5 good reasons to build your company’s online reputation monitoring

With the explosion of Web 2.0, no company is safe from negative reviews, articles, or comments. To avoid any unpleasant surprises, companies must build their online reputation monitoring. Their image depends on it! Here are 5 good reasons.

It was only in 2007 that companies discovered the value of monitoring their online reputation, most of them following a “bad buzz” incident.

Today, according to the latest Digimind barometer (1):

• only 12% of companies have been monitoring their online reputation for more than 5 years
• nearly 25% of monitoring units have been in existence for less than a year
• three business sectors are the most inclined to build their online reputation monitoring: Telecoms, Services, and Communication/Advertising. Conversely, the pharmaceutical sector is among the poorest performers due to very strict regulations in France

Two complementary types of monitoring

Online reputation monitoring is therefore a young system that is slow to become widespread despite the importance of the stakes: only 20% of companies have plans to set up online reputation monitoring. It includes both “instant” monitoring of social networks (which is real-time, immediate information monitoring) and “visibility” monitoring of the Google page. These two types of monitoring are complementary. Here are the 5 reasons most often cited by companies for building their online reputation monitoring.

5 good reasons to build your company’s online reputation monitoring

1. Know everything that’s being said

80% of companies create an online reputation monitoring unit to find out what is being said about them and their products (1). Monitoring makes it possible to have a comprehensive understanding of what is being said about your company, whether in search engines, first and foremost Google, or on social networks. It is then up to the company to put in place a response strategy tailored to each of its target audiences or stakeholders. 2. Anticipate bad buzz

67% of companies create an online reputation monitoring unit to anticipate, track, and control buzz (1). SMEs are the most concerned about preventing negative buzz. Most often, it is when a bad buzz or a crisis occurs that the company creates its online reputation monitoring. For example, it was Greenpeace’s attack on its KitKat brand that pushed Nestlé to set up an effective monitoring system. 3. Keep an eye on the competition

19% of companies create an online reputation monitoring unit to keep track of the competition. Very small businesses are the ones that most closely follow the competition as well as new trends and opinions. The idea is to use what you learn online about your competitors to fill gaps in services and gain a competitive advantage. 4. Understand the image of its executives

8% of companies create an online reputation monitoring unit to track the image of their executives. Currently, only 15% of executives are concerned about their reputation on social networks, whereas 58% consider the subject important. Online reputation is today the number 1 risk for company executives. 5. Identify influencers

Large companies pay particular attention to influencers and opinion leaders on the blogosphere and social media. It is then up to the company to engage in dialogue with them by posting comments or reviews on their blog, in social media groups, in forums, and so on. For example, Société Générale maintains a database of a thousand people (journalists, bloggers, geeks, VIPs, politicians) to regularly inform them of its news. The goal is then to turn them into messengers for the company and its brand.

What are the main tools for building your online reputation monitoring?

Companies spend an average of 7 hours a week monitoring their online reputation (2). Here are the main tools they use:

1. For monitoring new web content, very small businesses and SMEs can use free tools accessible to everyone, such as Mention (which allows you to track new mentions of your brand on a few social networks and on the web in general) or Google Alerts (which does not allow you to track social networks and is increasingly less effective), while large companies use paid tools such as Synthesio or Digimind, which offer more advanced solutions for major brands.
2. For social media monitoring, companies use Hootsuite or Buffer, which make it possible to manage and monitor conversations across all their social networks from a single platform.
3. For monitoring the Google page, companies use Semji, which makes it possible to track the evolution of their Google page and be automatically alerted to any threat. Semji also enables companies to act on their online reputation by giving them back control over the information displayed when internet users search for their brand on Google.

Online reputation management is very much alive and unavoidable in this digital age. It is time for companies to put in place an online reputation monitoring strategy rather than suffering the consequences of not doing so. This must first involve a presence on the Internet and on social networks, along with a strategy of encouraging the company’s target audiences to come and engage in dialogue on its own spaces. It is, moreover, much easier to take control of your online reputation than to react to negative situations online. “It’s a matter of life or death,” says Don Sorensen, president of Big Blue Robot (3).

Sources:

1. Digimind 2012 barometer: http://www.digimind.fr/actu/publications/1123-barometre-digimind-des-pratiques-de-veille-2012-en-telechargement-gratuit.htm

2. /fr/blog/le-reputation-de-lentreprise-en-20-chiffres-cles

3. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-rampton/online-reputation-management\_b\_4178234.html