there are several online reputation management tools available that can help you monitor your online reputation, track brand mentions, and respond to reviews. One such tool is Keyhole, which offers a free trial to help you get started.
With Keyhole, you can track your brand’s social media and online presence, measure your social media ROI, and monitor your competitors. Don’t let a negative online reputation hold you back – try Keyhole today and take control of your online presence!
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are online reputation management tools?
Online reputation management tools are software programs or services that help individuals and businesses monitor, manage, and improve their online presence. These tools can track mentions of your brand, respond to reviews and comments, and provide insights into how your brand is perceived online.
2. How do online reputation management tools work?
Online reputation management tools use algorithms to scan the internet, social media platforms, and review sites to track mentions of your brand. The tools provide real-time alerts when your brand is mentioned and offer tools to help you respond and engage with your audience. Some tools even offer sentiment analysis to help you understand how your brand is perceived online.
3. What are the benefits of using online reputation management tools?
Online reputation management tools can help you protect your brand's reputation, improve your online presence, and build trust with your audience. By monitoring your brand's mentions, you can respond quickly to negative feedback and address customer concerns.
You can also identify areas of your brand that need improvement and take action to improve your reputation online. Ultimately, this can lead to increased customer loyalty, sales, and revenue for your business.
